When a Stranger Calls

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Blu B The first 23 minutes is Hitchcock/Wait Until Dark level incredible. Like it should be studied in film school with how incredibly well it builds tension and has such a great goosebump payoff. If the rest fo this film was on this level it would be one of the greatest Horror/Thrillers of the 70's and ever made. Not even a question. The final 10 minutes is also good as well. The problem is the film spends the next hour plus trying to escape the shadow of that opening and form some semblance of a story to follow it and it just can't. The script feels like a poorly done sequel kind of. Durning is trying his hardest but isn't given much to work with. He feels like a pedestrian who doesn't really have any affect on much. The villian is just ok. You know the brilliance of the opening is it allows your mind to paint a picture of what the villian is. The rest of the film spells it out and it's just nothing special. Everything in the middle is just a slog, very boring at times, feels disjointed, and again just can't match anything close to the first 23 minutes. Durning trying to hunt him down, the killer stalking someone and just doing random weird stuff, the disjointed hunt to trak him down, none of it really adds up to much. If you take the whole middle out nothing much is really lost. The music is good and the cinematography isn't bad. It's a slow serious burn type of thriller. But it just doens't have hardly naything going on in the middle despite trying so hard to make something. This should've been a short film if anything. I have to say, it's worth watching the first 23 minutes. It lives up to it's reputation and than some. But after that just turn it off. It's just a slog after that. It's such a shame they couldn't figure out how to make the rest of it work. You can see how something like this inspired the opening of Scream. This is a possible candidate worth a remake honestly because of how deeply flawed the rest of the film is. Such a unique situation this is. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 10/20/25 Full Review Claudio C When a Stranger Calls (1979) A Very Scary and Realistic Thriller (11,910 – 16 Feb 1999 / 27 Dec 1999 / 20 Feb 2004 / 17 Oct 2022 / 12 Sep 2025 – by Claudio Carvalho) Jill Johnson (Carol Kane) is babysitting two children, when a stranger insists on calling her on the phone, asking her to see the children in the upper floor. She decides to telephone the police, to trace the phone call. When the officer on duty tells her that the call is from inside the house, Jill panics. Seven years later, the maniac escapes from the asylum, and the private investigator John Clifford (Charles Durning) is hired by the father of the children to kill the man. It is almost impossible to write a summary of this thriller without spoilers, so I have to stop here. “When a Strange Call” (1979) is indeed a tense and suspenseful thriller, with a scary and realistic plot. The situation through which Jill passes is amazingly real and scary. When the police officer tells Jill that the phone call is from inside the house, the heart of the viewer “jumps” since this part is too frightening. The greatest problem in the movie is the continuation of the story seven years later. It breaks the tension, and the viewer gets completely lost about what happened to the characters. With a better sequence, this film certainly would be considered a classic. The story is excellent, and the performances are top-notch. In my opinion, the famous “Scream” copied the introduction of this film. It is really worthwhile watching this film. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): “Mensageiro da Morte” (“Messenger of Death”) My Blog: https://maniacosporfilme.wordpress.com/ Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 09/13/25 Full Review Garry A Someone wrote that the first 20 and last five minutes were good. I agree. I started fast forwarding through the middle. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 07/15/25 Full Review babarizam D first 20 minutes and last 5 minutes , rest is just waste of time. It could have been a great movie but sadly Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 05/18/25 Full Review Justin T The first twenty minutes and the last ten minutes are really good but the middle hour is a little odd. The brilliant and moody fearful opening is complimented by the raw and scary ending. It is such a shame that the middle bit doesn’t really seem to go anywhere. It’s not that it is bad, it is fine, it is more that it is a forgettable middle with less happening of interest. This film has a good atmosphere and is enjoyable to watch. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/19/25 Full Review IrateTyrant C From short film to short story, should've been kept shorter Based on Fred Walton's short film, The Sitter (1977), the beginning of this movie is truly unnerving and well done. Later, it returns to its original effectiveness and has a great finale. However, the entire second act drags and is not nearly as exciting. Walton obviously had a great idea for a good scare and wanted to expand on it. The story here was reused a couple of years later in the book series 'Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,' Alvin Schwartz. The story from the book was not reused in the movie of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019). The flashbacks near the end of the movie, here, are very effective, too, and some of the effects of the strange chanting by the antagonist are good. Other than that, I recommend watching for the first act, and then turning off. Or just watching the original short. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/08/25 Full Review Read all reviews

When a Stranger Calls

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