Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

adonis98-743-186503 During a babysitting gig, a high-school student is harassed by an increasingly threatening prank caller. To be honest i don't get why so many people hate this film except the fact that it's a remake but it's better than half of the awful Texas Chainshaw remakes, A Nightmare on Elm Street and the god awful The Mummy remake. The acting was fine, the scares even tho not amazing they were pretty good and Camilla Bella tries her best and for the most part i think she did a great job and besides Simon West has made way worse garbage than this believe me. (8/10)

Leofwine_draca Now, I'm all for a good slasher flick, and I don't even mind the modern day ones that flooded the market since the success of Wes Craven's SCREAM in 1996, even though a lot of them are poor. Okay, so I usually wait until they show up on television rather than spend money to see them, but I'm the first person willing to give a film a chance despite negative reviews and the like. I was the perfect demographic for this film: I'm young, I haven't seen the original '70s movie on which this film is based, and I'm easily pleased when it comes to horror. Sadly, I was in for a shock: this is one of the all-time worst movies I've ever sat through, on a par with the similarly execrable BOOGEYMAN.For starters, WHEN A STRANGER CALLS has NO story, no plot line. A girl spends a night babysitting, gets a few phone calls, then is chased by an unknown killer. The end. There's no set up, no characterisation – other than a few grating teen stereotypes – no motivation. Is that supposed to make the killer more frightening? It doesn't. You just end up not caring. One of the many problems with this film is British director Simon West, whose only other credit of note is the action flick CON AIR, about a million times better than this. West is the master of over-direction. His creepy music starts almost straight away, even when nothing remotely frightening or suspenseful is happening. Girl goes for a car ride – creepy music. Girl is given babysitting job – creepy music. Girl visits the john – creepy music. Okay, so I made the last one up, but you get the idea.The film is jam packed with false scares to pad out the running time. It's in essence a one-room drama, with a few minor embellishments, so straight away you know that a professional is required to make things work. Heck, PHONE BOOTH is one of my favourites from the last few years. This movie is just boredom, boredom, boredom. Every false scare and cliché is present, from the jumping cat scene to characters suddenly appearing out of nowhere. The lighting is poor and the film has no suspense or atmosphere; a dull-witted script only serves to sink things further. Camilla Belle plays, badly, one of the most unappealing 'scream queen' characters I've ever witnessed, one of those ones you're praying will end up dead. The killer, played by Scot Tommy Flanagan, is supposed to be scary because his face is scarred. That's the only characterisation he gets – a scarred face and Michael Myers-type stance. The killer's telephone voice, played by Lance Henriksen (!) only has about two lines. Towards the end, the whole phone call thing is so overdone (really, the lead gets at least twenty or thirty calls) that I was shouting in anger each time they did it. In all, there's absolutely no point in watching this appalling movie unless you're looking for a cure for insomnia.

GL84 Agreeing to take a baby-sitting job, a teen alone in a dark, isolated house gradually learns the harassing phone-calls towards her are coming from inside the house and must get away from the stranger before it's too late.Overall this one was pretty bland but certainly had some good points here. One of the film's few good points here is the gradual building tension with the phone calls, as this one gets these going along really well. From the pranks by her friends and the initially harmless joke-calls to the growing realization that there's something more to the calls, the incessant ringing and shallow perverted breathing merely add to this and their frantic nature becomes all the more apparent and well-deserved so that the tracing attempts that come up delivers really well here. As these are really serviceable scenes, these here all set the stage for what is undoubtedly the best and most worthwhile part of this, the actual stalking and brawling in the house. From the first confrontation, where he comes through an open-air part of the ceiling towards her, escaping to an underwater pond inside the aquarium to the struggle on-and-off the open staircase, with her trying to run away and he repeatedly grabs her legs and pulls her toward him each time she tries to escape, it's all good with plenty of action and smarts as she tries to escape the confrontation inside and tries to find the missing kids. It's a really decent showing and deserves some special mention. Still, beyond these points there are some really troubling parts to this that really hold this down. The biggest point here is in how the main half to this one is just endlessly repeating itself, continually blaring the phone calls on end that's quite aggravating since this results in endless scenes of her fidgeting around the house while the clumsily-conceived investigations into the possible party she thinks is behind the joke until the next phone-call appears to continue the aggravation. That this goes on for as long as it does before getting to the main attacks is the real reason why this sinks down by making it drag out replaying it over-and-over again. As well, another big factor here in the inherent tame-ness of the entire thing, as the rating here means that the entire effort is tease without delivering, effectively rendering most of what happens here moot as it won't go as far as it really should here with this kind of plot line and action, and that includes what happens to the kills here with such a small amount of kills done off-screen and never show how they truly died as the tell- tale wounds are completely missing when they're stumbled upon later. The last flaw here is the rather over-the-top and utterly unrealistic house that never looks livable and instead feels purposefully designed to showcase the chasing at the end instead of doing anything worthwhile. These here really hold this one back.Rated PG-13: Language and Mild Violence.

Python Hyena When a Stranger Calls (2006): Dir: Simon West / Cast: Camilla Belle, Katie Cassidy, Brian Geraghty, Clark Gregg, Tessa Thompson: Horror film remake about fear that comes nowhere near close to the shocking effect of the original 1979 version where Carol Kane played the terrorized babysitter. Plot seems to stretch the effective first fifteen minutes of the original into the entire running time. A babysitter receives threatening calls and realizes that she may be being watched. Starts out fine with edge of your seat chills throughout but the third act bombs when the killer becomes nothing more than an object. He is a faceless villain whereas the original film it examines a frail individual with a tormented mind whom a detective struggles to bring down. None of that is present here because the goal of this farce is the lowest common denominator. Director Simon West who previously made the effective The General's Daughter as well as junk such as Con Air and Laura Croft: Tomb Raider focuses on the ominous features of the house, which is nice but the plot is greatly reduced to idiocy. Camilla Belle holds her own as the paranoid babysitter but he co-stars as as lively as blowup dolls. Katie Cassidy plays a school friend who drops by and dies. Brian Geraghty, Tessa Thompson and Clark Gregg are flat. Potential remake with a stranger with no motive other than to up the phone bill. Score: 3 ½ / 10