Quando chiama uno sconosciuto

It's a story we've all seen before many times, a babysitter is terrified by an unknown stalker...

..however there is something pretty different about this one, for my shame, I had no idea this film existed, I enjoy what I now know to be the remake, but this original version deserves the credit for originality.

There is some real tension in the first twenty minutes, it's a very powerful start, you are made to feel very uncomfortable as you watch Jill go from irritation to sheer panic.

Credit to Carol Kane, I think she plays the part of Jill very well, it's such a sincere performance.

The music and filming work really well, a lot of thought went into its production. Nowadays we're hardened to gore and violence, and horror in general, I can imagine when this went out, many people felt uneasy when home alone.

I think there is some real menace in this film, the scares are real, it's just a shame that we only really get them at the beginning, and the end of the film. The middle segment of the film doesn't quite have the same bite as the start and finish, but overall, it is still a cracking horror, 7/10.

When a Stranger Calls boasts the scariest opening in film history. Wes Craven completely ripped this intro off in Scream. It's that good. Too bad the rest of the film isn't. It goes completely downhill after the beginning. It's so scary and has such a tense start that you can hardly watch it without holding your breathe. My girlfriend couldn't watch it period. She had to turn her head and keep asking me when it was over. It's very subtle, slow, and deliberate, and very frightening. The rest of the film can't live up to the energy generated by the beginning. But still, I recommend this because the beginning alone is better than most fright flicks in their entirety.

If you like to watch horror films to challenge your comfort zone and get some real chills running down your spine. When A Stranger Calls(1979) is a pretty good bet to do the job. This film builds its tension quite well, partly by using well chosen and well placed music to increase the creepiness. Rather than resorting to needlessly overdone gore; This film relies mostly on the old tried and tested power of suggestion to mount most of its suspense and scare factor. A much more effective method in my view, and there is strong evidence of this here.

Make no mistake, this film is no masterpiece. It has it's flaws. I found a couple of parts pretty unconvincing. Such as how easily John Clifford is able to convince Mrs.Mandrakis to let him in, and then help him. The execution of this part is a little weak. However that really doesn't take away from the films eerie feel and overall horror enjoyment. The film is pretty well paced, and kept leaving me wanting to see what was going to happen next; Where as many other horror films leave me not even caring what happens next. The acting here is pretty solid all the way around, and the direction is decent.

Usually I would rate a decent film like this, with a couple of somewhat unconvincing parts a 6 out of 10. However this film is definitely very effective in what it sets out to do. Which is of course to give the viewer some real creepy thrills. So I find it hard to give this any less than a 7. I got from it exactly what I had hoped. It could have been a little better in some areas, but all in all it's a pretty solid film. So as far as horror films go, this is in the upper echelon in my view.

Note: I only decided to watch this film based on an interview I saw with actress Jennifer Connelly on The Late Show with David Letterman. She basically said that this film scared the crap out of her. So being the film nut I am, I figured it was worth a look. And it was, so I owe thanks to her.

7/10

A girl (Carol Kane) is babysitting one night. She keeps getting phone calls from a guy saying "Have you checked the children". (They're upstairs sleeping). The phone calls continue. She gets nervous (and never checks the children). She calls the police. They trace the calls--they're coming from INSIDE the house...

This was a big hit in 1979 with teenagers--despite the R rating kids were let into this one. It does have a great opening 20 minutes and a pretty scary ending--but the middle is dull dull dull. It involves the killer (well played by Tony Beckley) stalking an older woman (Colleen Dewhurst slumming) and a police detective (Charles Durning--also slumming) after him.

Good performances save the middle half from being totally unbearable, and there is good direction from Fred Walton. But all in all this is a mediocre thriller. Still, I'm giving it a 7 for the opening, the closing and the acting.

When a Stranger Calls (1979) is probably best known for its opening scene in which baby sitter Jill (Carol Kane) is terrorised by an unknown caller, a man who asks her several times "Have you checked the children?" Without giving anything away part of this appears to have been lifted from "Black Christmas" (1974), Wes Craven then used it to great effect in his slasher revival classic "Scream" (1996). Many reviews on here call the middle part boring, however I disagree. We get to see a lot of the caller, a psycho called Curt Duncan (Tony Beckley), after he escapes from a mental institution, and an ex cop John Clifford (Charles Durning), who is after him. This all builds to a suspenseful finale, reuniting Jill and Curt. English actor Beckley gives a superb performance as Curt, sadly he died soon after the movie was released. Don't go into this movie expecting a slasher movie, it is not one. It is a tense suspense psycho thriller that has an excellent creepy score courtesy of Dana Kaproff, and needs to be watched late at night with the lights off. The remake was pretty good too.