When a Killer Calls

After wading through a morass of God awful horror films of late, this was, by comparison, a pleasant surprise.

Granted this is a knock-off (to be kind) of another B movie, I found it didn't have the flaws that run rampant through other entries in this genre.

It had a professional look, was decently directed and the acting was better than average for this type of film. Most importantly, the script was at least thought out, and didn't have the gut-wrenching plot holes and improbable logic (or lack there of) I've come to expect.

Don't get me wrong, it certainly isn't a horror classic by any means but if you're looking for something in this vein and there's nothing else to rent (as was my case), it won't feel like a waste of time.

Back-handed compliments to be sure, but I don't think the remake of When a Stranger Calls will be a whole lot better.

"When a Killer Calls" is an unusually nasty slasher flick, with some very unpleasant and unsettling sequences. The decision was clearly made to try and cash in on the remake of "When a Stranger Calls" by pretty much putting in -- almost word for word -- the phone call sequences from that movie. They seem very forced.

Additionally, the filmmaker commits the cardinal (but all too common) sin of having the heroine's friends being repulsive jerks. So for the beginning of the film, we really like and are rooting for the babysitter (a nice believable job by Rebekah Kochan), but then she's joined by standard slasher-flick teenage friends and the mood is ruined.

The flick sort of works, but it probably a lot more unpleasant than you'll be expected, so be fore-warned.

i found this movie to be mostly a P.O.S.it was low budget,but that isn't the problem.the problem is,the movie is just lame.it doesn't really make a lot of sense.yes,it does explain why things happened,but that's not what i mean.there was just no reason for it all.the movie also moved very slow.the last ice age was quicker than this.also, i think they went overboard a bit in the kills.i don't mean they were too gross,but the killer just seemed to spend too much time smashing his victim over the head,or stabbing his victim. maybe i'm being petty,but i just didn't like the movie.the whole thing seemed like a lower rate version of "When a Stranger Calls" and maybe that was the whole point.but so what.for me "When A Stranger Kills" is a 4/10*

This is one of those movies from the studio known to put out similarly titled and themed DVD's to conveniently coincide with the real studio release movie. In this case we get When a Killer Calls, ripping on the Sony remake of When A Stranger Calls (2006). The movies are about an isolated teen babysitter getting terrorized by a prank caller. While Stranger was rated PG-13, Killer is unrated offering up graphic violence, nudity and language. Killer is obviously low budget, with passable-at-best special effects for the gore, though the acting is surprisingly decent for the most part. The storyline differs just enough from Stranger to keep them from getting sued, but it's your standard cliché slasher fare. I was expecting MUCH worse though.

When a Killer Calls (2006)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The Asylum's mockbuster of WHEN A STRANGER CALLS (the remake) has Trisha (Rebekah Kochan) going to babysit when she starts tor receive harassing phone calls. Pretty soon she starts to think it's her boyfriend but when he shows up at the house she knows it must be someone else and soon they're all under attack. WHEN A KILLER CALLS is a film that you'd think would be horrible but I have to give director Peter Mervis credit for actually delivering a pretty strong film and one that certainly isn't going to be for the weak. I say it's a film that's not for the weak because it has quite a bit of guts to go as far as it actually does. There's certainly lines that you don't cross in movies and especially in American movies but this film here pushes those lines to the side within the first five minutes of the picture. Normally killing a child or children is a major no no and when a film does it you know it means business. The body count here is extremely high, which is something that was missing from the remake. I think fans of gore should be entertained by this thing because it's quite savage in regards to the violence and there's a lot of the run stuff going around. I even thought Mervis built up some nice tension early on in the film, which must be a first for The Asylum. With all of that said, there are still some problems in the film including a pretty boring second act. Once all the teens get to the house things really slow down quite a bit and the 91-minute running time could have probably benefited from some of this stuff being cut out. Another problem is that some of the performances really weren't all that believable but Kochan is decent in the lead and Mark Irvingsen is good as the killer. WHEN A KILLER CALLS really shorts itself because many people are going to pass it up because of it being a rip of another movie but that would be a shame. While this falls well short of the 1979 film, this is much better than the remake and I'd say better than several genre pictures out there.