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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.

"When a Stranger Calls" is a somewhat entertaining horror-suspense-thriller that starts off great, loses steam in the middle, then comes back for a good finish. The beginning of this movie is outstanding, with babysitter Carol Kane receiving obscene phone calls from an unknown maniac. This is far and away the best part of the film. It's scary, creepy, and downright eerie. But it doesn't sustain that level through the entire film. The mid-portion of the movie is rather dull, featuring a few lazy supporting performances. But "When a Stranger Calls" redeems itself with a nail-biting climax, even though the conclusion doesn't top the film's opening in terms of scariness. Carol Kane and Charles Durning are good in the roles of the terrified babysitter and the private detective searching for the killer when he's on the loose. "When a Stranger Calls" is not a great horror movie but a good one. And its better than the cable-made sequel that came out fourteen years later, "When a Stranger Calls Back".

*** (out of four)

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 (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.

"When A Stranger Calls" is a thriller that, while not perfect, does overall deliver a lot of chills. The opening sequence is the most memorable part - while you will guess the surprise twist in this segment long before it happens, the sequence is masterfully directed so it comes across as creepy all the same. The climatic scene, while a little short, also delivers a jolt.

While the opening and closing are well done, the middle portion of the movie has a problem. It's not only very slow, not much happens to advance the plot. Still, this middle segment often has a moody feeling that fits well with the rest of the movie, and Tony Beckley's performance as the psycho is a good one.

By the way, while the movie was rated "R" when it was first released, most viewers in this day and age will find that rating a little harsh. By today's standards, the movie deserves a PG-13 rating. Maybe even a PG rating.