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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" from 1979 is a cult chiller classic as the famous words "Have you checked the children" stand long in memory. And the start and ending of the film is best, the scenes and dark backgrounds make for some scary moments. It involves Carol Kane as Jill Johnson a teen babysitter who's terrorized by strange phone calls while baby sitting only then tragedy happens, then the film expands and slows down and goes over a period of seven years, then Jill later an adult again has a past haunt! The film ends well. Overall good classic horror chiller of tease, and tense psycho like fear.

There really is something to that old adage that if you grip the audience right away and end up giving them a good, strong finish, you're golden. When A Stranger Calls takes this to heart and serves up two genuinely terrifying 20 minutes sequences that are held together by a slow, plodding 2nd act that waddles along without much zip or excitement. For a thriller, it's not very thrilling.

The film starts off with a babysitter (the excellent Carol Kane whose expressive eyes could tell an entire 90 minute story without dialogue) being tormented by an obscene phone caller telling her to check the children. Anyone over the age of 10 has probably heard the classic legend that this section is based on and the payoff is, more or less, the same. It's a brilliant, suspenseful sequence that shows director Fred Walton as a master of his craft.

After this, we end up following the detective on the case (Charles Durning) who is looking for the child killer. That's essentially the next 40/50 minutes and it's about as exciting and gripping as an episode of Columbo. Try as the actors might, it just never gets off the ground until the killer decides to go after Kane's character in the present day where she has two young children of her own. Once that section begins, the film hits its stride again and ends on a high, terrifying note.

When A Stranger Calls is pretty much two really effective short films with a dull police procedural shoved in between it.

"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.

Watch the first 20 minutes, grab a snack, walk your dog, take a shower, have a drink, and get back in time for the last 20 minutes. You won't miss much except Colleen Dewhurst as a barfly telling people to leave her alone. Actually, maybe you should stay and watch the middle part of this movie. It's growing on me. Carol Kane also gets to play someone fairly down to earth and not kooky for a change and she's really terrific.