Susan Granger’s review of “When a Stranger Calls” (Sony Screen Gems)
A phone rings in a darkened house. The nervous baby-sitter answers and a creepy male voice inquires, “Have you checked the children?” Yep, it’s a remake of the 1979 terror tale.
Only this time, instead of a typical suburban home, it takes place in an ultra-modern lakefront estate, straight out of Architectural Digest. And the teenager-in-peril is not only sexy but rebellious, forced into child-tending by her father who has grounded her for an entire month because she carelessly charged 800 extra minutes on her cellphone bill.
On the dark and stormy night when Jill Johnson (Camilla Belle) arrives at the lavish but remote home of Dr. and Mrs. Mandrakis, they’re in such a hurry that they don’t even bother telling her the names of the children tucked in bed upstairs. Not that she’s really curious. She’s far more concerned that her boy-friend (Brian Geraghty) kissed her best friend (Katie Crosby, daughter of David). And she’s in a snit because she’s missing a bonfire celebration with her friends. But then the prank calls start. A mysterious, heavy-breathing voice (Lance Hendriksen) scares her – and the police are 20 minutes away.
Re-written by first-timer Jade Wade Wall and ineptly directed by Simon West (“Con Air”), it’s simply inane, despite James Dooley’s ominous, omnipresent music. In the original, the camera remained still and the subtle terror was insinuated as old pros Colleen Dewhurst and Charles Durning confronted the killer who was terrorizing vulnerable Carol Kane. But the punchline is the same: the phone calls are coming from within the house….yet no one thinks of utilizing either caller ID or *69. On the Granger Movie Gauge, “When a Stranger Calls” is a tepid 2. Put it on your “do not call” list.
