In 2006, Camilla Belle starred as Jill Johnson in When a Stranger Calls, an American psychological horror film directed by Simon West and written by Jake Wade Wall.
Camilla Belle in her pivotal role as Jill Johnson in the suspenseful thriller ‘When a Stranger Calls’ (2006) (Credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)
The film is not based on a true story. It is a remake of Fred Walton’s 1979 horror film, which Walton wrote and directed, and Steve Feke co-wrote.
Rejection and Acceptance: How Camilla Belle Came to Star in the Film
After Evan Rachel Wood turned down the part, Camilla Belle accepted it despite her dislike for horror films.
“There’s really no script that a female character so young is able to play and to carry a film. There’s really no roles like that around, it’s very rare. So I wanted to take on that opportunity and see if I could pull it off,...
Camilla Belle in her pivotal role as Jill Johnson in the suspenseful thriller ‘When a Stranger Calls’ (2006) (Credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)
The film is not based on a true story. It is a remake of Fred Walton’s 1979 horror film, which Walton wrote and directed, and Steve Feke co-wrote.
Rejection and Acceptance: How Camilla Belle Came to Star in the Film
After Evan Rachel Wood turned down the part, Camilla Belle accepted it despite her dislike for horror films.
“There’s really no script that a female character so young is able to play and to carry a film. There’s really no roles like that around, it’s very rare. So I wanted to take on that opportunity and see if I could pull it off,...
- 4/24/2024
- by Jan Stromsodd
- Your Next Shoes
The first twenty minutes of the 1979 horror film When a Stranger Calls (watch it Here) really creeped out movie-goers. It stuck in their heads, earning the movie cult classic status. The rest of the running time, viewers don’t often remember so clearly. So when Screen Gems gave the greenlight to a remake, they decided to expand those first twenty minutes to feature length, stretching out the thrills and suspense for as long as possible. It was a clever idea that was brought to the screen in an entertaining way. And if you haven’t seen the When a Stranger Calls remake, this is the best horror movie you never saw. (You can watch that one Here.)
To properly tell the story of this 2006 release, we first have to rewind thirty years. That’s when college friends Fred Walton and Steve Feke sat down to write the script for a...
To properly tell the story of this 2006 release, we first have to rewind thirty years. That’s when college friends Fred Walton and Steve Feke sat down to write the script for a...
- 4/9/2024
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
Join me as we take a trip down memory lane, before cell phones and instant notifications and Dm’s and everything else that makes me sound like an informational paranoid and crotchety old man. Let’s take a look at an urban legend stretched out to feature length with Fred Walton’s When a Stranger Calls (1979), a mesmerizing-then-decent-then-gripping suspense thriller.
Released by Columbia Pictures stateside in late October, When a Stranger Calls was a big hit with audiences, returning over $21 million against a $1.5 million budget. Critics were quicker to hang up, however; although nearly all praised the opening 20 minute set up, filled as it is with a promise impossible to match. That’s okay though, because I still think When a Stranger Calls is ultimately worth staying on the line for.
Babysitter Jill Johnson (Carol Kane – Addams Family Values) arrives at the Mandrakis household to look after their two children...
Released by Columbia Pictures stateside in late October, When a Stranger Calls was a big hit with audiences, returning over $21 million against a $1.5 million budget. Critics were quicker to hang up, however; although nearly all praised the opening 20 minute set up, filled as it is with a promise impossible to match. That’s okay though, because I still think When a Stranger Calls is ultimately worth staying on the line for.
Babysitter Jill Johnson (Carol Kane – Addams Family Values) arrives at the Mandrakis household to look after their two children...
- 10/27/2018
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
Special Mention: Gojira (Godzilla)
Written and directed by Ishirô Honda
Japan, 1954
Ishiro Honda’s grim, black-and-white post-Hiroshima nightmare stands the test of time. This allegory for the devastation wrought on Japan by the atomic bomb is quite simply a powerful statement about mankind’s insistence to continue to destroy everyone and everything the surrounds us. With just one shot (a single pan across the ruins of Tokyo), Honda manages to express the devastation that Godzilla represents. Since its debut, Godzilla has become a worldwide cultural icon, but very little is said about actor Takashi Shimura, who adds great depth as Dr. Yamane; his performance is stunning. Special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya originally wanted to use classic stop-motion animation to portray Godzilla, but time and budget limitations forced him to dress actors up in monster suits. Despite this minor setback, Tsuburaya’s scale sets of Tokyo are crafted with such great attention to detail,...
Written and directed by Ishirô Honda
Japan, 1954
Ishiro Honda’s grim, black-and-white post-Hiroshima nightmare stands the test of time. This allegory for the devastation wrought on Japan by the atomic bomb is quite simply a powerful statement about mankind’s insistence to continue to destroy everyone and everything the surrounds us. With just one shot (a single pan across the ruins of Tokyo), Honda manages to express the devastation that Godzilla represents. Since its debut, Godzilla has become a worldwide cultural icon, but very little is said about actor Takashi Shimura, who adds great depth as Dr. Yamane; his performance is stunning. Special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya originally wanted to use classic stop-motion animation to portray Godzilla, but time and budget limitations forced him to dress actors up in monster suits. Despite this minor setback, Tsuburaya’s scale sets of Tokyo are crafted with such great attention to detail,...
- 10/3/2015
- by Ricky Fernandes
- SoundOnSight
Throughout the month of October, Editor-in-Chief and resident Horror expert Ricky D, will be posting a list of his favorite Horror films of all time. The list will be posted in six parts. Click here to see every entry.
****
Enjoy!
150: Session 9
Directed by Brad Anderson
Written by Stephen Gevedon and Brad Anderson
2001, USA
If there was ever a perfect setting for a horror movie, it would be the abandoned Danvers State Mental Hospital. Built in 1878 on an isolated site in rural Massachusetts, it was a multi-acre, self-contained psychiatric hospital rumoured to have been the birthplace of the pre-frontal lobotomy. The hospital was the setting for the 2001 horror film Session 9, where an asbestos clean-up crew discover a series of nine tapes, which have recorded a patient with multiple personalities, all of which are innocent, except for number nine. With a shoestring budget and no real special effects, Session 9...
****
Enjoy!
150: Session 9
Directed by Brad Anderson
Written by Stephen Gevedon and Brad Anderson
2001, USA
If there was ever a perfect setting for a horror movie, it would be the abandoned Danvers State Mental Hospital. Built in 1878 on an isolated site in rural Massachusetts, it was a multi-acre, self-contained psychiatric hospital rumoured to have been the birthplace of the pre-frontal lobotomy. The hospital was the setting for the 2001 horror film Session 9, where an asbestos clean-up crew discover a series of nine tapes, which have recorded a patient with multiple personalities, all of which are innocent, except for number nine. With a shoestring budget and no real special effects, Session 9...
- 10/3/2012
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
When a Stranger Calls isn’t quite as stupid as Sleepaway Camp but it comes pretty close. The budget is low, the acting is somewhat ropey, and the dialogue drips with cheese. However, while you’re chortling at the stilted delivery and incongruous sound effects, you may find that the atmosphere slowly creeps up on you until you are forced to check under the bed for bogeymen. For all its faults, it has been highly influential – Wes Craven effectively pinched the whole concept for the iconic Drew Barrymore scene in Scream.
Based on an urban legend from the days when they were known as “folk tales,” the story begins with teenage babysitter Jill (Carol Kane) receiving a series of phone calls during the course of her evening’s duties. The anonymous stranger asks ”Have you checked the children?” and it seems that he is watching her every move. Police initially...
Based on an urban legend from the days when they were known as “folk tales,” the story begins with teenage babysitter Jill (Carol Kane) receiving a series of phone calls during the course of her evening’s duties. The anonymous stranger asks ”Have you checked the children?” and it seems that he is watching her every move. Police initially...
- 5/21/2012
- by Becky Clough
- Movie Cultists
A shameless clone of E.T., or a nuanced film layered with meaning? Ryan offers a few alternate interpretations of Mac And Me…
One of the most infamous cinematic clones in history, family sci-fi fantasy Mac And Me was met with critical derision for its numerous similarities to Steven Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. On its release in 1988, a Washington Post review put it like this: “Forget about calling home; E.T., call lawyer.”
Mac And Me is equally notable for its blatant instances of product placement, with cans of Coca-Cola present in what appears to be every scene, and the titular alien, Mac, subsisting exclusively on Coke and packets of Skittles. There’s also an interminably long breakdancing sequence in a McDonald’s restaurant, and the spectre of the golden arches looms large over the entire film.
Add in some decidedly rubbery creature effects and some stilted acting, and it’s...
One of the most infamous cinematic clones in history, family sci-fi fantasy Mac And Me was met with critical derision for its numerous similarities to Steven Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. On its release in 1988, a Washington Post review put it like this: “Forget about calling home; E.T., call lawyer.”
Mac And Me is equally notable for its blatant instances of product placement, with cans of Coca-Cola present in what appears to be every scene, and the titular alien, Mac, subsisting exclusively on Coke and packets of Skittles. There’s also an interminably long breakdancing sequence in a McDonald’s restaurant, and the spectre of the golden arches looms large over the entire film.
Add in some decidedly rubbery creature effects and some stilted acting, and it’s...
- 4/14/2011
- Den of Geek
Jill Johnson (Carol Kane) meets with the Mandrakis family to see that their children are looked after while they head out for dinner and a movie. Piece of cake, considering the children are already sound asleep upstairs. But Jill’s seemingly mundane evening of studies and telephone banter takes a turn for the worse, when Jill begins receiving a string of eerie telephone calls from some anonymous caller in which she is unable to identify. Have you checked the children? The caller asks repeatedly. Hesitant to check on the children, anchored by fear - Jill telephones the police, who in turn arrange to have any future calls traced. As Jill continues to catch the creepy incoming calls, she begins hearing strange sounds from within the house. Before Ms. Johnson has the chance to learn the fate of the children upstairs, police phone her to inform her that those mysterious calls she’s been receiving,...
- 9/1/2009
- by no-reply@fangoria.com (Matt Molgaard)
- Fangoria
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