Oh man. I never thought the words, "Have you checked the children?" could be so creepy.
This movie is what I call a terrorizer. A terrorizer movie may or may not be a slasher, but in any regard it involves a killer or killers that like to terrorize their victims much like the movies Strangers, Kristy, The Hills Have Eyes, and others. Unlike a Jason, or a Michael Meyers, terrorizers want you to know they're there and you can do nothing about it.
In this terrorizer flick Jill Johnson (Carol Kane) babysits for the Mandrakis's and is hounded by an unknown caller. Sometimes he asks, "Have you checked the children?" and sometimes he's silent. In all cases he is scaring the daylights out of Jill.
The last words Jill hears on the phone brings all bodily functions to a halt as the police tell her that the call is coming from inside the house. [I'm shuttering just thinking of that scene.]
To give credit where credit is due, that line was first used in the movie Black Christmas (1974) with Margot Kidder. It was well used in that movie but it could not compare to the usage in this movie.
When a Stranger Calls continued to creep out, spook, and menace from beginning to end. The fact that such a deranged psycho was still alive after what he did at the beginning of the movie makes the movie eerie. Plus, the movie was greatly aided by the musical score. The cello chords and other instruments (almost like the THX riff with the steady pitch change of the one note) totally set the mood. If darkness and desolation wasn't ominous enough, the string and wind instruments drove it home.
This movie is a real horror gem. This movie chills to the core.
This movie is what I call a terrorizer. A terrorizer movie may or may not be a slasher, but in any regard it involves a killer or killers that like to terrorize their victims much like the movies Strangers, Kristy, The Hills Have Eyes, and others. Unlike a Jason, or a Michael Meyers, terrorizers want you to know they're there and you can do nothing about it.
In this terrorizer flick Jill Johnson (Carol Kane) babysits for the Mandrakis's and is hounded by an unknown caller. Sometimes he asks, "Have you checked the children?" and sometimes he's silent. In all cases he is scaring the daylights out of Jill.
The last words Jill hears on the phone brings all bodily functions to a halt as the police tell her that the call is coming from inside the house. [I'm shuttering just thinking of that scene.]
To give credit where credit is due, that line was first used in the movie Black Christmas (1974) with Margot Kidder. It was well used in that movie but it could not compare to the usage in this movie.
When a Stranger Calls continued to creep out, spook, and menace from beginning to end. The fact that such a deranged psycho was still alive after what he did at the beginning of the movie makes the movie eerie. Plus, the movie was greatly aided by the musical score. The cello chords and other instruments (almost like the THX riff with the steady pitch change of the one note) totally set the mood. If darkness and desolation wasn't ominous enough, the string and wind instruments drove it home.
This movie is a real horror gem. This movie chills to the core.