I was surprised and delighted to see how intense this psychological thriller still feels more than 40 years on and director Fred Walton paces it just right. The first 20 minutes have become an iconic piece of cinema as we experience the fear Carol Kane goes through as the vulnerable babysitter being stalked by a unseen killer via the rings of a telephone. Kevin Williamson's script paid homage to this movie with the opening scene of Wes Craven's Scream (1996).
Walton had made a short 20 minute film called The Sitter (1977) and expanded the idea to make it into a feature film after seeing Halloween (1978). The opening 20 minutes here is almost a shot for shot recreation of his short but with Carol Kane in the lead role. Tony Beckley is excellent as the stalker, although he was terminally ill when he filmed this which was to be his last, best known in the UK as Camp Freddie in The Italian Job (1969).
I was expecting this to look and feel cheesy by today's standards but it still works and the couple of twists really make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. The neat trick that Walton does to keep you engaged is to actually identify the killer so we get to know his personality and even sympathise with him before he starts to prey on others, in particular the character played by Colleen Dewhurst. This fluctuates between following Charles Durning's private investigator on the trail of the killer and Carol Kane's character who, with it being seven years later, now has children of her own.
The final act is as gripping as the first and When a Stranger Calls is a simple idea very well done and often imitated.
Walton had made a short 20 minute film called The Sitter (1977) and expanded the idea to make it into a feature film after seeing Halloween (1978). The opening 20 minutes here is almost a shot for shot recreation of his short but with Carol Kane in the lead role. Tony Beckley is excellent as the stalker, although he was terminally ill when he filmed this which was to be his last, best known in the UK as Camp Freddie in The Italian Job (1969).
I was expecting this to look and feel cheesy by today's standards but it still works and the couple of twists really make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. The neat trick that Walton does to keep you engaged is to actually identify the killer so we get to know his personality and even sympathise with him before he starts to prey on others, in particular the character played by Colleen Dewhurst. This fluctuates between following Charles Durning's private investigator on the trail of the killer and Carol Kane's character who, with it being seven years later, now has children of her own.
The final act is as gripping as the first and When a Stranger Calls is a simple idea very well done and often imitated.