When a Stranger Calls (2006 film)

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When a Stranger Calls

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Simon West
Produced by John Davis
Wyck Godfrey
Ken Lemberger
Written by Jake Wade Wall
Starring Camilla Belle
Brian Geraghty
Katie Cassidy
Clark Gregg
Music by James Dooley
Cinematography Peter Menzies, Jr.
Editing by Jeff Betancourt
Studio Davis Entertainment
Distributed by Screen Gems
Release date(s)
  • February 3, 2006
Running time 87 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $15 million
Box office $66,966,987
When a Stranger Calls is a 2006 American psychological horror film and a remake of the 1979 horror film of the same name based on the urban legend "The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs". In the film, a teenage babysitter receives increasingly threatening calls from a brutal serial killer whom she first assumes is simply a prankster.

Contents

Plot

On one side of town a babysitter and the kids she is watching are brutally murdered. The police find that the murderer used his bare hands to tear them to shreds. The shot then changes to teenager Jill Johnson (Camilla Belle) who is going through a teenage crisis, having her boyfriend, Bobby (Brian Geraghty), cheat on her with her best friend Tiffany (Katie Cassidy), and going over 800 minutes on her cell phone for which her dad, Ben (Clark Gregg), has her babysit for a wealthy family to pay the debt. The unfortunate timing causes Jill to miss out on a school bonfire which her friend, Scarlett (Tessa Thompson), is attending. Jill arrives at the elaborate Mandrakis House, perched upon a lake with a greenhouse built in the center. The parents (Derek de Lint and Kate Jennings Grant) show her around and give her their numbers, stating that they won't be back until midnight. As the kids are seen to be upstairs asleep, Jill begins the night by snooping and trying on Mrs. Mandrakis' jewelry, but begins to receive anonymous phone calls which at first she ignores.
Tiffany visits but Jill, fearing getting into further trouble, asks her to leave, however tree branches knocked down by the storm block the road. When Tiffany gets out to move them she is attacked off screen by an unknown figure. The calls continue inside, each one becoming more alarming. When the caller asks "Have you checked the children?" she goes upstairs, but when she returns the phone rings and the caller again asks "How were the children?" suggesting she is being watched. Jill calls the police who tell her they can trace the calls if she is able to keep him on the line for one minute. Whilst waiting for the caller to ring Jill sees someone in the guest house. While she investigates the phone rings again and she succeeds in keeping him on the line for a minute but realizes that he has called the wrong phone line. After seeing a light switch on, Jill quickly makes her way back to the house. The phone rings again, after which the police hurriedly inform her that the calls are coming from inside the house.
Jill finds Tiffany's dead body in the upstairs bathroom whilst investigating an active shower and is soon attacked. She gets the kids and they run into the greenhouse. Jill finds the house maid dead in the pond as the attacker breaks in. They quickly escape and Jill manages to lock the man inside the greenhouse, but he finds an exit and attacks Jill. There is a struggle and Jill manages to stab him in the hand with an iron poker, rushing out of the house and into the arms of a police officer.
As the stranger is taken by the police his face is shown by the moonlight. She awakens in the hospital and the phone rings. She lets it ring, worrying that the events will reoccur. She waits for a time then nervously picks up the phone. As she hears nothing and begins to place the phone down the camera pans to her reflection in the mirror, revealing the stranger to be behind her. The man grabs Jill who screams hysterically, waking up from her hallucination and finding herself still in the hospital. The film ends with the doctors desperately trying to stop her frantic panicking, leaving the viewer to wonder if either the events cost Jill her sanity.

Cast

Marketing

For the release of the film, AOL Instant Messenger ran ads beckoning users to IM Jill020306. When messaged, "Jill" (a Colloquis-style program) made small talk before panicking, as she received calls from a stranger asking her to check the children. She then gives the user her phone number (a toll-free 877 number) and asks them to call her. When users call, they hear an ad for the movie.
Also, around the time of the DVD release, a new screen name appeared, Jill051606, to tie in with the DVD release date, May 16, 2006. It does not involve calling her, but instead she directs you to a video security system on the official DVD site where the shadow of the stranger passes by frequently.
MySpace ran an advertisement: the profile for Jill051606, in which users can add the profile as a friend, leave comments, and read Jill's blog.

Reception

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 9% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 88 reviews.[1] The biggest criticism of the remake was that it gave away the moment of suspense from the original by revealing the source of the calls in the previews.

Box office

The film opened at #1 with $21,607,203.[2]
As of 19th march 2006, the film grossed a total of $47.9 million in the domestic box office, and $66.9 million worldwide.[3]

Home media

The movie was released on May 16, 2006 on DVD and PSP. Special features include two commentaries (one with Camilla Belle and Simon West; the other with Jake Wade Wall), deleted scenes, a 20-minute making-of featurette, and trailers.

Cancelled sequel

Screen Gems had green-lit a sequel, rumored to be titled When a Stranger Returns, in which Hayden Panettiere was to play the babysitter. Screen Gems has since scrapped the film.

Awards

In 2007, it was nominated to the Golden Trailer Awards in the category "Best Horror".

See also

References

  1. ^ ROTTEN TOMATOES: Movies – Top Movies, Trailers, Tickets & Showtimes
  2. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2006&wknd=05&p=.htm
  3. ^ When a Stranger Calls (2006)

External links

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