It really doesn't seem fair to attack "When a Stranger Calls." It's like scolding a bear for not being good at long division. Here is a movie of limited ambition that more or less achieves what it sets out to do. It has a few muted scares, but they aren't likely to hit home for anybody above the film's target audience of middle schoolers. Whether it will appeal to anybody else depends on how much you enjoy the horror genre and if you find the prospect of cats jumping out of dark places inherently terrifying.
The film is a remake of a 1979 movie directed by Fred Walton. The original, which stars Carol Kane and Charles Durning, is pretty unremarkable, except for an absolutely terrifying prologue involving a babysitter being stalked via telephone by a killer who, we find out later, is actually inside the house. Even though this sequence is only about twenty minutes long, it was enough to earn the movie a cult following and no doubt brought about this remake.
The remake essentially takes the prologue from the original and extends it to 85 minutes, doing away with the tenuous subplots that doomed the second half of the original. This unfortunately leads to a whole new set of problems, because the concept isn't sturdy enough to support a whole film. As an opening act, it's a pip, but as a whole movie, watching a girl get stalked is a mighty bore.
Director Simon West ("The General's Daughter") tries to play out the tension and, for a while, it works. The setting — a dead-tech, post-modern mansion — is appropriately creepy, and art director Gerald Sullivan has a whale of a time with the minimalist production scheme. West's entire crew is probably one step above what the material deserves, and they give the film a decidedly creepy look.
The technical skill that went into making the movie can't hide the fact that nothing really happens for much of the movie. The big reveal that — gasp! — the calls are coming from inside the house is meant to be a surprise (it was in 1979, I suppose), but everybody going into the movie in 2006 is going to guess it, even if they haven't been exposed to the relentless Screen Gems commercial campaign, which conveniently reveals this surprise. So basically, we're left biding our time for 60 minutes until things kick into gear. West keeps up the tension for a while, but there's only so far he can stretch the premise before tedium sets in. It quickly becomes obvious that nothing, really, is happening.
If a movie like this with a bare bones plot and a "twist" that everybody already knows is going to have any success, it needs a strong performance from the lead actress. Camilla Belle ("The Ballad of Jack and Rose") is game and has a nice face, but lets face it, she isn't Meryl Streep in "The Deer Hunter." The movie puts too much pressure on her to carry all the action, and she just can't do it. You know your movie has a lack of star power when Clark Gregg (a.k.a., "The Guy Who Played the D.A. in 'State & Main'") is the biggest name in your cast.
It's pointless to talk anymore about "When a Stranger Calls." By now, the people who want to see it have already seen it, and the people who aren't going to see it, well, they don't care. It'll be gone next weekend, replaced by another teen-themed horror film designed to make a quick strike at the box office. This one isn't scary enough to recommend nor is it bad enough for anybody to get up on his or her high horses about. It exists to be seen and then immediately dismissed.
Rating: 2 out of 5
