When a Stranger Calls

When a Stranger Calls Information

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.

Plot

On one side of town, a babysitter and the kids she is babysitting 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 other best friend, Scarlett (Tessa Thompson), is attending. Jill arrives at the elaborate Mandrakis House, which has 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 soon begins to receive anonymous phone calls.

Tiffany visits but Jill, fearing getting into further trouble, asks her to leave. However, tree branches knocked down by the storm outside block the road. When Tiffany gets out to move them, she is attacked by an unknown figure. Jill hears strange noises, so she goes upstairs to see the kids asleep. Confused, she returns downstairs and the phone rings again. This time the caller asks,"How were the kids." After closing the curtains, Jill frantically 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 guesthouse. She darts to the house, enters, only to see there is no-one there. The phone rings, and she is able to keep them on for more than a minute, but unfortunately it is on the wrong phone line. After seeing a light switch on, Jill quickly makes her way back to the house. The phone rings again as she makes her way upstairs to the guestroom. This time, she is able to keep the call on long enough for the police to trace it. In the guestroom bathroom, she hears a shower on. After turning it off, the phone rings, and 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 the active shower, and is soon attacked. She gets the kids and they run into the greenhouse. Jill finds the housemaid dead 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 burn the man's back and stab him in the hand with an iron poker, before rushing out of the house into the arms of a police officer.

As the stranger is taken by the police, his face is shown by the moonlight. Jill awakens in the psychiatric hospital and the phone rings. She goes out of her room, only to see that she is alone. Jill lets the phone ring, worrying that the events will reoccur. She waits for a time and returns to her room, and 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 psychiatric hospital. The film ends with the doctors desperately trying to stop her frantic panicking, leaving the viewer to wonder if the events cost Jill her sanity as the screen fades to black and the movie ends.

Cast

Camilla Belle as Jill Johnson
Tommy Flanagan as The Stranger
Brian Geraghty as Bobby Miller
Clark Gregg as Ben Johnson
Katie Cassidy as Tiffany Madison
Tessa Thompson as Scarlett Washington
Derek de Lint as Dr. Mandrakis
Kate Jennings Grant as Kelly Mandrakis
David Denman as Officer Burroughs
Arthur Young as Will Mandrakis
Madeline Carroll as Allison Mandrakis
Steve Eastin as Detective Hines
John Bobek as Officer Lewis
Lance Henriksen as The Stranger's voice
Dianna Agron as a Cheerleader (uncredited)

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

The film was almost universally panned from critics. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 9% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 88 reviews. 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.

As of 19 March 2006, the film grossed a total of $47.9 million in the domestic box office, and $66.9 million worldwide.

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".