When a Stranger Calls

The original 1979 version of this psycho-thriller—just one of a spate of low-budget slasher flicks about maniacal serial killers usually stalking high school girls—featured a nerve-wracking opening (in which a babysitter is terrorized by a wacko who repeatedly phones her from inside the house where he's killed her charges) and finale (set years later, when he resumes his efforts after escaping confinement), bookending a more sedate, grim midsection, in which a disillusioned cop tracks the guy down not to arrest him, but to kill him. Simon West's 2006 remake jettisons the middle and conclusion entirely, stretching out the first film's initial 15 minutes to nearly 90, resulting in an excruciatingly dull compendium of cheap, silly scare effects shoehorned into a hodgepodge of the hoariest imaginable horror movie clichés—heroine wandering through darkened rooms, cats springing out of closets, phones suddenly ringing, shadows moving ominously against closed curtains, car engines that refuse to start, etc. Camilla Belle is blank and bland as the increasingly terrified teen, and the madman turns out to be the most inept killer in history, given the number of times everyone eludes his clutches. When this Stranger calls, don't answer. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include two audio commentaries (one by director Simon West and star Camilla Belle; the other with writer Jake Wade Wall), an 18-minute “making-of” featurette, three minutes of deleted scenes, and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a pointless remake.] (F. Swietek)