WHEN A STRANGER CALLS

US, 2006, 87 minutes, Colour.
Camilla Belle, Tommy Flanagan, Katie Cassidy, Tessa Thompson, Brian Geraghty, Clark Gregg, Derek Delint, Kate Jennings Grant.
Directed by Simon West.

It’s the old terrified baby-sitter plot all over again. The makers have looked at Fred Walton’s film of this name from 1979 where Carol Kane was menaced by a murderous stranger and have adapted it to the present. And, acknowledging that they are not really trying to be original, they have succeeded in making a scary picture. The rating is a 12A or a PG 13.

They have also been smart in going against today’s expectations that there will be brutality, blood and gore up there on the screen. This time there isn’t. Most of the violence occurs off screen, leaving it to the audience’s imagination, although the film climaxes, of course, with the struggle between the baby-sitter and her assailant.

You need a strong screen presence to sustain interest and identification throughout the film. Camilla Belle is a good choice. She is attractive and sensible for her age but inexperienced enough to be frightened. She uses her wits but we know she could be outwitted at times – even though she has to win at the end. She is on screen practically the whole film and makes us share her terror.

The house is not a scary one. It is quite a contemporary mansion, even with in inside atrium with fish and birds. While we tour the house with her at first, we and she are not quite sure of the layout. This helps the suspense as well.

And phones. When a stranger calls can be any time, anywhere with several phones in the house and plenty of mobiles. The phone rings a lot in this film – with some red herrings, of course.

The director builds up a nice, confined sense of terror. It is only old codgers who are not too sympathetic to the young (and I saw the film with a few of these) who will not feel a bit eerie and scared as they watch.

1.The quality of the film as a thriller, eerie, scary, terror rather than horror, imagination rather than gore? Suspense?

2.The screenplay based on the 1979 film, the narrower focus on the babysitting and the fear? Updated to the present: contemporary stars, clothes, talk, issues, homes, use of phones?

3.The play on the imagination, the emotions? The relative absence of gore? The PG13 rating?

4.The prologue during the credits, the phone calls, the babysitter, the mysterious voice? The carnival, the excitement – and the murders, off-screen, during this time?

5.The transition to Colorado, the town, the sequences of the students with the bonfire, the mountain roads, the modern house, design? Glass, the atrium with the fish and the birds? The presence of the cat?

6.The musical score and the sound engineering? Atmospheric for mood? Ominous?

7.Jill, seeing her training at school, athletic and strong? The clash with Bobby and kissing Tiffany? The argument? Scarlett and the comments, the problems? Tiffany’s being her best friend, visiting the house, teasing her, calling herself bitchy? Bobby’s phone call?

8.Jill’s father, his strictness, her going over the phone account, her being grounded? Getting her the job? The bond with her father?

9.Dr Mandrakis and his wife? Pleasant? The tour of the house, the kids asleep, going out?

10.Jill and exploring the house and its detail, the corridors, the alarm system, the various rooms, the bathroom, the closet?

11.The importance of phones in the film, alarming, Jill and her chatting, the mysterious phone calls, to Mrs Mandrakis, to the police, her trying to time the call? Discovering the phone call came from inside the house?

12.The eerie mood, scares, the wind, the doors, Rosa and her arrival, feeding the fish? The lights going on and off? Jill reading, the phone calls, the build-up of tension? The film crying wolf a number of times – until the intruder was in the house?

13.The intruder inside, the light in the lodge, hiding? The children and their fear? The shower and her discovery of Tiffany’s body? The rescue of the children, the fight with the intruder, hiding in the water and discovering Rosa’s body, the intruder’s attempt to drown Jill? The strength of the fight, the struggle, pinning his hand?

14.The arrival of the police, the rescue, the guards on the killer, his look and staring at Jilly? The Mandrakises and the children being safe?

15.Jill in the hospital, going into the corridor, no-one there, the phone ringing? Her waking from the nightmare – a variation on the possibility that this all could happen again?

16.The audience for whom the film was made – and its effect on young women who babysit? People familiar with the genre being bored – and film reviewers complaining that they have seen it before?