Powerful

One of my all time favorites.

As Good As It Gets

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Belated made-for-TV sequel When A Stranger Calls Back starts off in full-on creepy mode, with babysitter Julia (Jill Schoelen) being disturbed by a stranger who knocks on the front door claiming that his car has broken down. In reality, he is a psycho who will not give up until he can get inside the house. After a tense stand-off, Julia doing everything to keep the man at bay, help eventually arrives, but not before the stranger is able to abscond with the children sleeping upstairs.All of this is well executed by director Fred Walton, with a strong performance from Schoelen, but the real horror is what comes next: five years after the disappearance of the kids, Julia is now an emotionally withdrawn student - sporting a monstrous mullet. The short hairstyle Schoelen wore in the opening scene wasn't particularly flattering, but her mullet is truly terrible, a heinous hairstyle guaranteed to disturb fans of the actress. When the psycho reappears and begins to torment Julia, the harrassed girl shoots herself in the head, but I suspect that looking in the mirror at that abysmal haircut was also a contributing factor.With Julia in a hospital bed, it is up to counselor Jill Johnson and detective John Clifford (Carol Kane and Charles Durning reprising their roles from the first film) to try and work out who it is that has been menacing the poor girl. At this point things get seriously silly, the nut-job revealed to be William Landis (Gene Lythgow), a ventriloquist who paints his face and body to blend in with his background (original, to say the least!). In a very silly finalé, Landis disguises himself as a brick wall in Jill's apartment, throwing his voice to confuse the woman.4.5 out of 10, rounded down to 4 for the mullet, and for failing to give us any insight into Landis's motives (we never learn what he did with the kidnapped children).

You can't judge a DVD by it's cover and you certainly can't judge a horror movie by the fact that it's made for TV. Time and time again I am proved wrong, TV movies can be good. Not only good but phenomenal. When a Stranger Calls Back is that movie. Heart pounding suspense, original story line along with a must-be-seen-to-be-believed ending, this TV movie will change your brain.Five years later, after Julia was harassed by a kidnapper, the man has come back into her life, or so she thinks. Little things in the house have been moved, the window is open and now a child's shirt in the closet. As things become stranger for Julia Jenz the police bring her Jill Johnson a woman with her own equally strange past to help her solve the mystery and stay alive! The first 15 minutes of the film, much like the original When a Stranger Calls, are some of the most terrifying moments you will see on TV or in any movie. While some might argue the movie falls short of the first 15 I would disagree. While not as intense, the second half of the film keeps you reeled in and stays interesting in ways you will never believe. Hokey is in the eyes of the beholder and this s--t ain't hokey, it's genius. While I don't want to give away some major plot points to the film, it's a must see I promise.The film is directed by Fred Walton who did the original When a Stranger Calls. It also stars the main babysitter, now much older, and the original detective. Fred Walton has been making a series of TV movies that seem to be doing well, several have won Emmy's, and after watching Stranger I'm ready to see what other secret nuggets he has left in his filmography. The acting is a little terrible at times but it's really the only weak point to the film. If you can get past the bad reads you will love this film.While When a Stranger Calls Back wont make your brain melt with eye gouging special effects or supernatural squirrels but it is a very interesting thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat and brings something original to the table.

The original "When a Stranger Calls" from 1979 was a dynamite and effectively petrifying little horror sleeper. Why? Because of its very simplistic but nevertheless fascinating concept of a perverted maniac persistently stalking a defenseless babysitter through sinister phone calls. Even though the more routine middle part couldn't hold a candle to the masterful opening twenty ones, the wholesome should definitely be regarded as a modest and influential genre classic. And the last thing you can say about writer/director Fred Walton is that he exploited the success and promptly produced a series of inferior sequels. "When a Stranger Calls Back" is actually a rather belated follow-up, but unmistakably one that perfectly mirrors the original film. This second, made for television production, is even pretty much identical with the same narrative structure, atmosphere-building, lead characters and portrayal of the villain. There's the brilliantly tense and gripping opening, the tedious and somewhat annoying middle section and the short but powerful shock-climax. Cherubic and warm-hearted young babysitter Julia is babysitting one night when a supposedly stranded guy knocks on the door asking to use the telephone. Julia clearly watched enough old horror movies and is smart enough not to keep the front door shut, but the visitor refuses to go away and gradually fills Julia up with fear. The night ends tragically, when Julia suddenly stands face to face with a perpetrator in the hallway. Five years later, she's an eternally traumatized woman who seeks the help of Jill Johnson (the stalker victim of the original became a counselor) and her savior John Clifford; the former cop turned private detective. Addition spoiler warning: in the paragraph here below I will most likely reveal essential plot aspects from both the original and the sequel"When a Stranger Calls Back" is an adequate film and definitely guarantees some moments of genuine suspense. What I don't understand, however, is that many people seem to prefer the sequel over the original. I couldn't disagree more, mainly because the script of the original film is at least a dozen times more plausible in every imaginable department. First and foremost: the killer. The 1979 killer, Curt Duncan, was a 'realistic' psychopath. He stalked a girl and spent time in prison. He failed to fit into society and slowly found his way back to the girl for revenge. The psycho in this case is a ventriloquist, a master of disguise, a melodramatic philosopher and we're supposed to believe he left Julia alone during five whole years even though the police never picked up his trail? What kind of pathetic killer does that? Then there's the completely implausible return of Carol Kane's character Jill Johnson. It's already hard to accept that she became a psychological counselor after what happened to her, but now she helps another young girl who's going through pretty much the exact same ordeal as she did? Plus she's a lousy counselor, since you definitely don't encourage a manic depressed girl to buy a gun. Everybody complained how the middle section of the original nearly ruined the entire film, as it exposed the psychopath's whole persona and thus made him less menacing. Maybe so, but the middle section of the sequel definitely exaggerates in doing the complete opposite. Fred Walton attempts to make his villain so mysterious and introvert that it simply becomes ridicule. The ventriloquist act is downright pitiable and just a tad bit grotesque. There are numerous little details that don't make sense, but they're not immediately noticeable thanks to the good performances and compelling atmosphere. The more you contemplate about the story, though, the sillier it gets.

When a Stranger Calls Back is a sequel to the 1979 film starring Carol Kane.In this go around, Julia is a teenager babysitting for two children. During the night a man starts knocking at the door, trying to get her to let him in under the guise that his car has broken down. Julia refuses, but the tension keeps building as the voice tells her he has seen someone moving around upstairs, and that she should check on the children. She naturally runs to check on the children, only to find them gone. She then runs downstairs, and outside to find no one there, but the voice calls out to her again and she runs inside to find the shape of a man with his arms outstreched to get her. Julia then runs outside again into the arms of the parents who she was babysitting for, as her tormentor vanishes with the children.The movie then flashes forward five years where Julia is in college, and being stalked again. She seeks out the help of Jill (Kane), the survivor of the first film, who is now a counselor at Julia's college. Jill enlists the help of her policeman friend from the first film to find the stalker before he can get Julia. However, Jill herself soon becomes his prey.The movie drags heavily in the second act. The stalker's motives are never explained, nor does there seem to be any connection to Julia's first stalking. We never learn what has become of the children, and the ending comes up to fast, without letting things settle down first. This is definitely good for a TV movie, the opening alone is as good as or better than most typical horror films, but so much is left unexplained as to seriously frustrate the viewer.