When a Stranger Calls (2006 film)

When a Stranger Calls
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Simon West
Written by	Jake Wade Wall
Based on	When a Stranger Calls by Steve Feke and Fred Walton
Produced by	John Davis Wyck Godfrey Ken Lemberger
Starring	Camilla Belle Brian Geraghty Katie Cassidy Clark Gregg
Cinematography	Peter Menzies Jr.
Edited by	Jeff Betancourt
Music by	James Dooley
Production companies	TeleStranger Productions, Inc.[1]
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Releasing[1]
Release date	February 3, 2006 (2006-02-03)
Running time	87 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15 million[2]
Box office	$67.1 million[2]

When a Stranger Calls is a 2006 American psychological horror thriller film directed by Simon West and written by Jake Wade Wall. The film stars Camilla Belle, Brian Geraghty, Katie Cassidy, and Clark Gregg. Belle plays a babysitter who starts to receive threatening phone calls from an unidentified stranger, played by both Tommy Flanagan and Lance Henriksen. The film is a remake of Fred Walton's 1979 horror film of the same name, which became a cult classic for its opening 20 minutes, which this remake extends to a feature-length film.

The film was theatrically released on February 3, 2006. It was universally panned by critics but was a moderate box office success, grossing $67 million worldwide on a $15 million budget.

Plot[]

The film begins with a local sheriff entering a home where multiple homicides have been committed. The victims include three children and their babysitter, all slaughtered brutally by an intruder using his bare hands.

The film then jumps to the town of Fernhill, Colorado, 125 miles away from the scene of the crime. As punishment for exceeding her cell phone minutes, 16-year-old Jill Johnson is forced by her parents to spend the night babysitting for the wealthy Mandrakis family. When she arrives at the house, the parents show her around and tell her about their live-in housemaid, Rosa.

While the two children are asleep upstairs, Jill soon begins to receive obscene phone calls from a stranger who, most of the time, does not say anything and then hangs up. She initially believes it is her friends playing a prank, but when she calls them, they deny it. Jill's friend Tiffany stops by, but Jill, in fear of getting into further trouble, asks her to leave. Outside while returning to her car, Tiffany is ambushed by the intruder. Strange events begin to occur, such as the house alarm going off for no reason, until Jill receives menacing calls from the caller, indicating he can see her. Alarmed, she calls the police, who tell her they can trace the calls if she is able to keep him on the line for 60 seconds. While waiting for the phone to ring, Jill sees a shadow moving in the guest house. Believing it is the Mandrakis' son back from college, she goes to investigate, but finds the guest house empty.

Back at the main house, Jill searches for Rosa, but finds only her belongings. The phone rings once again and the caller remains quiet on the other end, as Jill manages to keep him on the line for a minute so the call can be traced. Jill then hears the shower running in the maid's room but, upon checking, the bathroom is empty. The police then tell her the calls are coming from inside the house. Horrified, Jill finds Tiffany dead on the bathroom floor and flees.

Jill goes to the children who are already hiding in their playroom. She looks up and sees the intruder in the loft. They all escape into the greenhouse and hide. Jill discovers Rosa's dead body under the water. The assailant enters and searches the greenhouse. Jill manages to lock him inside but he breaks out and attacks her. During the altercation, Jill manages to stab the assailant's hand into the hardwood floor with a fireplace poker, before rushing out of the house into the arms of a police officer. The assailant is arrested and Jill and the children survive.

Days later while recuperating in the hospital, Jill awakens to a phone ringing. She gets out of bed and, while looking at her reflection in the mirror, the assailant appears behind her and grabs her. She begins to shriek hysterically, waking from her hallucination as the doctors and her father desperately try to stop her frantic panicking.

Cast[]

Production[]

Screen Gems first announced production of When a Stranger Calls in August 2004, with Jake Wade Wall penning the script. Screen Gems had plans to release both a remake of the original film and a sequel titled When a Stranger Returns.^[3][4]

Casting[]

Evan Rachel Wood was offered the role of Jill, but turned it down. Camilla Belle was then approached and almost turned the role down due to her personal dislike for horror films but West, the director, convinced her that he was going more for a psychological thriller and so she accepted. To prepare for the role, Belle had to do two months of weight-training and learning how to run. Belle was injured twice on the set; she struck a wooden bridge, cutting and scarring her hand, and also slammed her head against a glass window.^[5][6][7]

Filming[]

Principal photography occurred from January 1 to February 28, 2005, in Vancouver, Canada. Bellarmine-Jefferson High School was used to portray the high school seen in the film while Signal Hill was used to portray the carnival shown in the film. Running Springs was used as the filming location for the road sequences. The house that was used in the film is located at Culver Studios in Culver City, California.

Music[]

Score[]

When a Stranger Calls: The Complete Original Motion Picture Score
Film score
Released	February 10, 2006
Genre	Film score
Length	47:53
Label	Sony BMG Music Entertainment
Producer	James Dooley

When a Stranger Calls: The Complete Original Motion Picture Score, 15-instrumental songs composed by James Dooley, was released on February 10, 2006.

When a Stranger Calls: The Complete Original Motion Picture Score

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Main Title"	00:04:51
2.	"Fateful Drive"	00:02:57
3.	"The House"	00:03:43
4.	"Exploring"	00:05:16
5.	"Have You Checked the Children"	00:05:11
6.	"Tiffany"	00:02:55
7.	"Knock Knock Who There"	00:07:18
8.	"Curtain Call"	00:03:14
9.	"60 Seconds"	00:03:39
10.	"Inside the House"	00:04:12
11.	"Stranger"	00:03:48
12.	"Conflagration"	00:04:07
13.	"Police Station"	00:02:44
14.	"Lunatic Asylum"	00:03:58
15.	"End Credits"	00:02:42
Total length:		01:00:35

Distribution[]

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 on May 16, 2006. It does not involve calling her, but instead she directs users to a video security system on the official DVD site where the shadow of the stranger passes by frequently.

As a marketing promotion for the film, a MySpace profile was created for Jill051606 featuring photos from the film. Users could add the profile as a friend, leave comments, and read Jill's blog.

Home media[]

The film was released on DVD and UMD on May 16, 2006. Special features include two audio commentaries (one with Camilla Belle and Simon West; the other with Jake Wade Wall), deleted scenes, a 20-minute making-of featurette, and trailers. A Blu-ray version of the film was released for the first time by Mill Creek Entertainment on October 4, 2016 in a triple feature with I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and Vacancy (2007). This disc contains none of the extras found on the DVD.^[8] This initial release was discontinued, and a new version was released by Mill Creek titled "Queens of Scream - Triple Feature" on February 5, 2019. The new release is virtually identical, with the only differences being a new cover on the case and the inclusion of a DVD copy alongside the Blu-ray.^[9]

Reception[]

Box office[]

The film opened at number one with $21.6 million.^[10] It then made $9.1 million in its second weekend and $5 million in its third.^[11] The film went on to gross a total of $47.9 million domestically, and $19.2 million internationally for a total worldwide gross of $67.1 million.^[2]

Critical reception[]

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 9% based on 93 reviews, with an average rating of 3.5/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "When a Stranger Calls ranks among the more misguided remakes in horror history, offering little more than a rote, largely fright-free update to the original."^[12] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 27 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews."^[13] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale.^[14]

Accolades[]

In 2006, When a Stranger Calls was nominated to the Golden Trailer Awards in the category "Best Thriller".^[15]

Possible sequel[]

Screen Gems was initially planning to make a sequel rumored to be titled When a Stranger Returns with Hayden Panettiere set to star as the babysitter, in light of the film's box office success. This sequel never materialized.

Writer Jake Wade Wall discussed the possibility of a sequel on September 18, 2020 with Bloody Disgusting. His treatment would have the film be a remake of the second half of the original film, where Jill Johnson is older now and has a family and the killer has escaped the asylum, citing the success of Halloween (2018) as an inspiration.^[16]

See also[]

• List of films featuring home invasions
• The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs
• When a Killer Calls (2006), a mockbuster of this film released by The Asylum.

References[]

External links[]

• Official website
• When a Stranger Calls at IMDb
• When a Stranger Calls at Box Office Mojo
• When a Stranger Calls at Rotten Tomatoes
• Mikkelson, Barbara & David P. "The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs" at Snopes.com: Urban Legends Reference Pages.