When a Stranger Calls (2006 film)

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When a Stranger Calls

Region 1 DVD Cover for When a Stranger Calls.
Directed by Simon West
Produced by John Davis
Wyck Godfrey
Ken Lemberger
Written by Jake Wade Wall
Starring Camilla Belle
Music by James Dooley
Cinematography Peter Menzies Jr.
Editing by Jeff Betancourt
Distributed by Screen Gems
Release date(s) February 3, 2006
Language English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

When a Stranger Calls is a 2006 remake of the 1979 film with the same name. In the film, baby-sitter Jill Johnson (Camilla Belle) receives increasingly threatening calls from a brutal serial killer she first assumes is simply a juvenile prankster. The story itself is based upon a well-known urban legend.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Young Jill Johnson is punished by her parents with the task of babysitting for a wealthy family, since she went over her cell phone minutes significantly. After showing her around, the children's parents leave, and Jill feels she can mind herself, knowing the kids are upstairs recovering from the flu. Chester, the cat sits in front of the window, but not for long.

The housekeeper Rosa and Jill's friend Tiffany both show up at times, and then disappear. As the night progresses, she continually receives anonymous phone calls from what originally seems like a prank caller. Jill notifies the police, who tell her that they cannot do anything until the man makes an overt threat. A few calls later, she realizes that the man can actually see what she is doing. She calls the police again, who agree to try to trace the call.

Jill doesn't know, but soon Rosa disappears, and she sees someone inside the guest house near the main house. She thinks it is Todd (the father's older son) or Rosa and decides to go there. Jill takes a flashlight and a candle stick as a weapon and runs to the guest house. She enters and finds the room empty, but when she looks out of the window, she sees a light go on in Rosa's room. She races back to the house and goes up to the third floor to Rosa's room. She finds this empty too, with the shower turned on in Rosa's bathroom. As she stands there, the police call to warn Jill that they have traced the call, and that the caller is somewhere inside the house. Finding Tiffany dead in Rosa's bathroom, Jill goes downstairs to get the two children. She finds them in a toy chest in a small playroom. When they're about to leave the bedroom, Jill sees the stranger on top of a rafter in their open wooden ceiling.

Jill and the children run inside the playroom as the stranger jumps from the ceiling. Jill ties the door handle to a hook on the wall and locks themselves in. The stranger tries to get in the room as Jill and the kids make escape to the indoor glass shielded water garden / atrium. The stranger makes it downstairs again and attacks Jill, who is underwater, while the kids run to the main door, which they are too small to unlock. Jill finds Rosa's dead body in the water. She also traps the man in the atrium (ripping some of her hair out in the process) and finds the kids in the fireplace. They all run for the door, but the stranger breaks out and chases after them. The kids make it out, but Jill is pulled back inside. She fights the stranger, and eventually stabs his hand with a fire poker, pinning him to the floor. She manages to escape, and runs into the arms of a police officer, who has just arrived.

Later, as Jill is recovering in the hospital, she finds herself alone with a ringing phone echoing through the halls. She turns around to see the stranger reflected behind her in the mirror. She screams and screams, but that part was just a dream, and doctors run in to assist her as she cries "He's in the house! He's in the house!!"... As the camera pans out more people rush in the room to help her. Showing that she was deeply affected from the whole experience when babysitting for the Mandrakuses's.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Advertisement

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. Like many automated messaging agents, "Jill" is easily confused, which resulted in some unintentionally hilarious moments —

Jill: I think I am going crazy. Look, all my friends are at a party - you need to call me and listen in on this call.
User: How are you doing?
Jill: I'm doing great. You?

Sometimes other glitches occur, such as Jill asking what she should do before telling the user that a stranger is calling her.

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.com also ran an advertisement: the profile for Jill051606, in which users can add the profile as a friend, leave comments, read the blog and IM.

[edit] Credited cast

Camilla Belle as Jill Johnson in the 2006 film When a Stranger Calls.
Camilla Belle as Jill Johnson in the 2006 film When a Stranger Calls.

[edit] Response

Critical consensus was negative, with the average grade on Yahoo! Movies being a "D", despite the film's 21.6 million dollar opening setting the record for a movie opening on Super Bowl XL weekend (February 3 - February 5). 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.

As of February 26, 2006, the film grossed a total of 45.7 million dollars in the domestic box office.

The movie was released on May 16, 2006 for PSP and DVD. 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.

[edit] Sequel

Main Article: When a Stranger Calls 2

In May 2006, a sequel was greenlit by Screen Gems. The film is currently slated for a 2007 release.

[edit] Worldwide

The film grossed a total of 59.1 million dollars worldwide. In its first week, it grossed 24.8 million dollars. [1]

Alternate titles worldwide:

  • Mexico: Cuando un extraño llama
  • Spain: Cuando llama un extraño
  • Germany: Unbekannter Anrufer
  • Italy: Chiamata Da Uno Sconosciuto
  • Portugal: Chamada De Um Estralho
  • Brazil: Quando Um Estranho Chama
  • Serbia: Kad stranac pozove
  • Poland: Kiedy dzwoni nieznajomy

[edit] External links

The When a Stranger Calls series
Original Films When a Stranger Calls | When a Stranger Calls Back
Remake/Sequel When a Stranger Calls | When a Stranger Calls 2
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