| “ | Jill Johnson: You really scared me, if that's what you wanted. Is that what you wanted? The Stranger: No. Jill Johnson: What do you want? The Stranger: Your blood all over me. |
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| ~ The Stranger to Jill Johnson about his true motivations. |
Well now it’s time for me to get back into doing some scary movies, and from this mediocre remake of a underrated classic I found someone who I feel should qualify: even if he’s not a particularly strong case.
What's the Work?[]
When a Stranger Calls is a 2006 psychological thriller and horror "remake" (more of a reimagining of the first act) of the 1979 film with the same title. It stars Camilla Belle, Brian Geraghty, Katie Cassidy, Clark Gregg, Tessa Thompson, Tommy Flanagan, and Lance Henriksen. It centers on Jill Johnson, a teenage babysitter who is sent to watch over the Mandrakis' family children. However, when a mysterious nobody calls Jill with deadly intent, Jill is forced to find a way to protect the kids and find the man before it's too late.
Who is The Stranger and What has he Done?[]
The Stranger is an elusive and cruel serial killer who would regularly call babysitters, tell them if they have looked after the children, before killing them in horrendous ways. One night, he calls a woman named Stacy and enters her home before hanging up, the stranger would then proceed to gruesomely massacre her and the three children she was checking upstairs in the bedroom by only using his hands. The stranger then leaves their battered up and bloody remains for the police to find the next day.
The Stranger would then go on to haunt another babysitter named Jill Johnson in the Mandrakis' residence by going to the home and repeatedly calling her on the cell phone, not saying anything before hanging up over and over again except for one in which he simply replies: is everything okay? After a while, the stranger goes outside to prey upon and then violently off Jill's best friend named Tiffany outside of her car when a tree branch cuts off a road near the gates of the house. Tiffany desperately tries banging on the door when she sees her before being dragged off.
The Stranger then calls Jill again which makes Jill aware that he is spying on her. Jill decides to not disconnect the line so that she can eventually find where the calls are coming from. When she looks inside the Mandrakis' children bedroom to find them fast asleep, the stranger calls again and asks her 'how were the children'?, which makes her realize that he's stalking her. She proceeds to cover the windows before calling the police once more. After noticing a light has been switched on from the Mandrakis' house, she suspects that their maid named Rosa is there and looks for her with a flashlight only for nothing to occur.
The Stranger then calls Jill once more and Jill, getting fed up, lets the call run and the strangers directly tells Jill that he wants all of her blood over his body. Jill then opens a door and walks into the bathroom. The police then finally responds to Jill only to tell her that they discovered a terrifying situation: the calls were coming from inside the house. Jill promptly sees the corpse of Tiffany in the bathroom floor with her eyes open and shrieks before trying to escape the stranger's grasps. Jill then goes back to protect the kids, who already managed to find a spot to cover themselves in a section of the playroom. Jill then finally catches a glimpse of him in the loft and he jumps down to try and claim their lives, but they climb down to a greenhouse. Jill then finds Rosa's remains beneath a pond, having been dead a while ago thanks to the stranger and having her corpse tossed in. The stranger then finds a way in the greenhouse but is locked in shut by Jill.
The Stranger, enraged and furious, eventually escapes and tracks them across the house, managing to snatch Jill and trying in one last desperate attempt to claim her life after she ushers the two children to safety. But Jill eventually pins him to the ground thanks to a firewood poker and the police storm in and takes the stranger to prison. The stranger gets one last glance at Jill in the police car before being driven away. Jill meanwhile is permanently broken by the events and has nightmares while in the hospital of the stranger assaulting her from behind after a call on the phone.
Heinous Standards?[]
I feel he slightly manages to pass for a horror flick. He has a pattern of killing at least fifteen people (as mentioned by the police near the end of the film), who were babysitters and the children that the babysitter are watching over in brutal and graphic ways such as the beginning of the movie, where we see bloodied up and disfigured body bags with the police chief having a shocking expression on his face, and then he goes on to horribly kill Tiffany and Rosa, and then try to finish Jill off with strong implications that he plans on going after Will and Alison Mendrakis (aka the kids) once he's done with her. All of this combined makes him vile enough to count in my opinion.
Freudian Excuse/Mitigating Factors?[]
Now, what prevents the original incarnation of The Stranger is that he is genuinely insane, thus he has moral agency issues. It's explicitly clear that this Stranger on the other hand is a clever yet disgusting sadist who loves to harass and scare babysitters for hours on end to make them go crazy before finally ending their lives. He also has zero problems or regrets about putting kids' lives down as well and has no excuse to justify his own actions. All in all, I'd say he has zero redeeming traits.
Final Verdict?[]
Slight yes from me. Yet another keeper from good ol' Lance Henriksen!