When a Stranger Calls starting now on TCM

Yes, Black Christmas was the first.

This movie is totally overrated. It’s ridiculous.

Interesting cast. Carol Kane, Charles Durning, Colleen Dewhurst.

The cast is fantastic. The script is retarded.

By the way, the lengthy opening scene in the sequel is really good. But the rest of it is just as dumb as the original film.

The first 20 minutes are great but I remember I showed it to friends and they all just couldn't get into it because the babysitter didn't check the children once so that bothered them.

Black Christmas is a far superior film.

Thought Dad was hot.

The short film that the director made before making the feature, is better than the full length.

Also, Are You In The House Alone? is probably better.

Yes, dad is very hot in WASC, R5.

[quote] Carol Kane, Charles Durning, Colleen Dewhurst.

As you watch, remember Durning in his heart was just a song and dance man

The long stretch where Durning is chasing the killer is a slog to get through despite good performances.

Carmen Argenziano was a hot daddy and was still fuckable later in his life.

"The call is coming from inside the house" was an urban legend for years before it was incorporated into Black Christmas. And it's similar to the plot of Sorry, Wrong Number starring Barbara Stanwyck from the 1940s, which was based on an earlier radio play starring Agnes Moorehead.

It’s not similar to Sorry, Wong Number, sorry.

*wrong not Wong

I want to see Sorry Wong Number!

R8 Carmen died last year. Nice solid working career. And made the convention coin.

I even liked the Black Christmas remake. Imogene Poots. So bad it's good.

Bedridden woman terrified by what she overhears on the phone and then realizes the killer is in the house with her is similar. Not the same, but similar.

Colleen Dewhurst's character is a total DLer.

Her scenes with the killer are great. Love Colleen so much.

[quote] Bedridden woman terrified by what she overhears on the phone and then realizes the killer is in the house with her is similar.

Where were the two men on the phone when they were having their conversation that she overheard?

I don't think that's revealed but it's been awhile since I've seen the film.

R11 Wrong again. SWN was about an overheard conversation from a phonebooth and was not coming from the home that the invalid was in; the operator got the wires mixed up.

[quote] Have you checked the children??

They weren’t in the house, R19. Why would they be? They’re trying to get money that her husband owes them. They go to the house to kill her when he doesn’t cough up the dough.

The plot is not similar to Black Christmas. If you want to say that “the calls are coming from inside the house” was an urban legend that was appropriated for Black Christmas, fine. But Black Christmas was still the first “the calls are coming from inside the house” movie. And it had absolutely nothing to do with Sorry, Wrong Number.

[quote] Wrong again. SWN was about an overheard conversation from a phonebooth and was not coming from the home that the invalid was in; the operator got the wires mixed up.

I know that, Brandon. I’m not the person claiming SWN was a precursor to Black Christmas.

Well, she overhears the phone conversation and later realizes the killer is in her house and coming for her. Not the same but similar. Never said it was the same. And the plot details are irrelevant to the basic premise, which, again, is not the same but similar.

Oh my god. Can someone please call R24 and then kill him? Enough already.

Have you checked the children???

R15 They are not in the house when she overhears the phone conversation but she doesn't realize that she is the woman that they are planning to kill and R22 it is her husband who is paying the men to kill her. It was originally a radio play.

Radio play starring Agnes Moorehead, already mentioned. Moorehead repeated that performance six or seven times over the years.

Jesus Christ, start a Sorry Wrong Number thread.

FOSTER'S RELEASE did it before BLACK CHRISTMAS.

"The call is coming from inside the house" was a Public Domain urban legend before FOSTER'S RELEASE, SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK, or any other work of fiction rendered it. It is based on a real-life murder from 1950.

The BLACK CHRISTMAS remakes are trash.

Punch and delete.

Wasn't there a 1950s film version with Fred MacMurray and Doris Day as the parents and Sandra Dee as the babysitter?

I think the sequel is a better film but, like this one, a major plothole is we never learn what happened to Carol Kane's family.

But the first twenty minutes of that film are terrifying. Jill Schoelen is great in it, though she is subjected to a horrible mullet later in the film.

R32, you're probably thinking of Ross Hunter's 1961 version for Universal with John Gavin and Lana Turner and Juanita Moore as the terrified housekeeper trying to protect the babies.

My mom and I went to go see a matinee showing of When a Stranger Calls at the Cinema 70 in Lake Worth, FL. Outside, there was the usual thunderstorm, raining with lightning flashes, and loud rolling thunder. The first 20 minutes of WASC really could of been a Night Gallery half-hour show by itself. Funny thing happens during our viewing. Right when Carole Keane runs to the front door after being told the calls are coming from within, and she opens the door, we hear an even bigger crack of thunder from outside the theater, and the theaters power goes out! Perfect timing. This thrilling moment, ending with us sitting in an extremely dark theater. Soon the power comes back on, and the projectionist starts the reel going again, with a slight audio jump, and screen flicker. Nerves slightly flayed, we then endure the other 75 minutes of boring catch me if you can. The cast was incredible. I loved the Colleen Dewhurst part. Overall, one of my favorite thrillers. Up there with DL favorite Mia Farrow's 1971 See No Evil.

I like the early 90s version with Glenn Close and Susan Sarandon as the lesbian mothers and a very young Brad Pitt as the terrified Manny.

[quote] Bedridden woman terrified by what she overhears on the phone and then realizes the killer is in the house with her is similar.

This was also an episode of Murder, She Wrote, where Jess almost got killed, in the middle of a terrible storm! "Crossed Lines"

Met Carol Kane at the Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS Flea Market and have the DVD signed by her.

Colleen Dewhurst plays a fat whore, r16?

Black Christmas may have done it before When a Stranger Calls, but WASC did it much better, because in Black Christmas, you already know the phone calls are coming from within the house.

In When a Stranger Calls, most people didn't know the killer was in the house until Carol Kane got the phone call from Charles Durning, telling her so.

The rest of When a Stranger Calls sucked, until we got back to Carol Kane's character, Jill. Those last few minutes of the movie were just as creepy as the beginning.

I was a latchkey kid in the 70's and the ads for WASC used to scare the shit out of me.

R34 is why I love DL.

It's like the writer and director didn't know what to do after the opening sequence. So they decide: let's follow the killer for 75 minutes. Which could have been interesting except the film doesn't know what to do with the killer character or how to feel about them. Tony Beckley plays him so sad that we pity him - but he's a killer.

Sadly, Beckley died less than a year after this was released. The cause of death was said to be cancer but some believe it may have been an early case of AIDS.

I watched this recently. I hadn’t seen it since it’s theatrical release. It’s pretty terrible. I love Colleen Dewhurst but I don’t get what she’s doing in this film. It’s pretty weak stuff.

I just watched this a couple of weeks ago. I had seen them all around the time the remake came out, but I couldn't remember them that well, found the remake on streaming, so watched it, then found the sequel, and topped it off with the original.

My thoughts are that When a Stranger Calls Back was the most enjoyable of the three, which is pretty surprising for a sequel. The opening in particular. The babysitter did everything right when a stranger comes to the door and it still went awry, which I think added to the horror of it. And I thought there was creepiness kept throughout the whole film, even if not to that level. The mullet is unfortunate, of course, and it's incredibly melodramatic in places, but fun.

The remake wasn't too bad, it did feel very "teen horror" though. I was intrigued as to how there is barely any gore or anything like that, but it keeps the suspense up. Whoever filmed it did take cues from horror filming in earlier decades. Shots like the babysitter seeing the lights on in the guest house were pretty cool.

The original? Enjoyable opening sequence and then, as everyone else has said, really weird middle that wasn't interesting at all. I was desperate to get back to Carol Kane's character, but it was so slow.

^Oh and something I did enjoy about the movies - none of them had jump scares at the end, or "the killer has escaped and will return" type feelings. Ostensibly they are all "happy" endings, killer caught, everyone alright, except they all show that living through something like this is going to causestremendous ptsd for the characters. There's not happy look between Carole Kane and the babysitter when they're safe in hospital at the end of the movie, and the babysitter at the end of the remake is completely distressed. The sequel is really about how living through an experience like this affects you the rest of your life. I enjoyed that take on it.

The babysitter urban legend was inspired by the abduction of babysitter Evelyn Hartley in 1950s Wisconsin

I just saw this again.

First 20 minutes are fantastic. A+++

Middle was C-

Last 20 minutes are A++

She didn’t check on the children because the parents told her not to since they’d been sick. She did start to do check on them but the phone rang as she was almost at the top of the stairs.

I forgot he ripped the children apart with his hands so much so they couldn’t bury them for 6 days because they had to reassemble them. FUCK! I did not remember that part.

I watched Black Christmas for the first time in 2018. It is a holiday staple now.

I remember my brother, myself and some friends watching the sequel on VHS as kids and pausing when they show the photos the killer had taken of her tits while she was in a coma. Haha