Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Toronto85 'When a Stranger calls Back' takes us down the same path the original did with the psychopath harassing the babysitter initially, but takes a turn and makes this almost more chilling than the 1977 film. We meet Julia, a teenage girl who is babysitting two young kids. A man keeps knocking on the front door asking to use her phone because his car broke down. She writes his vehicle information down on a pad of paper, and puts it down and leaves the room. She is unable to call a towing company because the phones are dead! When she gets back to the pad of paper, everything she wrote down has been erased. The man outside claims to have seen someone walking around inside of the house, she looks into the living room.. someone dressed in black is headed straight for her! Sound familiar? It's a bit like the original, just without the phone calls or the man being upstairs. Julia survives and we flash forward five years. The children that night went missing and were never found, same goes for the man who was inside of the house. Julia is now living on her own near a college campus, still suffering from the effects of what happened that night. She looks in her closet and see's the shirt of the little boy (who she was babysitting) hanging up, and that's when she realizes that the psychopath is after her again. She gets in touch with Jill (Carol Kane), our heroine from the original film to help her through this. Jill gets John Clifford (the police officer from the first movie) to help her find the man as well, leading to an interesting story and a creepy ending.The psychopath in this sequel is nothing like Curt Duncan in the original. Duncan was simply deranged, this man is a master of illusion. He has the ability to be standing right next to you, but project his voice to make you believe he is outside your front door. He paints himself identical to an area of your apartment, so that you could walk right by him and not even realize he's there. That element makes 'When a Stranger Calls Back' an eerie and EXCELLENT film. It matches up well to the first one. Acting is great with Charles Dunning, Carol Kane and Jill Schoelen. I liked 'When a Stranger Calls' slightly more than this one for it's intensity, but this was really well done. Deserves a proper DVD release! 8/10

insomniac_rod I had a hard time trying to find this movie but now that I've watched it, I'm not a bit disappointed.The movie's first 20 or 25 minutes are extremely creepy thanks to a great direction mixed with a thrilling score. Like in the first movie, a baby sitter named Julia is terrorized by an unknown stranger who keeps knocking on the principal house door in order to convince her to let him in. Julia is smart and skeptical enough to never let him in (probably she has watched many Horror movies) but she is not smart enough to close the window and back door. After a series of hints, Julia finds out that the stranger not only entered the house but also kidnapped the children. Unlike the first movie, the stranger lets Julia know that he's in the house and when he's about to strangle her or something like that, she escapes from the house and finds the parents. Everything was okay by 11:15, the parents were supposed to arrive at 11:30. In 15 minutes, Julia experienced the worst nightmare she could ever imagine. These events are greatly directed. The movie has aged very well in the visuals aspect. The score is also perfect for the movie. After these chilling scenes, the movie fast forwards 5 years to display the current life of Julia, now a college student who is obviously traumatized by the events of "that" night. She checks out the door of her dorm even after closing it. But it seems that her tranquility is in danger again as a new stalker is terrorizing her, again. She is aided by the help of Jill Johnson (now college counselor) and ex detective John Clifford, who once again comes to the rescue (not to mention that he returns with extra weight!). This new stranger is more clever, aggressive, and meaner than the stranger from the original movie. After a series of events, including Julia staying in comma for some time and being attacked int he hospital; Jill being terrorized in the supermarket; a suspicious ventriloquist, etc., the stranger makes an appearance and confronts Jill and Clifford. The resolution of the movie is pretty chilling and convincing. The stranger camouflaged with the walls of the apartment before attacking Jill, who is not in defense, as she -literally- kicks his butt with her martial arts moves. The middle of the movie is very interesting and intense although many important details are not explained. I understand that the children were never found because the stranger actually killed them, as it happened in the original. But why would he terrorize Julia? Anyways, this is a movie to watch home alone at night. It also looks better than many modern Horror movies; it has better acting, direction, score, and plot than many of them. Jill Schoelen is extremely beautiful and makes you want to come to the scene and help her! She's just too cute to be on those kind of situations. Carol Kane is also very good in her role. She's a great actress. The rest of the cast is very good and convincing. This sequel is superior than the original mainly because it has better acting, direction, and a great plot. I highly recommend it because it easily is one of the best Horror Thrillers from the past decade.

Ryan_V Only reason it is 8/10 is because it is made for TV. It is a polished version of the original "When a Stranger Calls" 1979. The ending is brilliant and the beginning equally so. Imagine being terrorized by someone some 7 years later after you were already terrorized by the same person. Also add the fact that the stalker can get into your house when you are and are not home, and talk to you without you knowing where he is. The killer is what a killer should be, no remorse, no irony, no explanations, just someone wanting to scare and mutilate someone. No stupid psychologists and dumb jail scenes, this film, save for it being a second version of the 1979 edition, is original in substance and casting and definitely worth the time.

film_butcher While not a typical horror sequel, When A Stranger Calls Back contains some striking moments, and deals intelligently and compassionately with two of the most fragile heroines in cinema. By not resorting to standard 'shocks' and concentrating on creeping terror, the film has a lot more to say about the realities of real fear than most genre offerings. These are traumatised people who have reconstructed a precise simulacrum of their former lives. When a pencil they placed 2.2 centimetres from their ruler is discovered moved .2 of a centimetre, they know someone has invaded their territory and moved it, it's just not something they'd forget or mistake. The fact that it's impossible to prove makes the protagonists appear paranoid - only those who have brushed up against this type of terror before, Kane, Durning, Schoelen know the truth. Viewed from a less mainstream perspective, this is a very rewarding film. True, there is some muddled plotting midway, but it's worth seeing, if only for the bleakest 'happy' ending in American cinema. Incidentally, I'm sure Kevin Williamson would gladly admit to using a conglomeration of When a Stranger Calls and the first half hour of this film as his inspiration for the opening sequence of Scream (with added blood).