When a Stranger Calls

First section SPOILER: Granted the children get murdered, but I still think my car warranty expiring is pretty terrible too. I was pretty happy to plod through the middle chunk because I had absolutely no idea what it was going to offer. All of the characters seem so damaged that each takes on a level of believability that has been utterly lost in horror, replaced with douchebag teenagers you're supposed to hate as if that's fun for ninety minutes.

It's a great first 20 minutes but there's just not enough meat on the bone to sustain this for its full runtime.

Just watch it as the 20ish minute short film it was intended to be (which I'd rate about 78) and avoid the bone-aching tedium that follows.

A great 30 minutes, followed by a tedious 30 minutes, followed then again by a great 20 minutes. This film wouldn't work today because we have been trained to not pick up our phones. *Jay Leno voice*: "its new title is When a Stranger Texts."

Really the only good parts were the beginning (which was indeed pinched) and the end; everything in between was just a void. We are given not much reason at all why Charles Durning suddenly turns into Charles Bronson. Movie filled with all sorts of hammy musical cues and accents; as well as (especially toward the start) goofy directorial touches, pointless close-ups and such. Looks like somebody got a zoom lens for Christmas...

If you take each of the three sections on their own merits, then none of them are particularly bad. Even the middle is bit decent enough, with some elegant cinematography and a good performance by Dewhurst, but they don't work when you put them one after the other. It just ends up feeling disjointed and rather ponderous.

Absolutely terrifying exercise in unsettling tension. By tension I mean Charles Durning's two-sizes-too-small shirt as he runs down alleys, upstairs, down streets, etc for the middle 45 minutes of the movie. Terrifying, just terrifying.

Very promising opening followed by an equally dull and plodding 2nd act that focuses on characters we aren't given a reason to care about. The filmmakers get us to invest in Carol Kane's character through a fairly suspenseful first 20 minutes...and then she disappears for the next hour, only to return for a hastily tacked on ending. I think this was a case of someone coming up with one really good scene (the opening) and then struggling to pad the rest out to a feature length film. Too bad.

A harrowing opening sets wrong expectations for the 2nd act. The film recovers from its new & jarringly dry investigative approach when it ventures into the grey, challenging the morals of our new protagonist & taking a sympathetic look at our antagonist. Then it screws things up by mirroring our opening in the 3rd act. The climactic sequence is effectively directed, but it disposes of all moral ambiguity & pulls us back into good vs. evil territory, rendering the entire 2nd act superfluous.

Mostly pretty average. It's quite dated, and the dialogue and acting aren't exactly top notch. The opening 20 minutes is decent (though quite flawed), and it's one of a couple of fairly suspenseful scenes. The rest is kinda slow, and more than a little silly at times. I had trouble believing the characters and their actions. It's definitely influenced by Black Christmas and Halloween, but it was also clearly an influence on Scream itself, so its place in horror history is deserved.

An amazing opening cannot save the rest of the movie from being a tad below mediocre. The acting is sadly bad, and though there is some good camerawork, the working script is not inherently good enough for a compliment. That being said, wow, what an opening. If the rest of the movie was as tense as the first scene, this would be a winner.

Amazing opening that has been referenced to death and to the point where you know where it’s all going, but it still works incredibly well (although Scream did it better). Tense as hell. Then it kind of loses it when it becomes a grizzled investigator movie in the middle. Then it hits you hard at the end with another man in the house ending.

The first 25 minutes are by far the best part but I didn't really mind the second part. The ending is also quite enjoyable and I liked how the husband believed Jill, it was a nice touch.

the beginning scene is a fucking masterpiece of horror, that first bit in the house is pure, perfectly done magic. it is truly, must see awesome. unfortunately the rest of it is........well.........dull as milk to a kid with no chocolate sauce. would be 100 if the rest of the film kept that up, or if the finisher was as much a nail-biter. but because of that scene this film does forever remain in my mind.

Super dull middle really takes this one down from classic status. But that opening is obviously too iconic and it turning into like a beat down detective story was not as annoying as it could’ve been

The best part is stolen from _Black Christmas_. Boo hiss

"I dare you to try sitting through the middle 70 minutes."

The first 20 minutes: 90. The rest: 30.

The first 20m is just a masterclass in excellent tension building. After that the movie shift gears to a different kind of movie. What stands out in this middle part is how sympathetic the movie is to the killer, he clearly is a lost lonely desperate soul. This probably the only horror in which the hero attempts to kill the killer while the later is asleep in a homeless shelter. For the last 15m the movie suddenly moves back to the babysitter of the opening for another suspenseful finale.

Unpleasant, improbable melodrama falls apart after OK opening 11 minutes.

Exceeded expectations, especially the first act. The skittering score is excellent and the DP has a surprisingly good eye for composition and lighting. It's rather giallo-like.

Although I would have preferred to skip from 29:36 to 1:16:53, there is some decent tension in the middle section. This villain becomes less scary as you see him, though.

I wish I could just give a rating for the first 20ish mins because that was actually good.

A stunning first 15 minutes and a suspenseful wrap-up are the best things about this _Halloween_ imitation. Kane is unnervingly vulnerable as a teenaged babysitter. Strikingly photographed and very well acted, but a dull mid-section (detailing Beckley's pursuit of middle-aged barfly Dewhurst) and a foredoomed attempt to make the maniac into a sympathetic character mar an otherwise taut tale.

Superior horror thriller. Everybody remembers the opening, and it's a stunner, but the rest of it is equally engaging. Tony Beckley is brilliant as the pathetic killer.

Em honra dos 40 anos de seu lançamento. Não estão brincando quando dizem que este filme é subestimado, com exceção do seu meio que acaba destoando em suspense em relação às partes protagonizadas pela Carol Kane, isso aqui é de fazer mijar nas calças de pavor. BlurayRip RARGB.

Having seen the remake first, this was not what I was expecting- & that isn't necessarily a good thing. The cast turn in fine performances, but this suffers a lot from a drawn-out, meandering plot & a "final girl" who's barely in half the runtime & contributes next-to-nothing as a character. The vigilante cop subplot is really just boring, as is the whole second act & most of the third- there's honestly not much tension at all except in the opening. Overall, it's okay, but kind of disappointing.

Opening sequence is excellent from there on it's downhill.

Starts out doing an ok job at dwelling on yuppie fears, but delves into bland detective story after initial setup. Someone here recomended Black Christmas (the original, I presume) over this. I second that recomendation.

Colleen Duhearst is the only reason to continue watching after the legendary opening 20 minutes.

It's clear to see that "Scream" got a lot of it's inspiration from here, and the first part IS very effective. After that the film shifts gears, and becomes a 70's procedural starring Charles Durning. There's surprisingly little gore, and instead a lot more focus on the killer and his issues than in the actual slasher films that followed. Not as good as "Black Christmas" but still definitely worth a watch for those who want to track the origins of slasher genre.