Welcome to Wild-Card Wednesday. This is the second installment of the original vs. remake movie series I’m doing with Tiffany A. White. Today, I’ll be talking about the original When a Stranger Calls. Be sure to visit Tiffany’s blog on Friday for her thoughts on the 2006 remake.
When a Stranger Calls (1979) starred Carol Kane and Charles Durning. Quick and dirty summary: A psychopathic killer terrorizes a babysitter, then returns seven years later to menace her again. (Courtesy IMDB)
Watch the trailer:
The first twenty or so minutes of this movie are based on an urban legend called The Babysitter and The Man Upstairs.
The Legend:
A babysitter is left in charge of her employer’s residence. The children are sleeping or playing elsewhere in the house. The babysitter receives a series of threatening phone calls.
The babysitter unsuspectingly does homework.
She reports the calls to the authorities, who trace the call. The babysitter learns the calls are coming from an extension within the house. In a panic, the babysitter exits the house just in time to escape a psycho who has already murdered the children.
Carol Kane is fantastic as the babysitter, Jill Johnson. Her agitation is almost palpable. She slowly comes unglued as the killer repeatedly delivers that one line of dialogue:
“Have you checked the children?”
It doesn’t sound that bad, but it is. The killer’s monotone British accent is completely hair-raising.
Have you checked the children?
The second act of the movie is set seven years after the end of act one. The psycho who murdered the children has escaped and is at large. Cop turned private eye John Clifford (Charles Durning) is hired by the father of the murdered children to find and kill the psycho.
The second act, which is called boring by some reviewers on amazon.com, is not as intense as the first act. The movie’s genre switches from slasher flick to detective mystery.
Charles Durning as John Clifford the P. I.
Clifford (Durning) tracks the psycho killer to a bar hag on whom the killer has fixated. The bar hag agrees to help in the hunt, but the killer turns out to be more wily than Clifford expected and escapes.
Clifford then tracks the killer to a community of homeless people, which leads to a chase sequence through a building. Charles Durning was rather portly at the time of filming. At times, I was sure Clifford/Durning would have a heart attack.
The third act begins with the psycho killer, who outran the portly Clifford at the homeless shelter, picking up a newspaper out of a street gutter. The next scene jumps to Jill Johnson (Carol Kane) all grown up with two children. She is making plans to hire a babysitter and go out with her husband for the evening. Funny how history repeats itself.
When the babysitter arrives, it is revealed that Jill (Carol Kane)’s picture was in the newspaper for some civic work she did. Now, the audience knows for sure where the psycho killer is headed.
She has no idea what's in store for her.
Halfway through dinner, the waiter comes to the table and tells Jill she has a phone call. This was the dark ages when there were no cell phones, remember. Jill answers the call, and that scary line is uttered one more time:
“Have you checked the children?”
Jill and her husband race home to find her children sleeping safe in their beds. Police are dispatched to drive by the home throughout the night. Jill and her husband–who wears a dorky white boy afro–go to bed.
P. I. John Clifford has figured out where the killer is headed and tries to telephone Jill (Kane). The telephone line has been disconnected. The scene cuts to Jill who can’t sleep. She checks her children and finds someone has given them candy. She’s creeped out, but not in full panic mode yet. She hasn’t yet accepted that she is in danger.
Can Charles Durning save the day? Or will the crazy killer make mincemeat of Carol Kane and family? Watch the movie and find out.
In 1993, a made-for-television sequel was made. It is titled When a Stranger Calls Back. It starred Carol Kane and Charles Durning.
When I watch movies or television, I make a point to note the storytelling techniques. It is my way of pretending I’m not just wasting time. Below are a couple of things I noted as I watched When a Stranger Calls.
Let’s return to Act Two, which has the private investigator tracking the child murder. Several amazon.com reviewers called this act boring. It definitely is a letdown after the wire-tight tension of Act One. Even so, it still contained a few storytelling lessons.
The biggest lesson is one to which I’ve already alluded. Never, ever make the first act so exciting that the second act seems boring in comparison.
photo from travelodestination.com
The second lesson is in scene structure. Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain teaches that each scene has three elements: goal, conflict, and disaster. The scenes in which Charles Durning’s private investigator is chasing the killer are a decent example of the goal, conflict, disaster model.
The goal is obvious. The private investigator intends to catch and murder the crazy killer. The crazy killer runs, which creates conflict for the chubby P. I. Each of these scenes ends with the killer getting away, leaving the private investigator to start over and find the killer again.
photo from gotsmile.net
The last lesson is in suspense techniques. The first act of When a Stranger Calls—the enacting of the urban legend—is told from the point of view of the babysitter (Carol Kane). After that, the point-of-view jumps to different characters.
There are scenes in the P. I.’s point-of-view. There are scenes in the killer’s point-of-view. There are scenes in omniscient point-of-view. This technique allows the audience to know more than the characters. It creates tension as we watch a character unknowingly walk into a bad situation.
The killer develops a crush.
Example:
After his escape in Act Two, the killer wanders into a bar and fixates on a bar hag. He follows her home and gives her a good scare. The next day, the P. I. (Durning) approaches her and asks for her help in catching the killer. She agrees and goes to the bar where she first met the killer, ostensibly to lure him back to her apartment where the P. I. ill take over.
The killer never shows up at the bar. The bar hag returns to her apartment and tells Durning she didn’t see the killer. She locks herself inside the apartment. Out of her sight, the closet door cracks open, and the killer is visible inside the closet. It’s one of those “look behind you” moments.
Will she survive not having eyes in the back of her head?
In all, I recommend the 1979 When a Stranger Calls. If you’ve never seen it or the remake, the first twenty minutes alone are worth your time. The movie is available to watch for free on You Tube. Click here for Part 1.
Floor is open. Have you seen either the remake or the original of When a Stranger Calls? Can you think of any other movies that use urban legends for their premise? Do any urban legends creep you out?
Don’t forget to check Tiffany A. White’s blog on Friday for her thoughts on the 2006 remake of When a Stranger Calls.
I love old(er) movies…. my fave horror/babysitter movie is definitely Halloween… but I am going to scan NetFlix to see if I can find this one.
I watch the dynamics of the tale a lot, too. Is that a writer thing?
Great post, Catie!
This movie is not on Netflix. The only place I could find it (other than buying the DVD) was on You Tube.
I started watching TV and movies for storytelling craft after a writing instructor suggested it. I’ve found I can really learn a lot from just making note of turning points, character development, and techniques used to create suspense.
That’s the kind of movie that made me triple check all the doors and windows when I was a babysitter. LOL And never answer the phone.
It was such a scary movie. For a long time after I watched it, my heart raced if the phone rang when I was home alone. It made being alone in a strange house very scary. Thanks for stopping by.
I saw the original movie and will always feel it was one of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen. I also saw the remake that’s only several years old which I thought was less scary. I have not seen any of the others, but now I want to! I didn’t even know they existed. I know I will be disappointed if they’re not as good as the original but will give it a try.
Thanks, Catie.
Patti
Patti, it scared the fire out of me the first time I saw it. Even watching it all these years later made me jumpy. I’ve also seen the remake, but I can’t remember much about it. The made-for-TV sequel was just okay, IMHO. If you like the original, it will be fun to revisit the characters. However, it just wasn’t as scary as the original (to me).
Thanks for stopping by.
I’m with Darlene. I love Halloween. Michael Myers is the best bogeyman EVER!
I am ashamed to admit I haven’t seen any of these ‘stranger’ films. I will also be hitting Netfix
Thanks Catie. Great review and fabulous writing tips!
Michael Myers is scary. I think it was that he never said anything. When you don’t know why someone is after you, it’s pretty scary.
Glad you enjoyed the post, Donna. Thanks for stopping by.
The original movie gave me nightmares for years…I did a lot of babysitting as a teenager.
I love the way you analyzed this for plot structure. Great writing craft lesson! Thanks.
The original gave me nightmares. I didn’t babysit, but I was home alone a good bit. Back then, people used to prank call more. I always worried that it was more than a prank. LOL
Glad you enjoyed the writing craft stuff. I always waffle about posting it, but I really do watch TV and movies for storytelling tips.
I Saw the movie when it first came out. I remember being very entertained but not so scared. I guess I was at the age where little frightened me. Now that I have kids of my own, I would react differently if I was to give it another spin.
The Roswell incident turned from urban myth to common folklore once ” Unsolved Mysteries” got a hold of the story. It’s the catalyst for the UFO abduction, extra-terrestrial yarn that continues to this day. I really liked “Fire In The Sky”. It was an interesting mix of urban myth, storytelling, and some fact (I guess).
On several occasions I have been told that “Double Bubble” and other brands of bubble gum have spider eggs included in their recipe. This is to make the texture of the gum more chewy in order to facilitate the blowing of larger bubbles. I somehow think this material would not a good movie make. It’s funny how this silliness has had a life for so many years. Then again, one should look into…..naw!
Stellar post Catie….Thanks!
I’ve never watched Fire in the Sky. I will have to look it up online. The Roswell incident has really captured the imagination of the public. I am not sure if I believe the UFO hype, which is interesting since I believe whole heartedly in ghosts and reincarnation.
I’ve heard the spider eggs bubble gum urban legend. When I was a kid, one urban legend I heard a good bit was that McDonalds hamburgers were made of ground worms. The myth went as far as to say that even McDonalds chicken nuggets were made of (dyed) ground worms. And I believed that one when I was a kid. LOL
Glad you enjoyed the post. Thanks for stopping by.
Hi Catie! How have you been? My blogging has been cut way back now that I’m babysitting my grandbaby 9 hours a day and we’re still in the middle of moving from a house to an apartment. I remember hearing this urban legend. This movie is soooooo scary that just reading this post has my heart racing. I can’t watch these kinds of movies or I pay for it by having nightmares! What a well written post. I’ll have to read Tiffany’s on Friday. Take care!
The remake is so different from the original!! It seems the original Act 1 is the entire 2006 version. I also can’t get over how young Carol Kane looks…I need to watch this.
Also, thanks for the heads up on Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain…I need to add this to my TBR list.
Great post, Catie!
Tiffany, the Swain book is dated, but the advice can be applied to modern work. I wish you lived closer. I’d loan you my copy of the book.
As for the remake of WaSC, I can’t believe Act 1 is the entire movie. How odd. Now I really want to watch it so I can see how they dragged that out for 90 minutes. Carol Kane was just gorgeous in the original. Of course, she only appears in the first and third act. She makes the movie, though.
Thanks for stopping by.
I’ve never seen this movie – I know, I can’t believe it, either. It sounds like something I’d like, especially the first act. I love how you broke down the movie and compared it to writing techniques – you’re a master at that!
I can’t believe you haven’t seen this. It’s free on You Tube. You totally need to watch it–even if it’s just see how they did the suspense.
I’m glad you enjoyed the writing craft part of the post. You know I can’t resist doing that.
This is one of my favorite movies. The first part is so suspenseful/scary and nothing really happens on screen. It’s all built up scene upon scene until that door opens outside and you (or at least I) think you’re going to have a heart attack. I’ve seen it several times as it’s one of my traditional Halloween movies and I still jump. I don’t think the second part is boring, it’s just not as scary as the first part, but then I enjoy suspense as much as horror.
I saw the remake and didn’t like it near as well. It was okay, but viewing it once was enough. I didn’t think it built up tension near as well.
I also saw the sequel. It was good too, but not as good as the first in my opinion. But it had it’s moments.
I so enjoy these movie reviews, Catie!
I used to babysit for a wealthy couple whose house had glass French door instead of outside walls- and no curtains- scariest place I ever babysat at. It was off the road and I was sure there were psycho killers hiding out in the dark.
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