The Corner Penthouse

When A Stranger Calls arrives on Blu-ray as part of Mill Creek Entertainment's Retro VHS Style series, with packaging designed to look like the VHS videocassettes of the 1980s and 1990s. Several other titles in the series have already been reviewed on The Corner Penthouse, and I'm always excited when Mill Creek announces more. It's fun to see if it's a title I used to own on VHS, or one whose trailer I remember seeing at the start of some other VHS tape, or even some obscure movie I've never heard of before.


When A Stranger Calls (1979) is the story of Jill Johnson (Carol Kane), a young babysitter who is tormented by a series of ominous phone calls until compulsive cop John Clifford (Charles Durning) apprehends psychotic killer Curt Duncan (Tony Beckley). Seven years later, however, the nightmare begins again when Curt escapes from a mental institution to mercilessly haunt Jill, now a wife and mother. No longer a naive girl, though still terrified, she moves boldly to thwart the maniac's attack in scenes that culminate in a nerve-shattering conclusion.


The movie has earned a place of honor in the horror hall of fame thanks to its opening twenty minutes, which writer/director Fred Walton originally made as the short film The Sitter (1977). Following the success of John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), Walton decided to expand the short to feature length. How do you expand a 22-minute short into a 97-minute movie? Well, in this case, you spend the first 20 minutes doing a remake of the original short, then tack on a "seven years later" epilogue that turns the next hour into a boring rip-off of Halloween, then end it with 20-minutes that meets back up with an adult version of the babysitter and the original killer haunting her.


Okay, so the first 20 minutes is a classic, taking the original short film and improving it with better acting, cinematography, and music. Undoubtedly, you've heard the classic line, "Have you checked the children?", and the other memorable line that I won't recite here as it is a spoiler for a twist ending. That first 20 minutes is pure perfection. Then we get the tacked-on portion, which takes place seven years later. The killer who terrorized the babysitter has escaped from a mental institution, and it's up to the cop that originally apprehended him, who is now a private investigator, to track him down and stop him. Yes, that's the same general plot of Halloween, only with interminable boredom in place of kills or scares as we watch the killer try to rejoin society, ingratiate himself with barfly Tracy (Colleen Dewhurst), and evade capture from Gifford. Carol Kane doesn't even show up during the middle hour of the movie; it's all Durning, Dewhurst, and Beckley. Sadly, Tony Beckley was terminally ill while making the film, so he looks thin and frail. He's hardly the "imposing presence" that is required for a ruthless killer capable of mangling little kids with his bare hands.


Stars Carol Kane and Charles Durning reunited with director Fred Walton for the television sequel When A Stranger Calls Back, which originally aired on the Showtime cable channel in 1993. At the time of this writing, I have not seen the sequel because my order for it from three weeks ago is still on backorder. However, I have just watched the 2006 remake of When A Stranger Calls with Camilla Belle. The remake tries to improve on the original by expanding the opening 20 minutes (the original short film) into feature length, instead of tacking-on a seven-year story leap. The problem, of course, is that the plot of those 20 minutes can not be sustained at a 87-minute runtime. So, to pad it out, the babysitter gets endless phone calls from the killer, from the police, from her friends, and from prank-callers. It gets old, fast! The house becomes a character, with large windows, an indoor atrium filled with birds, an alarm system, and a remote cliffside location. Extra characters are added in the form of a friend who visits, a housekeeper who resides in the house, and a never-seen stepson who lives in the guesthouse that is separated from the main house by a (seemingly) forest. Needless to say, the film runs through every horror cliche you could imagine, all while playing it safe in order to keep that PG-13 rating for the teen audience. The remake is also hampered by the fact that this type of story works best in an era of technology that predates caller ID, cell phones, GPS, web cams, and the internet. If that wasn't enough, Camilla Belle is supposed to be able to carry the film on her own, but her very wooden acting makes that an impossible task. I hope that she's taken acting classes in the 14 years since this movie came out.


When A Stranger Calls is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio with a runtime of 1:37:22. On the audio side, there is only an English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio track. Subtitles are available in English only. As is the case with most Mill Creek Entertainment releases, there are no special features - just like the original videocassette!


The real "bonus feature" here is the vintage-looking VHS-inspired slipsleeve, with faux wear and tear, and fake "rental stickers" on it, while giving the appearance of a videocassette being pulled out from the right side (though the original VHS may have been in a bottom-loading box), complete with tape label side on the right spine. Here's a complete look at this special slipsleeve. Click on it to get a better look.


The front artwork is based on the original U.S. VHS box art, as seen below. The back of the slipsleeve bears a similarity to the original VHS box art, using the same photos, but in a different orientation. Thankfully, Mill Creek's back cover edits the "twist ending" MAJOR SPOILER photo showing Carol Kane in bed with the killer that appeared on the original VHS box. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that Mill Creek edited out the killer from the photo, so they would have room for the UPC code to show through, but it's a GREAT IMPROVEMENT over the original box.


The case artwork underneath is of a modern style, which means that the VHS-style slipsleeve may only be available for a limited time. In the photo below, the slipsleeve cover is on the left and the case artwork underneath is on the right.


If you're not already aware of Mill Creek Entertainment, they are a budget company, which results in their products having a lower cost than the big studios. Right now, When A Stranger Calls is listed on Amazon for less than $10. While you're there, pick up Shout Factory's When A Stranger Calls Back Blu-ray, which includes the original short film, The Sitter (which is what the first 20 minutes of When A Stranger Calls is a remake of). Speaking of remakes, you can also get the DVD of the 2006 remake of When A Stranger Calls with Camilla Belle, which as I previously noted, has its own set of issues.


The "Retro VHS Style" series includes the following Blu-ray releases, which are being listed in chronological movie order, and not the order they are being released onto Blu-ray. Some titles below may not have been released yet.



Images used come from the Internet Movie Database gallery of the film. The Blu-ray has been provided by Mill Creek Entertainment for review on this site.