When a Stranger Calls (2006)★★★☆☆

I don’t think this movie was great, but I do think it took the best parts of the original and tried to make the most of them in a remake. I don’t think it always succeeded, but I can appreciate the attempt.

(Spoilers ahead) For example, I think it worked to not give “the stranger” a backstory and personality and spend a good chunk of the film on that. I think it worked to have more of an extended “showdown” between Jill and the stranger.

I don’t think some of the dated elements worked…the original was many things, but “dated” didn’t really feel like one of them. In this version, Jill is grounded for going over minutes on her cell phone plan. And then they bring it up way too much in the first few minutes of this movie. The “out of range” error message recordings also add to the dated feel.

For another short movie, it did drag on some towards the middle, but overall this was fine. Almost kind of nice to see a PG-13 slasher in the midst of all the other early 21st century R-rated teen bait slashers?