PREMIERE.COM'S REVIEW (posted 02/03/06)

If you're smart and go in expecting to see an unnecessary rehash of the 1979 film, then you might not feel so cheated when you walk out of the theater with a wallet missing $10. You might even be pleasantly spooked — especially if you've ever gotten a freaky phone call or two.

Though fairly charming, When A Stranger Calls has the lukewarm creepiness of an R.L. Stine teen horror novel. The difference here is this movie doesn't have anywhere near as much imagination. If you've seen the trailer, then you've seen the movie. Camilla Belle is Jill Johnson, the helpless teen babysitter who is trying to earn enough money to pay her parents back for an outrageous cell-phone bill. She finds herself alone with two sleeping kids in a huge, high-tech house — automatic lights turn on and off, spooky mists billows outside the window, and a black cat slinks in the corners — while an unknown man phones in to ruin her quiet night, asking "Have you checked the children?"

The plot and the acting are too predictable and histrionic to be taken seriously. "We've traced the call," screams a policeman over the phone. "It's coming from inside the house!" We've heard it all before, literally. And there are a few moments that merit only a groan and an eye-roll. Jill inevitably goes off the deep end as the movie wears on, but it's taken way too far.

Ironically, for all of Stranger'sfaults, director Simon West has probably made a perfect date movie: just suspenseful enough to keep you arm-in-arm with your beau or belle; but silly enough that you'll both laugh about it afterwards. — Channing Joseph

RELATED LINK: Q & A with Stranger Director Simon West