Thoughts on When a Stranger Calls Back

    On Criterion, I watched When a Stranger Calls Back, a 1993 made-for-TV psychological horror film written and directed by Fred Walton, and is a sequel to the 1979 horror film When a Stranger Calls. This film aired on Showtime, and starred "scream queen" Jill Schoelen as a teenager named Julia, who comes over to babysit for a family, and while the kids are asleep, she is doing her homework in the living room, and a mysterious man knocks on the door, asking to come in to use the phone because his car has broken down. She doesn't want to let the man in, and offers to make the call herself, but when she tries to call, the phone lines are down. She doesn't want to let the man know that, so she lies and says she called the auto club. The man initially walks away, but then keeps showing up throughout the evening, asking for help, even as Julia is getting scared and telling him to leave her alone. He taunts her and says that he saw someone upstairs and that she isn't alone, and she goes to the kids' room and sees they aren't there. She comes downstairs and there is an intruder there, and she screams and runs out, into the arms of the children's father, just as the parents have come home.

Five years have passed, and Julia is now a college student. The children were never found again, and she has been through psychological torment for years. She has bolts on her apartment door, and lately, strange things have been happening to her in her home, where she comes home and sees things have been moved, or a window is open, or other clues that the children's abductor may be stalking her. Jill Johnson (Carol Kane), the heroine of When a Stranger Calls, is working as a counselor at Julia's college, and offers to help her, as the police have been dismissive of Julia's worries and thinking she's imagining things. Jill has been through this trauma herself, where the children she was watching were killed, and she is understanding of Julia's predicament, telling the cops, "I'd be willing to bet that her apartment is pretty bare, not cluttered. You would know if a book had been moved." She contacts the now-retired detective John Clifford (Charles Durning, also reprising his role from the original movie) to investigate the stalking and home invasions, going over Julia's apartment and figuring out who the stalker is. Jill also advises Julia to get a gun to protect herself, and offers her space to live in her loft for safety.

    

    I really liked this film a lot. I haven't seen the original movie, so I can't compare it, but this stood on its own, with the first thirty minutes being Julia terrorized by the intruder outside, and building a lot of suspense and uncomfortable dread, as she can't use the phone, doesn't want to open the door to a stranger, and is trying to sound calm and composed on the other side of the door. It worked really well on its own as a horror story.

    

    I liked how the film was about the police's inactivity to believe a young woman was being stalked, thinking she's just a paranoid college student, and how Jill was advocating for self-defense (she is shown teaching a self-defense class and advising the women to fight for their lives even if they don't believe in violence), and how John seemed to be the only person with police experience caring about Julia's case and believing her.

    I've always liked Carol Kane for her eccentric charm and talent as an actress, and I really liked Jill Schoelen in the 1991 horror B-movie Popcorn, so I watched this for both of them, and am happy I checked this out, this was better than I had expected.