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— by Brandee Tecson
A faceless, sadistic killer calls on the phone, terrorizing an unsuspecting — i.e., young, naive and usually female — victim. It's a plot device that, while obviously a horror movie cliché, still manages to chill the hearts of willing audiences everywhere.
Fright king Wes Craven mocked the convention in his own "Scream" trilogy, of course, and it's been resurrected time and again, in one form or another, including in recent thrillers like 2002's "Phone Booth" and "The Ring" series. But with all of the technological advancements in the world of communications, you might think — you might even hope — that Hollywood would finally give up on the killer-phone-call thing.
After all, with teens toting around arsenals of Sidekicks, Blackberries and cell phones stuffed with software that can trace a caller faster than you can dial 911, the old standby employed by horror auteurs of the past would seem to fall pretty flat.
Still, intrepid filmmaker Simon West ("Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," "Con Air") is hoping to terrify a new generation with his remake of the 1979 classic "When a Stranger Calls," a film that brought every babysitter's worst nightmare to life and ensured a simple five-word phrase — "Have you checked the children?" — a place in horror-movie history.
How can one take the essence of a film made nearly 27 years ago (and pre-caller ID, thank you) and give it a contemporary overhaul in the face of so many technological changes without losing the story's credibility?
Craftily. Very craftily.
"The audience is more sophisticated these days, so hopefully as filmmakers we're [even] more sophisticated," explained West, who was able to incorporate not only much of today's new technology into the film, but its host of accompanying new problems, as well — seemingly minor annoyances like spotty cell-phone reception, blocked IDs and faulty landlines.
"Obviously, we used all the things we know about — caller ID, cell phones, picture phones, stuff like that — but ultimately, the scariest thing is still who's on the end of that phone," West said.
Starring as the frantic, tormented teenager-in-peril this time around is 19-year-old Camilla Belle, an actress best known for scooping up offbeat roles, as in two of last year's most talked about indie flicks, the satiric "Chumbscrubber" and the sexually charged "Ballad of Jack and Rose," with Daniel Day-Lewis. Belle said that, far from trying to embody a typical teen heroine under attack, she approached the role of soft-spoken, seemingly vulnerable high school athlete Jill Johnson as a genuine challenge, both mentally and physically.
"One thing I liked about Jill is that she could be anyone," said the actress, who trained as a runner for weeks before filming started. "She's having these boyfriend issues, and then she goes on this babysitting gig and starts to slowly break down inside. She doesn't really know what to do, but she has to pull herself together for herself and the kids' sake."
In the film, the first time Jill receives a string of mysterious phone calls from a man asking if she's "checked the children," she chalks it up to prank calls from her friends and her boyfriend, Bobby, who are hanging out at a school bonfire. After a series of strange incidents, including the live-in maid suddenly going M.I.A., she gets another call — not from the stranger, but from the cops — which sets her blood running cold.
(If you've seen the original film, you know what the cops tell her; if you haven't, then trust us — it's not something an already freaked-out babysitter wants to hear.)
Stranded and trapped in a house on a remote hilltop, Jill has to weave her way through a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, amid a maze of home devices like hi-tech alarm systems, sensory lights and automatic sprinkler systems, any of which could both help and hinder her chances of escaping the killer.
"It works both ways for Jill," Belle recalled of the lights. "It's good because she can see once [he] walks into a room, but [the killer] can see where she is too."
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West admitted he was partly inspired by the 1967 thriller "Wait until Dark," which starred Audrey Hepburn as a blind woman who has to fend off a trio of thugs burglarizing her apartment for a stash of heroin, and he urged his cast to be subtle, rather than rely on over-the-top acting.
For Belle, it was easy to draw from similar experiences and to create a space where she felt very exposed.
"Sometimes when you're home alone, you hear noises and your mind starts to create these awful things inside your head, and [you] just go insane."
"[It's] the whole suspense of the telephone," agreed co-star Katie Cassidy, who plays Jill's best friend/ rival, Tiffany. "I think teens can watch [the film] while they're babysitting or home by themselves and really freak themselves out."
"There's no supernatural element to it. There's no fantasy. It could all really happen, and that's what makes it so terrifying," insisted West.
So what are the odds we'll see "When a Stranger Calls Back" anytime soon?
"We're always talking about the sequel," West revealed. "I don't know if that will be the title, but it will definitely have a stranger in it and [that stranger] will definitely be calling."
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