Review of When a Stranger Calls (2006) by Aly S — 14 Dec 2009

This movie had a hack script that should not have been filmed. I haven't seen the original, but sometimes when producers think they have name-recognition in the source material, they overlook badness that what would be obvious to any writer-director who had less to spend and *had* to rely on as good a script as possible.

This guy wrote with no sense of humility toward the horror film, more a mind to how a PG-13, mostly female audience might swallow some crap with high production values and a heroine they could identify with ("She's a babysitter, it's perfect! We'll put her in the drama of teen romance and a cell phone bill that gets the phone taken away!") The producer and screenwriter think the whole genre, or thriller sub-genre, is all about timing false scares and real scares and when to reveal the villain. They somehow thought unceasing lighting effects from the elaborate set would supersede care with the camera.