Weekly Review -- Scream or screen, that is the question

When a Stranger Calls (2006) -- Like many other film buffs, I am not a fan of remakes. Some manage to translate the atmosphere of the original and adapt the new vision to the story, like The Ring or The Thomas Crown Affair, but many others fall flat, like last year's disastrous Fog or 2004's The Stepford Wives. If you have a good thing, leave it alone, I say. However, I am always interested in remakes from a cultural point of view. I love seeing a new version of a good tale and comparing the films in the context of each work's era, social circumstances and pop culture. The new version of When a Stranger Calls is such a film, in a what-about-caller-ID sense. In other words, Fred Walton's original succeeded in creating horror out of an everyday situation, making the audience's imagination run wild with every phone ring and doing for babysitting what Hitchcock did for showers. The very idea of a remake makes you wonder just how the writers and director would create suspense in the time of cell phones and the Internet, when all our moves can be traced electronically and identity is up for grabs.


**POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD**


By now, most viewers are familiar with the story. High school student Jill Johnson (Camilla Belle) goes out to an isolated house to babysit. Believing that she is in for another boring night of studying, she settles into the posh surroundings. She soon starts receiving threatening calls -- an 'unknown caller' provides the resolution to the ID issue -- and finds herself fighting for her life.

The remake does offer some innovative updates and quite a bit of suspense. The first scene is extremely clever and effective, and the stranger's voice is sufficiently creepy. Still, what this film does wrong is attempt to create a character out of the aforementioned house -- a mighty gorgeous, top-of-the-line techno wonder, I might add. The whole point of the original was turning an ordinary suburban house into a trap. That was it. The concept was simple, yet frightening. The new film relies on too many gimmicks and too many frills, with the filmmakers forgetting that the best kind of terror is created through an exploration of human behavior in plain situations and settings. We do not need exotic gardens, voice-activated appliances and five phones. The house is not the babysitter, Jill Johnson is. Hence, please let us have the babysitter terrified by a psycho and do not feel the need to spice things up.

Unfortunately, if the character of Jill had taken centre stage, she would not have seemed half as terrified as needed, since Belle is a pretty weak casting choice. She is somnolent throughout the proceedings and her voice is a monotone, all of which is making her appear bored and not scared. The screenplay, which occasionally interrupts the thrills and veers off into after-school-special territory, only makes Jill look more whiny. The supporting cast do all right with their primarily thankless roles, and the stranger was well chosen as far as looks go.

All in all, the film is not the best thriller or remake ever, but there are worse ways to spend a couple of hours. You can even make it a double bill and watch both films back to back! Just remember to unplug the phone.

6/10