WHEN A STRANGER CALLS (BACK) On Bluray: Home Horror Goes Hi-Def

“Soylent Green is People!”, “Show Me the Money!” and “Love Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry” are three of cinema’s most recognisable and often-repeated quotes, but what can you actually say about the films from which they came from? Whilst some films are perfect, loaded with hundreds of beloved fragments that define themselves as triumphs of their genres, other titles only have single frames, quotes or performances that have stood the test of time, with the films themselves having not.

People love to imitate Robin Williams’ joyful delivery of the titular “Good Morning Vietnam!” greeting, but who can recall any scenes from that picture outside of that instance? A prime example of this – albeit an undeserved fate – is Fred Walton’s When A Stranger Calls, a modest horror hit which unleashed itself in 1979 and became most recognisable for its key chilling quote, “Have you checked the children?”

When A Stranger Calls (1979)

Delivered in a harsh, hoarse tone through the ancient artefact known as the home telephone, the line – and the subsequent twist that follows – have gone down in horror history, but when viewing the film for the first time via Second Sight’s upcoming Blu-ray release, there was a major disparity between the film’s hair-raising reputation and what Walton chose to do with the material, oscillating between a masterful, claustrophobic drama and a rather bland cop procedural.

These police elements, personified by character actor king Charles Durning, exhibit the straining signs of adapting a career-making short film into feature-length material. Walton’s original short, titled The Sitter, retold the infamous folk legend of “The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs”, within the prism of the 80’s slasher model, where a young, female babysitter is methodically taunted by a series of mysterious phone calls, culminating in her discovery of the dismembered corpses of the children she was supposed to be watching.

This gloomy urban legend was refined through a post-Halloween filter, as Walton’s script (co-written by Steve Feke) basically remixes the three major players of Carpenter’s 1978 masterpiece; Carol Kane, the taunted sitter is more of an assailable reinterpretation of Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode and Charles Durning’s a disgruntled cop who is chasing an escaped mental patient whose ability to silently stalk his victims rivals that of Michael Myers, but without that supernatural strength or impassive nature. When A Stranger Calls’ opening 20 minutes are beloved for a reason; after cutting his teeth on his virtually-identical short, Walton imposingly places the audience within the isolated mindset of Jill Johnson (Carol Kane), who starts to realise that the repeated calls she’s receiving – some threatening, some silent – might hold water, leading to her frightening discovery upstairs.

The first detective on the gruesome scene is John Clifford (Charles Durning), who promptly arrests the elusive murderer, the diminutive Curt Duncan (Tony Beckley). Seven years later, Duncan escapes the asylum and Clifford, now a private eye, sets out to put a bullet in the one man that got away. Whilst the final housebound confrontation follows up on the film’s opening promise, the somewhat meandering middle hour follows basic exploitation principles; methodical case solving that is occasionally punctuated by explosive bursts of violence, scattered out to jolt the audience whenever the exposition gets too overwhelming.

What makes When A Stranger Calls stand out, outside of its opening, is its honest depiction of the desperate nature of its psychotic killer Duncan. He’s deranged and ready to kill again, but Walton wisely takes the time to paint a rather pathetic picture of the ragged runaway. His escape isn’t a cause of celebration for him, as his time becomes devoted to wandering the streets with only the clothes on his back, he’s unshaven, disorientated and without purpose. Gone is any of the “mystique” from his earlier phone calls, for what was once imagined as a god-like figure of evil is quickly revealed to be the pitiful rants of a despicable figure. Yes, he did actually kill the kids years prior, but we learn quite quickly that he can only stalk and harm women and children – those he considers lower then himself – as his lone encounter with an alpha male ends in further emasculation.

It’s easy to line-up the archaic politics of films of the past with today’s progressive values, but the jarring juxtaposition between the killer that Carol Kane heard on the phone and the vagrant she eventually encounters is quite analogous to our current relationship with social media, and how people, women in particular, can receive the cruelest of threats from seemingly anybody, and the grand reveal of those behind these merciless acts of rhetoric can feel more like a sarcastic punchline than any form of gratifying act of disclosure.

When A Stranger Calls Back (1993)

Another trend that hasn’t disappeared today is any profitable horror film demanding a swift sequel, whether its narrative asks for one or not, and When A Stranger Calls is no different. This title found its follow-up within the realm of TV though, appropriately titled When A Stranger Calls Back, re-teaming the core creatives that made the original so effective (including Walton, who spent the rest of his career crating content for the smaller screen).

This follow-up, set several years later, has Carol Kane returning as a college counsellor, who must again call upon the assistance of Charles Durning to help a traumatised student (80’s scream queen Jill Schoelen) against a disturbed killer ventriloquist. To critique this serviceable continuation is to repeat the same flaws and strengths as stated above – a commanding opening gives away to a bland drama that culminates in a suspenseful slasher sequence – but for what it is, a television movie cashing in on its recognisable title and premise, it’s much better than it deserves to be, and only makes you mad that Walton never ventured outside the television realm again.

Last year, Second Sight Films gave European audiences the chance to rewatch both films in terrific HD restorations, a major step-up from the middling DVD and streaming transfers from before, within limited edition releases that quickly sold out. Now the seminal release is back in a Standard edition, but the “standard” label is underselling the amount of content packed onto the one Bluray disc.

Not only do you get both movies – looking the best they ever had – but you also can watch Walton’s original The Sitter short (restored as well), and lengthy interviews with Fred Walton, Carol Kane (who can be seen today in Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die), Rutanya Alda and the film’s composer Dana Kaproff, one of Walton’s long-time artistic associates. This is an essential package for an essential chapter in horror history, one of the only films to truly understand what made John Carpenter’s Halloween work so well: the horror is only as real as the central characters living through it.

Can you think of any other film quotes that have outlived their original films? Let us know in the comments!

Second Sight Films’ release of When A Stranger Calls/When A Stranger Calls Back arrives on Bluray in the UK on the 1st July 2019, which is available from Amazon UK or Second Sight Films’ website.