This Superior Horror Sequel is Now Free to Watch Online
Fred Walton’s When a Stranger Calls is a classic horror oddity. There’s an entire generation of moviegoers convinced it’s one of the scariest movies ever made, and for two distinct sequences, it’s certainly up there. The infamous opening where babysitter Jill Johnson (a sensational Carol Kane, though when is she not) is menaced by a caller upstairs is the stuff of nightmares. The denouement that sees an older Jill (now a mother) menaced by the same caller is no less effective. It’s just that everything between those sequences is dull, a seventies procedural that saps the life straight out of what When a Stranger Calls could have been. Our own Tyler Doupe has contended the 2006 remake wisely commits solely to the original conceit—babysitter in a big house alone—though I’d take it one step further. 1993 cable sequel When a Stranger Calls Back is everything everyone says the original is. It seems the internet agrees.
Director Fred Walton and both Carol Kane and Charles Durning return from the original, this time joined by newcomer Jill Schoelen as Julia Jenz, a babysitter who endures a night of torment not unlike what Kane’s Jill Johnson experienced in the original. Years later, Julia is convinced the man is still after her, though no one but Jill believes her. What everyone can believe, however, is that the opening sequence to When a Stranger Calls Back is just as terrifying—if not more terrifying—than the original. It’s bone-chilling stuff. Check out what fans have been about When a Stranger Calls Back below:
Streaming on both Tubi and as part of The Criterion Channel’s ‘90s horror collection (where it belongs), fans are both discovering and rediscovering the terrifying efficacy of Walton’s sequel. What do you think? Have you had a chance to check out When a Stranger Calls Back? How does it compare to the original for you? Let me know over on Twitter @Chadiscollins where the call is almost definitely coming from inside the house.
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