Columbia Pictures released When a Stranger Calls on 26 October 1979.
Critics didn’t like it at the time. They don’t much like it today. But audiences did. In fact, it did best in its second week of wide release than it did in its first. This is a clear sign that word-of-mouth was good.
I saw the film on TV. I remember almost falling out of my chair when Carol Kane discovers that it is the killer in her bed. But the whole thing is excellent. It is an intense ride.
So why didn’t critics like it? John Carpenter’s Halloween came out a year earlier. The critics liked it. So they couldn’t like When a Stranger Calls. People might think they like slasher films!
What I most love about the film is that it takes a folklore story and does something interesting with it. And the story itself is one of the less interesting of the “teen horror” stories around. I think it isn’t nearly as good as The Hook or The Corpse Under the Bed or The Hanging Boyfriend.
I have a great respect for Halloween. And I love the look of the film. But as I discussed yesterday, it’s padded and pretty dull. When a Stranger Calls is gritty. It doesn’t look nice at all. It looks like the story that it tells.
What’s more, Carol Kane’s face was made for this role. She’s fragile but also determined. And sure, Charles Durning saves her at the end. But for all those critics who say that Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is some kind of feminist icon, she only does what Carol Kane does: fight back. Donald Pleasence shoots Michael Myers. The difference here is that the slasher actually dies as opposed to Halloween where no one knows what the hell happened.
So let’s celebrate the release of When a Stranger Calls by watching it!
When a Stranger Calls poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.
