When a Stranger Calls
Screen Gems | Release Date: February 3, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
27
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
0
Mixed:
9
Negative:
11
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
38
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Rather than remake the entire original movie, Simon West and screenwriter Jake Wade Wall have taken only that now-classic first act and padded it out into a dull, filler-filled feature that's remarkably void of any new ideas. Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyTim Grierson
Amounts to an assault of jarring music cues and peek-a-boo scares that starts off mechanical and ends up utterly desperate. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesJan Stuart
Droopy remake. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
This remake takes an alternate tack from the original feature, expanding the story of "The Sitter" to a full 83 minutes, but the result is dull and painfully generic. Read full review
25
New York PostLou Lumenick
Ineptly directed by Simon West, the scare-free When a Stranger Calls is the worst of the seminal horror movies from the late '70s and early '80s that have been getting the remake treatment lately. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
Even the element of surprise isn't enough to save this film, which has too many slow parts and features an ending that's extremely tepid by 21st century horror movie standards. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
The original should have been a short film; the new version shouldn't exist at all. Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
When a Stranger Calls is ba-a-a-a-c-k, in frightless form, updated for the age of anytime minutes and caller ID. Read full review
12
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Even by the lowest standards, this is a frightless, cynically made movie. Read full review
10
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
It's an inferior remake (of a movie that wasn't that great to begin with), it's poorly acted, and it's yet another in an unending string of PG-13 "horror" movies that do nothing to build even the most rudimentary sense of real dread. Read full review
0
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Long distance information? Get me Hollywood, USA: I’ve got a rusty ice pick to bury in the gullet of whoever greenlighted this pointless exercise in masturbatory tedium. Read full review
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