Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!
Plot Summary: A babysitter is stalked by an illusive killer that harasses her through repeated phone calls.
Review: This is that rare instance where a remake could have easily surpassed the original considering how dated and lame that movie was for me. Instead, we get endless filler to turn what could have passed for a half hour TV show episode into a full-fledged waste of time. In fact, the original film was based on a short film, which is essentially the first third of the original's premise, and then the remake only chose to recreate those aspects of the story. To make matters worse, the plot itself is just a famous urban legend in the USA, so you really feel the lack of originality! The film clocks in at 87 minutes with the credits which realistically means the running time is approximately 80 minutes. Then we have a good 10-15 minutes of bullshit character building that is a weak attempt at masking the filler with lots of pointless scenes used to drag out the suspense supposedly. Bonus characters are added to the film as mere padding and to bolster the already low body count. If we take out all these tacked on factors, we're looking at 30-40 minutes of a normal movie; in other words, the film lacks any real substance. Since the background characters are so insignificant to the story, the whole plot rests on the shoulders of our lead, Jill, played by the beautiful Camilla Belle. Unfortunately, Ms. Belle could not carry the film even though I kept hoping she'd be able to. I've seen many of Ms. Belle's films, and I know she can act better than this. It's like she was bored the whole time even when she's supposed to be scared. Every line of dialogue was delivered so poorly it was hard to take any of it seriously. Her movements and facial expressions were good and she did appear genuinely frightened, but there was some kind of disconnect with the character; I have to believe some of this must be the director's fault. As for the stranger, he is completely mishandled although I'm glad they did not go the ridiculous route the original went in. I think my biggest problem with the stranger was that he was not intimidating enough; he literally doesn't do a thing until the last 10 minutes of the movie which is unforgivable! Considering they've decided to make the phone banter the heart of the film, they should have made it more interesting rather than dumb breathing, and the occasional line about the children. Though, I did really like the whole line with 'What do you want?'--"Your blood all over me." Another weird aspect was that there appeared to be multiple red herring possibilities as to who was the stranger...well, at least, I think that's what they were going for or was the padding more blatant than I'm thinking? I should note that one of the many pointless characters was Jill's friend played by the sexy Katie Cassidy; if only Ms. Cassidy could have been the stranger! All of this talk of a "stranger" just makes me think of the Dave Chappelle joke about giving yourself "a stranger" (just look that bad boy up!). Annoyingly the stranger is not a character we see in the film nor do we get a motive for why he fucks around other than that he's just a crazy killer. The tension that is created between Jill and the stranger is noticeably weak considering how easily Jill becomes scared. It's like they didn't understand that tension builds gradually so they just decided to write in that Jill was scared for no discernible reason. Ugh, you know you have a shitty movie when the highlight of the film is the house used for the setting; that house is pretty damn impressive! In the end, there is nothing worth mentioning with this film, and it's certainly not worth anyone's time unless they love the original and just want to see the remake or are a fan of Ms. Belle since this is her show. This is television level of drama dragged out needlessly through padding that will do nothing but infuriate the audience. Damn it, even the ending scene was a combo of filler and idiotic zinger shit you know I'm tired of seeing! Uninspired, bad acting, bad direction, and most of all, boring filler. An easy pass.
Notable Moment: When we see the stranger lurking on the ceiling beams, but the scene could have been done so much better. Imagine that the stranger keeps breathing heavy during the phone calls. He makes a final call where he does nothing but breathes heavy and we see a close-up of Jill. Jill hangs up the phone but is momentarily baffled because she keeps hearing the breathing anyway. The camera slowly pans upward and we see the stranger lurking on the ceiling over Jill's shoulder; use lighting to make the stranger's eyes appear to glow. Jill is startled as the stranger drops down eerily slow. Instead we get the best moment of the film completely wasted in a fraction of a second.
Final Rating: 4.5/10
Ms. Belle looking wet and wild!
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