Simon West’s When a stranger calls has all the attributes of a successful scary movie – an attractive young female trapped in some remote location haunted by a sadistic killer with unclear motives. However, it creates the impression that the original script writers cashed out on the stock options and quit, leaving some interim writer to finish the job.
The killer who hunts Jill Johnson doesn’t have any clear motives behind, and never tells his story. At the end of the movie we are exposed to a minute-long headshot of him riding in the back of the police car, as if at this point we’re supposed to recognize the guy and yell out “Oh, no! Who would’ve thought it’s her ex-sweetheart!” However, the face doesn’t ring any bell, so we are left as clueless as Jill Johnson.
At the beginning of the movie we’re also exposed to another serial killing by the same personage, and when investigating the scene, the detective remarks with a hint of worry that there was no weapon by murder. Wow, you start wondering, so what does the killer do? Does he kill with appearance? Mental energy? Laser rays? Well, too bad, since the director and script writers never produce any logical explanation for this hint. It’s as if the movie had some other feature in it, they left a hint to that feature, then removed the feature, but forgot to remove the hint.
