10 TERRIFYING Horror Movie Openings (That Led To Disappointing Movies)
5. When a Stranger Calls (1979)
Based on an urban legend called The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs, the terrifying start of the original When a Stranger Calls is a masterclass in slowly building tension and dread.
It follows a babysitter named Jill who’s repeatedly taunted by an inscrutable caller who ominously asks, “Have you checked the children?” Eventually, the police trace their conversations and discover that the calls are “coming from inside the house” and that the children were murdered hours ago.
It’s an ingeniously effective opening whose tone and gimmick could’ve been sustained by focusing on Jill recovering from her ordeal as the killer – Curt Duncan – continues targeting helpless babysitters.
For some reason, though, the middle hour of When a Stranger Calls throws all that out the window so it can wander through a clumsy police procedural in which two other people – the equally dull Detective John Clifford and concerned citizen Tracy – hunt Duncan after he flees a psychiatric hospital.
Actor Tony Beckley portrays Duncan as complex and sympathetic, but his post-escape meekness and lack of any additional violence also make him seem like a different character. Plus, the total absence of Jill until her ridiculous showdown with Duncan at the end is even more confounding.
The bookends of When a Stranger Calls are comparably horrific, but what happens in between is uneventful and boring.