When a Killer Calls

When a Killer Calls (2006)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The Asylum's mockbuster of WHEN A STRANGER CALLS (the remake) has Trisha (Rebekah Kochan) going to babysit when she starts tor receive harassing phone calls. Pretty soon she starts to think it's her boyfriend but when he shows up at the house she knows it must be someone else and soon they're all under attack. WHEN A KILLER CALLS is a film that you'd think would be horrible but I have to give director Peter Mervis credit for actually delivering a pretty strong film and one that certainly isn't going to be for the weak. I say it's a film that's not for the weak because it has quite a bit of guts to go as far as it actually does. There's certainly lines that you don't cross in movies and especially in American movies but this film here pushes those lines to the side within the first five minutes of the picture. Normally killing a child or children is a major no no and when a film does it you know it means business. The body count here is extremely high, which is something that was missing from the remake. I think fans of gore should be entertained by this thing because it's quite savage in regards to the violence and there's a lot of the run stuff going around. I even thought Mervis built up some nice tension early on in the film, which must be a first for The Asylum. With all of that said, there are still some problems in the film including a pretty boring second act. Once all the teens get to the house things really slow down quite a bit and the 91-minute running time could have probably benefited from some of this stuff being cut out. Another problem is that some of the performances really weren't all that believable but Kochan is decent in the lead and Mark Irvingsen is good as the killer. WHEN A KILLER CALLS really shorts itself because many people are going to pass it up because of it being a rip of another movie but that would be a shame. While this falls well short of the 1979 film, this is much better than the remake and I'd say better than several genre pictures out there.

Just want to inform you guys that this movie was actually pretty good !!!

Thought it was a lame ass movie, but not at all, many moments in this movie wore pretty horrifying.

This movie has enough blood, gore, and some sexy make out scenes of course, to keep any horror buff like me 100% satisfied! The cast was also pretty good IMO.

Even though its not a high budget movie, the effects wore definitely kinda creepy sometimes.

Worth watching if u like a kick ass horror movie thats for sure!!

This is one of those movies from the studio known to put out similarly titled and themed DVD's to conveniently coincide with the real studio release movie. In this case we get When a Killer Calls, ripping on the Sony remake of When A Stranger Calls (2006). The movies are about an isolated teen babysitter getting terrorized by a prank caller. While Stranger was rated PG-13, Killer is unrated offering up graphic violence, nudity and language. Killer is obviously low budget, with passable-at-best special effects for the gore, though the acting is surprisingly decent for the most part. The storyline differs just enough from Stranger to keep them from getting sued, but it's your standard cliché slasher fare. I was expecting MUCH worse though.

In 2006 we had the official remake of the film "when a stranger calls" and in the same year we got this depraved rip off which started well and had a nice female lead role and all the well known horror elements but the kills were poorly made and in last half an hour the movie became a torture movie depraved and sick. that don't mean is not worth a look but it could have been much better. for what it was it was an ok film but is not worth to buy the dvd. I enjoyed first half of the movie but in the end I was disturbed.

better stick with the three "when a stranger calls" films.....(the original movie spawned a sequel before the 2006 remake was made)

An extremely amateurish rip off of When A Stranger Calls but unlike the well filmed, atmospheric remake of the 1970's chiller this one has balls. Right from the beginning of the film it has the feeling of unease and dread with brutal and effective yet generic kills that were disturbing and gutsy. This movie has a very visibly low budget and less than impressive acting that were the movie's downfall but the body count was decent and the killer was sadistic and stopped at nothing to bring fear to this poor babysitter and the stalk sequences though handled in a silly amateurish way did bring some suspense and creepyness to the film enough to make you look over your shoulder especially if you watch it alone in your home. The acting was beyond atrocious thanks to a horrible script and unoriginal story but towards the end it seems like everyone tried their best to step up their game which led to an effective, harrowing finale which might make you think twice about babysitting. Overall it's obviously a ripoff, unoriginal, flimsy but its brutality, creepyness and ballsy nature will creep under your skin, sure it wasn't amazing but as a generic rip off of stalk and slash it isn't half bad. Rent it. Have zero expectations, leave your brains at the door, grab some popcorn and enjoy. 6 out of 10