Are You in the House Alone?

This TV movie is surprisingly good about a girl being stalked at school. I used to watch a lot of these movies as a kid and this one stands out as one of the best. It has an unpredictable ending and holds your attention throughout. Highly recommended if you get the chance to see it!

The best thing going for this rather routine TV movie melodrama is spirited performances by the young stars, including a very youthful Dennis Quaid in a part that would have gone to Bruce Dern 15 years before. The movie is almost two separate movies in one, the first part leading up to the assault on the teenage female lead babysitter is a quasi-horror film not unlike the original When A Stranger Calls, which was released later. There are various suspects who may be making the terrorizing phone calls and messages, and we are in the dark until the assault. The second part, anti-climactic in a way, involves the girl recovering to be stronger and to bring the perpetrator to justice. Unfortunately this section is weaker than the first part regardless of the good intentions by the film-makers to show the difficult process of justice. The adult leads are really unspectacular and mediocre at best, and Tony Bill displays good reasons as to why he left acting to be a producer/director. There is a subplot regarding his character losing a job that really goes nowhere and was unnecessary to the main plot. Blythe Danner as the mother is often more hysterical that the teenage daughter, and comes off as hammy. She's done better work. Scott Columby is fine but could have easily been replaced by one of the other "Scott" actors of the time, either Jacoby or Baio. Alan Fudge is good, and shows why his last name was a big mistake. Where was his agent when he first started? Imagine if he and Barbara Hershey had gotten married!

A teenage girl is plagued by harassing phone calls. Her fear mounts when she is babysitting at a neighbor's home one evening and the caller rings her at that number.

There seems to be an effort to get this film marketed as a horror film. IMDb says it is one, Scream! Factory is selling it as one, and the title and cover strongly suggest a horror theme. While it is certainly a situation that would be terrifying to anyone in real life, that does not make it a horror film. It is more a "crime drama" or some such thing.

That being said, it is not a bad movie if you go in under proper expectations. A young Dennis Quaid gives a powerful performance, Blythe Danner does her part, and the rest of the cast is quite good. The story is fairly tight in its script.

For horror fans, what may be worth pointing out is that this film actually predates "When a Stranger Calls" by a year. Although the calls in this film are not coming from inside the house, there is a similar feeling and possibly a connection (though it could just be coincidence).

This movie may not be a straight up slasher movie due to the fact that there are no deaths at all, but for a TV movie, I found this very much decent and entertaining. The opening where we see the aftermath of a high school girl beaten and raped, which really set the tone for what this movie is about and then it flashbacks to the previous events leading up to what happened.

Like I said this movie is not a slasher but features several elements like the young girl getting strange phone calls, threatening notes and tense stalk scenes. However the suspense here has a very realistic feel and you do feel the raw emotions that this character is going through especially when she sees her rapist getting ready to stalk his next victim and of course we do get a list of suspects and this movie doe's display that angle well and keep you guessing throughout. While what happens is horrifying, there's not much in the way of true horror, but what we have is a pretty solid thriller with lots of build up and a great pay off thanks to its good pacing.

The strongest thing about this movie is the acting which is top notch Kathleen Beller who plays the main character was very good and believable, her innocence and beauty makes you really root for her especially when she turns detective and eventually turns the tables on her attacker. Plus we get a standout performance from a fresh faced Dennis Quaid and Scott Colomby as the boyfriend also really stood out, displaying great chemistry with Gail, in fact all of the cast had great chemistry with each other, even the parents were great.

All in all "Are You in the House Alone" may seem a bit dated by today's standards, but still genially creepy and frightening realistic.

A young high school student begins getting creepy phone calls which eventually leads to her being stalked in 'Are You in the House Alone?". Gail Osborne is a sweet teenage girl who begins going out with classmate Steve. Eventually, she gets a phone call from an anonymous person who does the whole heavy breathing routine. It gets worse from there as Gail gets a note in her locker stating "I'm watching you". We get our list of suspects early on... is it the creepy photography teacher, Gail's current boyfriend or her ex boyfriend? Gail takes a babysitting job in town and that's when the stalker gets close and sadly Gail is raped by this person. We know who did it, and the rest of the film shows Gail trying to prove this person did this to her.

'Are You in the House Alone' is actually an important film for it's time as it tackles tough topics such a rape and women's rights. It isn't so much a horror film (like the title might make it seem) as it is a suspense/mystery movie. We spend a lot of the film trying to figure out who the stalker is. Once we find out the identity of the person, it's hard to watch Gail have to prove it to her closest friend and even the courts/police. Some of the stalking scenes were REALLY well done, and add creepiness to the movie.

The acting was very well done from Kathleen Beller, Scott Colomby, Robin Mattson and a young Dennis Quaid. Where the film lacks is it's pacing. It drags on quite a bit, and focuses a lot of the time on Gail's family issues and her father who's been recently laid off of his job. Good performances by her parents Blythe Danner and Tony Bill. I recommend seeing this 70's made for TV film for sure. It's only ever been released on VHS, but is online as well. It's a slower moving movie, but definitely has it's moments

7/10