13 Scariest Horror Movie Moments, #4

#4: AAA Can’t Come in When A Stranger Calls Back

When A Stranger Calls Back is the sequel to the notorious babysitter-in-peril movie, When A Stranger Calls. Everybody is familiar with the famous line of the first film: The calls are coming from inside the house! Aaaaaa!

The opening 20 minute sequence introduces a gut-wrenching intensity that cannot be topped, and the director comes back to accomplish the same thing in When A Stranger Calls Back.

What?? The Screamstress is including a SEQUEL in a Top 13 list? Blasphemer!

I know, I know, but believe me, this scene is worth it. It has been said that this scene, along with the opening scene in the original film, are two of the best-directed sequences in horror film history. I’d certainly place them in the top five.

My favorite scream queen ever, the sweetly beautiful Jill Schoelen, plays the unfortunate babysitter Julia. Everything is quiet, the kids are asleep, the house is dark, and the telephone…doesn’t ring. Instead, there is a knock at the door. You know how a knock at the door at night when you are home alone can make your heart jump? It’s out of place; night is supposed to be a sacred time of peace and privacy. Not here. Poor Julia.

She never sees the man, only hears his voice—disturbingly modulated—through the door. He says his car is broken down and asks to use the telephone, being sure to point out that all the houses are dark so she must be the only person home on the entire street. Crap.

And it just gets worse from there. Wisely, she refuses to let him in, and he asks her to call AAA for him. She reluctantly agrees and writes down his information, but…the phone is dead. Now, does she fake calling the auto club, with the man right outside the door, or tell the truth in hopes he’ll go away…but knowing that she’s there alone with no means to contact the outside world?

She chooses to fake it, but it backfires, because the man will not go away. I won’t say anymore, except that it turns out badly, and will give you a major case of the willies. Seriously gals, isn’t it time to call off this babysitting thing? Talk about a low-paying, high-risk job.

There’s no way the movie—much like the original and Scream (you’ll see where Scream ripped off loads of material here) –can maintain the incredible intensity of the opening sequence, so the films falls flat after that, though it is interesting to see Carol Kane return in a reprisal of her role from the original film.

Someone should release a DVD of just horror movie beginnings, as those are usually the best parts of every film.

Rent it if you get a chance, or catch it on TV sometime, just for the brrr…shiver of the first 15 minutes.