When a Stranger Calls: Critic Reviews

50%

MovieWeb: 3 reviews

RottenTomatoes: 95 reviews

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Lisa Schwarzbaum Entertainment Weekly (Top Critic)

17

This leaves young Belle (The Ballad of Jack and Rose) to wander rooms aimlessly, and for the musicians and Foley artists to work feverishly pretending there's reason for suspense.
Full Review » 6 years ago
Anita Gates New York Times (Top Critic)

30

The film is not quite suspense-free, but almost. When finding a dead body underwater isn't scary, something is very wrong.
Full Review » 6 years ago
Peter Bradshaw Guardian [UK] (Top Critic)

Full Review » 6 years ago
Ann Hornaday Washington Post (Top Critic)

When a Stranger Calls has been remade -- with undistinguished if inoffensive results -- by Simon West, who is quickly becoming a reliable purveyor of Hollywood's dreckiest dreck.
Full Review » 6 years ago
Wesley Morris Boston Globe (Top Critic)

13

Even by the lowest standards, this is a frightless, cynically made movie.
Full Review » 6 years ago
Matt Singer Village Voice (Top Critic)

This version is a thin, protracted study in shifting Hollywood strategies.
Full Review » 6 years ago
Elizabeth Weitzman New York Daily News (Top Critic)

50

For real thrills, rent the original, turn down the lights and scare yourself silly.
Full Review » 6 years ago
Joe Leydon Variety (Top Critic)

A modestly clever concept gets indifferent execution in When a Stranger Calls, another bigger-yet-blander remake of an allegedly classic' '70s shocker.
Full Review » 6 years ago
Lou Lumenick New York Post (Top Critic)

25

The scare-free When a Stranger Calls is the worst of the seminal horror movies from the late '70s and early '80s that have been getting the remake treatment lately.
Full Review » 6 years ago
Roger Moore Orlando Sentinel (Top Critic)

60

It's funny how the story's mechanics hold up in the age of cells (static) and caller ID.
Full Review » 6 years ago
Geoff Pevere Toronto Star (Top Critic)

25

If there's a single dead-wrong instinct in this movie that isn't pursued with the blind determination of an amorous terrier during high-scent season, darned if I can remember it.
Full Review » 6 years ago
James Berardinelli ReelViews (Top Critic)

50

A production that never comes close to realizing its potential to tweak the viewer's primal fears.
Full Review » 6 years ago
Frank Scheck Hollywood Reporter (Top Critic)

This week's installment in the 'this film is so bad we're not screening it for critics' series.
Full Review » 6 years ago
Gary Dowell Baltimore City Paper

Full Review » 2 years ago
Felix Vasquez Jr. Cinema Crazed

Full Review » 3 years ago
Tom Meek Boston Phoenix

Full Review » 3 years ago
Cole Smithey ColeSmithey.com

17

Amateurish direction by Simon West ("Laura Croft: Tomb Raider") contributes to the utter failure of this pathetic update of the original film of the same title.
Full Review » 3 years ago
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Full Review » 4 years ago
Garth Franklin Dark Horizons

Full Review » 4 years ago
Joe Lozito Big Picture Big Sound

25

Full Review » 5 years ago
Nigel Floyd Time Out

If you've seen either Black Christmas or Halloween, there's nothing new here: the hyped-up score keeps telling us we ought to be scared, but the suspense feels mechanical and fake.
Full Review » 6 years ago
David Edwards Daily Mirror [UK]

Full Review » 6 years ago
Liz Braun Jam! Movies

20

No plot, no originality, no stars -- and no reason for you to go and see this crap.
Full Review » 6 years ago
David Nusair Reel Film Reviews

50

...just as needless a remake as one might've expected.
Full Review » 6 years ago
Matthew Leyland BBC

40

You know a horror movie's in trouble when the fake scares outweigh the real ones.
Full Review » 6 years ago