The new horror film ‘When a Stranger Calls’ opens in theaters tomorrow and I am very skeptical about seeing it. The film is based on the following urban legend:

THE BABYSITTER STORY

A teenage girl is hired by a young couple to baby-sit their two small children. They go out to a dinner party and leave the girl to tend to the kids in a somewhat isolated, large house at the end of the block.

When the hour gets late, she puts the children to bed and sits down to watch some late-night TV. The phone starts ringing and startles the half-asleep teenager. When she answers it, she hears heavy breathing and a man tells her he is "coming to get her." While she is somewhat scared, she dismisses it as a prank phone call.

About 15 minutes later, the phone rings again. When she answers it, the man starts laughing and tells her that he is closer. The baby sitter is truly frightened now and calls the police.

They tell her that it's probably just a prank phone call, but they will try to trace the call -- so she must keep him on the line as long as possible if he calls another time. She once again settles down on the couch, not sleepy at all.

The phone rings a third time and the man tells her he has come for her and it's only a matter of time. He continues with some heavy breathing until the babysitter is so terrified that she hangs up the phone again.
She quickly decides to get the children and flee the house when the phone rings again. This time it is a policeman on the other end and he tells her frantically "GET OUT OF THE HOUSE NOW!" THE MAN IS INSIDE THE HOUSE AND IS CALLING FROM THE UPSTAIRS EXTENSION!"

She runs from the house as the police arrive. The madman escapes but they find the children upstairs dead and a bloody axe laying on the bedroom floor next to an open window.

I first read this story when I was in seventh grade, and lucky me, a man who lives down the street from me asked me to watch his kids a few days later. This Story freaked me out. However I think the movie will ruin the story. The tip-off is that its PG-13. I don’t think the film needs to be overly bloody and violent, but from past experiences PG-13 horror movies just haven’t been very good. Plus the teenager in this film looks like she is about 24, 25. Movies like this are never usually very good. I think that the trailer for the movie looked good, but from past experiences PG-13 horror movies just lack that certain element that make a horror movie scary.

Just for fun here are all the problems with the urban legend and how to tell it is a major fabrication:

The baby-sitter urban legend is as old as the hills. In this story, the man is always calling from the "upstairs extension" -- but in reality, he wouldn't be able ring the phone from an extension. He would have to be calling from a separate phone line upstairs.

Notice how the perpetrator gets away, leaving him "on the loose" to prey on other innocent teenage girls? It makes for some great storytelling, particularly when the crime is not solved.

How do you think it will be? Let me know.

All Urban Legend Material from http://www.halloween-website.com/babysitter.htm

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