Recommending a remake? Who me?

No one can say I don't like remakes. The following proves that. The best remake of 2006 (so far) is the remake of a thriller released in 1979; that's pre-Jason and before Freddy. The movie is When A Stranger Calls and Carol Kane starred in the original as a babysitter who receives threatening phone calls. The caller almost always starts with, "Have you checked the children?" Ultimately, with the help of police, Kane's character, Jill Johnson, discovers where the calls are coming from: from a surprising location. The children are found to have been murdered and the killer is locked up in the loony bin. The killer then escapes and the rest of the movie follows Charles Durning's private investigator and his tracking of the killer. Durning is hired by the father of the children and for the next 40-45 mins the movie plods along and becomes quite boring at times. Years later, after Kane's character marries and has her own children, she receives a call one night while she's out with her husband. The caller asks, "Have you checked the children?" The ensuing showdown is a bit creepy and fulfilling. The only problem is that no reason is ever given for the killer's penchant for harassing teenage babysitters and killing children.

In the remake, relative newcomer Camilla Belle fills Kane's shoes as Jill Johnson. This time the film opens with the discovery of the murdered children while the tormenting phone calls play over the opening credits. It's an eerie touch having the crime scene right next to a carnival; everyone going about their fun with no idea of what's going on in the house right next to them. The rest of the movie features Belle's Jill Johnson babysitting and then she begins receiving the same threatening phone calls. Thankfully, the "have you checked the children" is only used once or twice; it threatened to become a joke in the original. The remake does deviate quite a bit from the original and the stage is set for a game of cat and mouse between Jill and the anonymous caller. All of the changes are good and enhance the story considering it is set in the present. Of course the big twist is where the calls originate from and if you've seen the original you won't be surprised. The suspense is well done though and considering how few characters there are and that most of the action takes place inside of the house, the movie moves along briskly. This could have been a terrible remake considering the technology of the telephones these days, however, the uses of the many features of the telephone are cleverly and believably played; we're really not all connected (not always anyway). The size of the house, which is astronomical, is also effectively used and there are of course a number of cliches; naturally. The dark, windy, and stormy night is just one of the many devices used. Another one is the fake out; the music plays progressively louder trying to make us think a scare is coming. And then there's the fake out's brother, the non-killer scare. We get a jolt or a surprise but it's not the killer. One of the main reasons I liked this remake, and really think it improves upon the original, is because Belle's character is not stupid. And when push comes to shove, she really fights back and isn't feeble about it. That could be a testament to the director, Simon West. West, probably most famous for directing Lara Croft:Tomb Raider, has crafted a smart (but not genius) thriller that really surpasses the original. A bonus is the fact that there is no gore and of course, like the original, there is no explanation as to why the killer does what he does. Only the intimation that in today's world, sometimes there is no explanation. Or something like that.