Crumby Horror Remake Rant

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of watching the original When a Stranger Calls from 1979 and it's illegitimate bastard 2006 remake. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by the original film, which featured Carol Kane as the unfortunate babysitter of urban legend origin and Charles Durning as the cop out for the recently escaped killer's head. Though a tad on the long side, the film built the suspense slowly but effectively. By comparison, the 2006 update felt clunky, shallow, and dull. The transparent contrivances used to build tension underwhelmed, and ultimately, the film felt like more of an exercise in style than suspense.

Unfortunately, this seems to be par for the course with horror remakes--I had the exact same response to Rob Zombie's Halloween, and I'm sure if I watched any of the Texas Chainsaw remakes, they would be more of the same.

Sadly, in the case of When a Stranger Calls, the remake attempts (but fails, in my opinion) to appeal to ladies growing up in an era of girl power by focusing more closely on the female protagonist than its predecessor. Whereas the first film made the story of Jill's attack and later encounter with the killer a mere framing device, the new film expands the first twenty minutes of the original into a full-length film. This converts the film into more of a "slasher" (a la Halloween, etc.) minus the gore (the PG-13 rating suggests an attempt to appeal to the, dare I say it, "tween" market). As a result, our babysitter, Jill (played by the beautiful Camilla Belle), becomes a final girl a la Laurie Stroud, fighting against the killer, rather than running into the arms of a male authority figure (as her seventies counterpart does).

The fact that the new film seems tailor-made (in some respects) for my tastes and politics makes the film's failures all the more depressing. In contrast, the seventies version presents women as vulnerable in every sphere (be it public or private) and at any life stage (child, teen, or woman), offering women little hope of escaping the crazed male. This characterization of female victimization should repel me, but in fact contributes to the eeriness of the older film.

So, what do you do when a film clearly lends itself to your political views but artistically belly flops trying to execute them? And what about films that creepily convey the oppressive, anti-feminist nightmare so well, they some become entertaining?