Review of When a Stranger Calls Back (1993) by Kenny N — 13 May 2015

The first film has 20 minutes of pure terror, followed by a half hour of uneven filmmaking and storytelling before our heroine reappears for a final showdown with Mr. Have You Checked The Children? Here, Jill Johnson, once again played by Carol Kane (who is the highlight of this otherwise complete waste of time, as she is in almost every movie she's in, comedic or dramatic) is a school psychiatrist.

(Strangely, her own husband and children who she fought to protect in the original are absent here. No mention of them whatsoever.) She comes across a familiar case: one of a former babysitter named Julia who found herself terrorized by an unknown stalker one fateful night, who took the children and disappeared.

Now he's back, and Julia's at the end of her rope, until Jill and the now retired Detective John Clifford (Charles Durning, who looks every bit his age here) step in to save Julia's life. Until we meet the killer (who really deserves a better movie, because he is a fascinating little monster), the film tries to survive on the strengths of the great Carol Kane.

But it's not enough to create and sustain a suspenseful mood. Overall, this was an unnecessary sequel. Carol Kane and the killer deserved to be in something better.