C&L's Sat Nite Chiller Theater: 'When A Stranger Calls' (1979)

I met Kevin Williamson years ago and he told me that he got the idea to write the opening scene of "Scream" when he was house sitting one night, the weather was bad and somebody started calling on the phone and hanging up.

Years before that incident in 1979, the great Carol Kane played a babysitter that was being harassed on the telephone by a stranger and the beginning of the film produced one of the scariest twists ever to populate a scary movie.

The movie was called "When A Stranger Calls," and that's tonight feature.

The NY Times wrote:

"When a Stranger Calls" is an energetic first film; if Mr. Walton hasn't yet learned his lessons well, he's certainly chosen the right teachers. The frightened-babysitter opening of the movie is marvelously modern, as Mr. Walton demonstrates that a haunted house with an ice-making refrigerator is intrinsically scarier than a house without one. He also makes the most of that fearsome modern weapon, the telephone.

Enjoy the film and if the phone rings tonight, don't pick it up!