When a Stranger Calls isn’t an emotionally vacuous siege,
but more of an exercise in anxiety provocation, a psychological
thriller. This doesn’t mean it lacks huge lapses in logic, though.
On a playing field of its own devising, the movie somewhat fails because it introduces kids as bait but can’t — due to the
constraints of its PG-13 rating — fully integrate them into the story.
Jill doesn’t “check the children” until roughly two-thirds of the way
into the film, and even later, in the mad scramble to stay alive, they
have to be tucked away while Jill bears the direct force of attack. For the full review, from IGN, click here.