 
It's
almost Christmas time and the women at
their sorority house are having a
Christmas party but however one of them
named Jessica Bradford (Olivia Hussey) is
receiving obscene phone calls from a
psychopath telling cryptic stories about
abortion and the beating of a child.
Jessica happens to be pregnant and wants
an abortion but her boyfriend Peter
Smythe (Keir Dullea) who lives in another
sorority house doesn't want her to.
Also one of the sorority sisters named
Clare Harrison (Lynne Griffin) ends up
being suffered to death by having a
plastic bag wrapped around her head and
dragged up to the sorority attic while
the party is going on but is not found by
the others.
While some go away for the holiday
Jessica stays behind with some of her
other sorority sisters and caretakers
only to be put away in the attic
themselves and Jessica continues to get
these obscene calls from the killer but
doesn't know where they're coming from
but will be in for a big shock after she
finds out.
A well done dark
type of horror film leaving the movie
very spooky and mysterious however the
story doesn't explain itself too well.
Still it's greatly mysterious, dark and
frightening regardless.
The film was as eery as When a
Stranger Calls as both films
both have similar elements and both were
remade decades later.
The same writer Roy Moore wrote
the 2006 remake as he made the story have
a better description of why all the
madness was happening with flashback
memories etc.
The acting is in
good shape for a film during this time
period. Olivia Hussey seems to
pull off well by being the head sorority
sister and does well with her scared and
upset emotions in the film.
Keir Dullea played a great and
mysterious one in the film as the
boyfriend and musician in the film which
also makes you wonder if he's a suspect.
He showed terrific aggressions to his
role.
Margot Kidder is by all means the
best out of the whole cast and performs
perfectly in every way. She puts every
she has as a partygoer sorority sister in
the film and does especially well at
being drunk too.
John Saxon lived to play a police
chief and was often typecast with this
type of roles and of course already knew
his craft when he played one in A
Nightmare On Elm Street.
Supporting actress Marian Waldman
really stood out well as a drunken
sorority caretaker and was quite bubbly
in her role.
Andrea Martin also played off well
as another sorority sister bringing lots
of enthusiasm to her part in the film.
Supporting actor Doug McGrath
was another great character actor who
played a believeable prick of a police
officer in the film as you want to slap
him.
An officers throat
is slit
There are some bloodied corpses.
The directing by Stuart
Gordon is incredibly stale and
doesn't whip the film in shape all that
much.
We see a nice shot of the sorority house
at night time with the Christmas lights
up.
There's perfect camera shots on the
actresses reactions when they hear the
obscene phone call.
There was a real nice and spooky setting
on small actress Lynne Griffin
when she is in her room slowly walking to
the closet as something is watching her
and then BAM! She is attacked which is a
good jumping moment.
Olivia Hussey shows some nice scared
reactions to the obscene caller when she
tells the caller it's the wrong number.
The surroundings looked great in the
sorority house when it shows the hallways
and then the creepy attic.
Supporting actress Marian Waldman shows
a nice shocked look after spotting a
sorority corpse with her head wrapped in
a plastic bag.
Keir Dullea looked great storming
into the police station and getting
aggressive with supporting actor Doug
McGrath.
There's an intense moment with Dullea
when he picks up a mic stand and uses it
to smash his piano as his actions were
perfect while doing so.
Margot Kidder really played off
being drunk and Gordon made her
actions believeable when she gets
aggressive towards the others.
Also there was a good moment with Kidder
when she has an athsma attack in bed
and then later on nice darkness on the
killer coming in with a knife ready to
plunge.
John Saxon was well directed as well
playing a police chief and has great
reactions when he finds out where the
killer is calling from trying to rescue
the survivors any way he can.
The darkest and best direction was when McGrath
calls up Hussey telling her
the killer is in the house and she right
away has a freaked out and shocked look
to her face in the same style as When
a Stranger Calls.
It's especially terrifying when she
screams for two of her sorority friends
and the hallway is still bare looking as
you know something is going to happen.
Carl Zittrer composed
some nice dark sounds for the film with
piano chords being struck which works
just perfectly for the scary scene's.
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