MovieChat Forums > When Michael Calls (1972) Discussion > I can't remember the ending!

I can't remember the ending!

posted 13 years ago by shaffer40
7 replies | jump to latest

I watched this when I was about 10 and I remember being afraid, but I can't remember the ending. Who was calling?

[–] mcfly-31 13 years ago

It appeared the Michael Douglas character was hypnotizing another boy into making the calls for reasons I can't recall. Douglas is captured in the end but not killed.

[–] lroy77 13 years ago

Michael apparently (off screen) was in a psych hospital himself. There is a reference when Helen is packing up her things in the inn.

For those of us who are old enough, I was only 9 when it came out (and NO WAY would I have been allowed to watch it):

Is it me, or does this actress who plays the girl remind you of Kim Richards. I figure she's about our age (late 40s)?

[–] SoapWatch 13 years ago

Oh wow, at first I too thought it was Kim Richards. About halfway through the movie I realized it wasn't but find it odd that I wasn't the only one with the same thought. lol

Another thing odd is the girl and the boy both play in a movie of Tom Sawyer that came out around this time. She played Becky Thatcher.

[–] Ten-Inch-Toni 10 years ago

Michael apparently (off screen) was in a psych hospital himself. There is a reference when Helen is packing up her things in the inn.

Um... no... Michael died when he was only 10 years old. Some 20 or so years earlier.

Craig is the one now in the psych hospital. That's who Helen is talking about when she is packing her things in the inn.

[–] stargazer24 10 years ago

By saying Michael, the OP meant Douglas, not the dead character Michael.

[–] lm362 8 years ago

I always get choked up when Peggy asks if they are going to visit her uncle. When A&E aired this movie, they always cut this scene out. I don't know why because it is so touching how her question is handled by her mother.

"Do All Things For God's Glory"-1 Corinthians 10:31
I try doing this with my posts

[–] Ten-Inch-Toni 10 years ago

Well it's playing on Youtube right now.

Michael wasn't in an insane asylum. Michael died when he was 10 years old. He had run away angry when his Aunt Helen, Dr. Britton, and the sheriff had to commit Michael and Craig's mother to the local psych hospital because she was so depressed or manic/depressive that she couldn't take care of the boys.

Craig was caring around some terrible guilt about the whole thing that he suppressed. He was only 12 himself, but was jealous that Michael was the favored brother. When Michael ran off Craig didn't try to stop him. Michael got lost on the mountain and died in the blizzard.

When this little boy Peter showed up he looked so much like young Michael that it triggered a psychotic event in Craig. Craig desided everyone else was guilty of Michael's death and tried to kill them one-by-one.