MovieChat Forums > When a Stranger Calls Back (1993) Discussion > Confused

Confused

posted 20 years ago by kinsey1212
12 replies | jump to latest

Maybe I missed it when I watched the movies, but what happened to her kids and husband from the first one? Did they die at the end, and I blinked? If not, where were they in the sequel?

[–] tk_sassy 20 years ago

They survived, I think the husband had a knock on the head or something if I remember, but they all survived. Don't know about the second movie, going to watch it in a few minutes after several years.

[–] CinemaTerror 20 years ago

It was hinted that she had been an alchoholic which would probably lead to her husband leaving her

[–] RiversAttic 20 years ago

The incident from the first movie probably drove her to drink, and caused complications with her marriage. The kids must live with their father.

[–] movie_freak_88 14 years ago

The kids probably don't live with their father because this movie is about 15 years after the first one meaning that they are old enough to live on their own.

I recommend you shut the *beep* up.

[–] 666Night999 19 years ago

There is a lot unanswered. There isn't a lot of character depth either. We barely learn the fates of the children who disappear in this one. I think they are dead, but it wasn't really explained. This was a made for tv movie, or cable I guess, because of the nudity at the bar, but it seems like it was poorly put together. I enjoyed the opening sequence, just as in the original, but the rest is rather slow and contrived. How the stranger knows and is able to do what he does is sometimes implausible. For one, why would he go to a supermarket to put a bottle of vodka in Jill's shopping cart? And then he talks to her there! It was really contrived. The ending was suspenseful, but again, why go to the lengths this guy does, why not just hide and attack? Instead he hides himself in walls, throws his voice, makes strange professions, is slow moving and clumsy,...etc, and tromps around in speedos!

"Don't talk to me about endings, dare the beginnings" [Jack Ketchum, 7/69]

[–] fiatlux-1 14 years ago

For one, why would he go to a supermarket to put a bottle of vodka in Jill's shopping cart? And then he talks to her there! It was really contrived. The ending was suspenseful, but again, why go to the lengths this guy does, why not just hide and attack? Instead he hides himself in walls, throws his voice, makes strange professions, is slow moving and clumsy,...etc, and tromps around in speedos!

He wanted to torment and terrorize his victims, not merely kill them. He could have killed Julia any number of times when he was in her apartment, and he didn't.
He wanted to play with her for a while, like a cat and a mouse it appeared. I think he only decided to kill her when he found that pamphlet she had about the Witness Protection program, and he probably figured even he couldn't find her after that.
And Jill was close to her, and plus he's a nut so he had his own motivations.
I still maintain he originally tormented Julia because he was into shattering 'illusions'. He wanted to shatter the illusion that she was in control at that house, and the illusion that the children were safe and sound and no harm could come to them in the big fancy house.

"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."

[–] robsea32 14 years ago

Excellent points.

I think the part about the vodka is easy to explain as well -- she pauses to look at the bottle and he is obviously "shopping" in the store with her and watching her. He sees her pause to look at it and so he puts it in the cart when she's getting vegetables.

[–] adamsdabratt 9 years ago

Totally agree. This movie seems like a selection of scenes; not a fully developed story. I saw the first one this is a very lame effort for the second installment. Nothing is really explained. Hopefully, since they made a new version of "A Stranger Calls", they will make a sequel that makes some type of sense.

[–] scottie-bobson 12 years ago

I was 14. Now, I'm 22!

[–] movie_freak_88 12 years ago

I was 9, Now I'm going on 18

SCRE4M
4-15-10

[–] soulstryka 11 years ago

I was in my early 20's, now I'm in my late 20's

So it's not my opinion but a certified FACT. Learn the difference. - Kimono_Shimmer

[–] 9 years ago

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