By Jasmine Pearson
Film Analysis - When A Stranger Calls
I chose to review the first ten minutes of the film ‘When A Stranger Calls’ because it is the same genre of film as our film, a thriller. The story follows a teenage girl who goes babysitting one night in a house with large glass windows. Someone keeps calling her while she’s babysitting, but not saying anything and just heavy breathing. The film is similar to ours in that dead bodies are found at the start of the film.

Our film is also similar to this film because of its title sequence. The titles are on plain black screens with film in between them, and the titles in our film are set out like this. Also during the opening sequence of the film, a phone conversation is audible to the audience, and in our film a radio broadcast is played throughout our opening sequence, which are similar.

The first shoot is a close shot of a house window. Figures and shadows are visible on the wall in the room but no actual bodies or faces. The unknown element adds to the thriller genre because people are scared of not knowing who people are because they can’t tell if they’re good or bad. From this the camera zooms out and pans into a long shot of a fairground at the side of this house. The contrast between the silence of the house room and the nosiness of the fairground implies that something bad is going to happen.
After this shot fast paced editing follows, which creates an effect of edge and mystery to the film. This is because the audience doesn’t really have time to grasp what is going on because the shots are on for such little time, and this confuses them. This is a good technique to use in a thriller genre film. During these quick jump shots between the fairground and the house window, a phone called is played where you quietly hear a girl’s voice asking on the phone ‘why are you calling me?’. This gets the audience wondering who she is on the phone to.

The next significant shot is an over the shoulder shot from an old couple sat on a bench of a man walking a dog. The man is shown walking away from the fairground towards the street of houses, and from the chest upwards is in darkness, so you can’t see his face or who he is. This again is a thriller effect created from the unknown. He waves to the old couple who wave back, and this suggests he is local. It also suggests that he is innocent and friendly to be friends with an old couple. This confuses the audience because it creates a different impression of him from the first impression you get of the man.
After this the camera pans from right to left in long shot down the street until it gets to a house. Outside the house the audience can see a figure stood on the doorstep. The person is looking up and down the street as if they are looking for someone or something. This gives this person a feel of innocence and vulnerability as they are stood out on there door step alone whilst looking worried. The camera continues in crane shot upwards to reveal a sign saying ‘Jesus’. This religious reference symbolises that one must have hope for the dark deeds that are to follow.


The next shot is a close up shot of the figure, who we now see is a girl, as she walks to the end of her path. The shot keeps jumping from a long shot to a close up shot, which creates the effect that she is being watched. The jumpy effect it also creates, adds to the thriller genre. One of the following shots is a close up shot of a wind chime as it blows in the nights wind. Behind is the house that was focused on earlier. The sounds are just the noises of the chime against the silence of the night, which creates an eerie, thrilling feel. A figure quickly passes across the screen and the shot suddenly changes to medium shots of the fairground and the people there, and as this happens a girl is heard screaming. The presence of the figure moving quickly and the scream, add to the thriller genre. The next shot, a medium shot of a fairground ride, features the title ‘When A Stranger Calls’ in front of it. The title, makes the audience refer back to the phone conversation the girl was having earlier on, and the audience now knows the person she was on the phone to was a stranger.
The camera then cranes upwards from the fairground and pans left to reveal a long shot of the house window again. The room is now in darkness, which suggests the girl doesn’t want someone to know she is there and is hiding. Quickly after establishing this, the light is turned on and this time two shadows are visible. The shadow of the girl and one of a man stood behind her. At the same time as this happening, the girl starts to scream. The camera jumps back to shots of the fairground rides and the people screaming excitably on the rides there. This is good technique that is used to show that the girl’s screams blend in with the fairground peoples screams, and no one can hear her to help her. So the audience must hear her suffer, which creates slight horror. The genre of our film is mainly thriller, but secondary horror, which is the same with this film.

After the opening sequence the setting changes to daytime, with the police pulling up to and entering the house from the night before. As the chief police officer enters the room where the murder took place, a low angle shot shows his face. You never see the room, but from the police officers facial expression you can tell the sights are horrific. At the same time the police officer cans the room the sounds of the screaming and murder that took place the night before are played for the audience to hear. This also adds to creating the impact of the dramatic and horrific murder that took place.


Back downstairs a medium shot of the chief police officer shows him almost falling backwards to lean on a table and support himself up from the shock of what he has just seen. The fact that he is so shocked and horrified by what he saw, shows that the scene really was horrible. Also being a chief police officer, he would most likely have lots of experience dealing in this area, but this murder truly shook him up, which also adds to saying how horrible the sight was.

The next shot is a long shot of a school, and the text ‘FERNHILL, COLORADO 126 miles away’ fades onto the screen over the picture. The next three minutes of the film are shot in a different scene with a totally different feel to it, that is mainly achieved by slow paced editing among other techniques. In these three minutes the film introduces the main character, another teenage girl. You learn that her boyfriend keeps trying to call her because they have fallen out. This comes into play later in the film, so this is useful information, and a clever way of linking things up. I think it is a good technique to change the setting for a while in the film and give the audience a different feel to the film, because then it is not solid thriller all the way through the film, and the audience is less likely to get bored.

The first 10 mins of the film ‘When A Stranger Calls’ introduces the idea of the story and gives background information on the caller/killer. Our film uses many similar techniques that this film uses to create that thriller genre.

Film trailer -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unzsokdVmMk