"Have You Checked the Children?"

Saw When a Stranger Calls this weekend. I almost don't know what to say, except "wow." The first half-hour may be the best suspense sequence I have ever seen. I won't say too much about it, but if you like suspense movies, urban legend-type stories, or just scary movies, you should without a doubt see this movie. It slows down a little in the middle, and you get the feeling that the director/writers were basically adding some scenes to stretch it to movie length, but the end picks up again with another shocker that's as almost as cool as the beginning.

Aside from the story, there's a lot of neat stuff about this movie. Here's a couple. The music. I thought I heard right during the movie, and Imdb confirmed it: the big chord that recurs throughout the movie is now used as the sound you hear when the THX logo comes on. Also, this movie heavily influenced Scream. I mean heavily. Even the caller's voice was similar.

Apparently, there's going to be a remake of this movie next year. As usual, I find this unnecessary, especially when the guy doing it is the same man who inflicted Tomb Raider upon us.