Far away from the site of a gruesome murder, a teenager named Jill Johnson arrives at a luxurious home for a baby-sitting job. With the children fast asleep, she settles in for what she expects to be an ordinary evening. Soon, the ringing of a phone and the frightening words of a sadistic caller turn Jill's routine experience into a night of terror.
A production that never comes close to realizing its potential to tweak the viewer's primal fears.
– James Berardinelli,
ReelViews,
11 Feb 2006
rotten:
This version is a thin, protracted study in shifting Hollywood strategies.
– Matt Singer,
Village Voice,
13 Feb 2006
rotten:
The original should have been a short film; the new version shouldn't exist at all.
– Scott Tobias,
AV Club,
16 Feb 2006
rotten:
The film is not quite suspense-free, but almost. When finding a dead body underwater isn't scary, something is very wrong.
– Anita Gates,
New York Times,
18 Feb 2006
rotten:
If you've seen either Black Christmas or Halloween, there's nothing new here: the hyped-up score keeps telling us we ought to be scared, but the suspense feels mechanical and fake.