Tormented by a series of phone calls, a dedicated baby sitter is wrestling with horrors of the unknown. Terrified by threatening whispers and alarming rings, she is helped by a police officer (Charles Durning,Dog Day Afternoon) determined to get his man. But seven years later the madman returns and the telephone begins to ring again. No longer a babysitter, now a mother, Jill Johnson (Carol Kane,The Princess Bride) is a woman prepared to do anything to protect her family.

A true classic of the thriller genre, providing significant influence for the likes of Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, When a Stranger Calls is a taut exercise in white-knuckle suspense.