A babysitter named Julia (Jill Schoelen) is home with her charges asleep upstairs...and hears a knock at the door. A man says his car has broken down and he needs to use the phone (you never see him--you only hear his voice through the door). She offers to place the call for him and finds the phone is dead. She lies and said she placed the call. He leaves but comes back later and is angry and somehow knows her name...
The opening 25 minutes of this are great--tense and frightening. Even Schoelen's bad performance can't hurt it. Then the story cuts to 5 years later with Schoelen still traumatized and Jill (Carol Kane--reprising her role from the first movie), now a college counselor tries to help. She calls in John Clifford (Charles Durning--also reprising his role) to help.
First off it is connected to the first film but Kane's character was happily married with kids at the end of the first film. Now she's single and a counselor. (????) The acting is so-so. Schoelen is terrible; Kane walks through her role and Durning tries but has no character to work with. Also, like the first, this has a great opening and ending--but a very dull middle.
The ending is great--especially when Kane goes one on one against the killer but the very ending is terrible. We're told the killer's name--but that's it. We never find out why he's doing all this and what he did with the kids--it's VERY annoying to end a movie that way. Also, we never see his face (the one time he's shown full face it's covered in black makeup).
So--this is worth seeing for the opening 25 minutes and the ending--but skip the rest of it. I'm giving this a 5.
The opening 25 minutes of this are great--tense and frightening. Even Schoelen's bad performance can't hurt it. Then the story cuts to 5 years later with Schoelen still traumatized and Jill (Carol Kane--reprising her role from the first movie), now a college counselor tries to help. She calls in John Clifford (Charles Durning--also reprising his role) to help.
First off it is connected to the first film but Kane's character was happily married with kids at the end of the first film. Now she's single and a counselor. (????) The acting is so-so. Schoelen is terrible; Kane walks through her role and Durning tries but has no character to work with. Also, like the first, this has a great opening and ending--but a very dull middle.
The ending is great--especially when Kane goes one on one against the killer but the very ending is terrible. We're told the killer's name--but that's it. We never find out why he's doing all this and what he did with the kids--it's VERY annoying to end a movie that way. Also, we never see his face (the one time he's shown full face it's covered in black makeup).
So--this is worth seeing for the opening 25 minutes and the ending--but skip the rest of it. I'm giving this a 5.