This thriller is every babysitter / parent’s worst nightmare. The 20 min opening of the movie inspired the film Scream (1996) to pay a 12 min homage. There was also a made for TV sequel, and a 2006 remake of the film. The Los Angeles homes used in the making of this film have both since been torn down. Tony Beckley, who played the villain Curt Duncan, died suddenly only 6 months after the film’s premier.
The movie begins with Jill Johnson played by Carol Kane babysitting for a local Dr. and his wife. After the kids are asleep and she is waiting for the parents to return, she starts to get phone calls asking her if she has checked on the children. She has heard nothing from them and figured that it is just a prank call. But the calls continue and increase in frequency so she calls the police, who discover that the calls are originating from within the home. The children were murdered shortly after Jill arrived to babysit.
Their killer Curt Duncan is put away in a psychiatric hospital, but 7 years later he escapes. Detective John Clifford, (Charles Durning), who was on the scene in the original slaying is hired as a PI to tract him down. He traces him to woman’s home and telling her of the previous crimes, he convinces her to try to help catch the killer at the bar where she works and they had met. Meanwhile, Duncan is hiding in wait in her bedroom closet. He manages to escape once again when Clifford goes to rescue his intended victim.
Jill, grown with kids of her own., is out for dinner with her husband when she has a call at the restaurant. It’s Duncan, she recognizes the voice of her nightmares instantly and understandably freaks out. The police escort her home and a friend of Clifford’s who is still on the force, let’s him know of the development in his case. (Any more details will ruin the ending….please watch it yourself).
