The Movie...

Originating from the urban legend, 'The Babysitter and the Man upstairs' a film was released in 1979 called 'When a Stranger Calls'. The film is slightly different to the short Gothic story; A teenage girl looks after some children whilst their parents are out for dinner, she gets many phone calls from a man to check the children, police finally show up but the children have already been killed. The killer is caught and put into prison. Some years later the killer escapes, is homeless but befriends a woman becoming slightly obsessed by him. Meanwhile a detective from his first arrest is determined to capture him again. The teenage girl who once had a horrific babysitting experience is now grown up, married with children, she goes out to dinner with her husband whilst a friend looks after the children. The friend starts getting phone calls but the detective shows up and everything is fine. Later that night the mother wakes up find the killer in her house and her husband alive but unconscious, the detective shows up and kills the evil man, everyone is safe.

In 1993 a follow up television series is aired called 'When a stranger calls back', which follows the traumatising life of the babysitter and the obstacles she has to overcome. 

A re-make is created of 'When a Stranger Calls' in 2006 with a similar story line to the original legend but a much less bloody ending. A teenage girl babysits some children as the parents are out for dinner, she speaks to her friends on the phone whilst they are out partying and a couple of them come to visit her but soon leave. She starts getting prank calls from a man asking to check the children but they are fine. She soon realises this man is bad and calls the police who track the call. The girl soon finds her friend dead in the house so she grabs the children, escape to the police who have arrived to protect them. The killer is caught and put away. The babysitter ends up in a psychiatric ward suffering from nightmares about phones and the killer.