I noticed recently there was a sequel to the 1970s horror movie: When A Stranger Calls. It was called: When A Stranger Calls Back. This is such a wonderfully inane sequel title, it’s a shame they didn’t continue the series! They could have called the next one: When A Stranger Leaves You A Message on Your Answering Machine. Then, after that, they could have made: When A Stranger Calls So Many Times That You Have To Leave Your Phone Off The Hook. Then, the next one they made could be: When A Stranger’s Repeated Calls Make You Change Your Phone Number. And after this exciting chapter, naturally the public would demand that they next make: When A Stranger Calls You on Your New, Unlisted Phone Number (!), which would be followed by the gripping: When A Stranger’s Harassing Phone Calls Make You Cancel Your Telephone Service, and then by the even more intense: When A Stranger Writes You A Letter. This new movie about the letter could begin a whole new sub-genre in horror films, all based on threatening letters. Then it could blossom into its own series about the postal harassment, with titles like the exciting: When A Stranger Writes You A Threatening Letter on Toilet Paper, and the even more scintillating: When A Stranger Sends You A Postcard (!).
Of course, that was in the good old days, when getting a letter meant someone knew where you lived, and getting a phone call meant you were stuck in the same place while you were on the phone, because there was a wire attached to the headset, and you could only run so far before you had to hang up or something. Nowadays this whole being called by strangers doesn’t inspire the same type of terror anymore, because after all, you could be anywhere when they called, and you could much more easily run away. They tried the When A Stranger Calls remake with cell phones, but I’m not sure it worked as well as the old one. Otherwise, they would have continued the series, right? We would have been terrified with the likes of: When A Stranger Sends You an Email, and When A Stranger Sends You A Text Message. And it could have become even creepier with cyber-stalking tales like: When A Stranger Likes Your Facebook Post, and: When A Stranger Subscribes to Your YouTube Channel. But then again, I guess the people who are interacting with us online are mostly strangers anyway, so I guess real life is way more terrifying than a movie anyway, huh?
I guess I’m living the terrifying horror story every day called: When A Stranger Reads Your Blog Post (!!), and its inevitable sequel: When A Stranger Joins Your Twitter Feed. (Ashton Kutcher should star in that movie, since he’s got the most Twitter followers, and as such, he’s probably got the biggest chance of one of them being a homicidal maniac anyway, right?) But hey, at least strangers aren’t calling me: I’m on the “Do Not Call" List.
