Editorials
‘When a Stranger Returns’: Writer Jake Wade Wall Dials Up Details On His Unmade Sequel [Phantom Limbs]
phantom limb /ˈfan(t)əm’lim/ n. an often painful sensation of the presence of a limb that has been amputated.
Welcome to Phantom Limbs, a recurring feature which will take a look at intended yet unproduced horror sequels and remakes – extensions to genre films we love, appendages to horror franchises that we adore – that were sadly lopped off before making it beyond the planning stages. Here, we will be chatting with the creators of these unmade extremities to gain their unique insight into these follow-ups that never were, with the discussions standing as hopefully illuminating but undoubtedly painful reminders of what might have been.
For this entry, we’ll be taking a look at When a Stranger Returns, the unproduced sequel to the 2006 horror remake When a Stranger Calls. Joining us for this chat is screenwriter Jake Wade Wall, who discusses how the idea for this project came about, where its story would have gone, and why it ultimately never happened. In addition, Mr. Wall points out in advance that the story details are somewhat sparse, as the sequel never made it to the scripting stage.
For those unfamiliar with When a Stranger Calls ‘06, a quick recap: expanding the opening act of the 1979 original to feature length, the story concerns Jill (Camilla Belle), a teenage babysitter in charge of spending the evening watching after the Mandrakis children in their wealthy yet secluded home. With the children asleep and the night wearing on, Jill begins to receive strange phone calls from an anonymous stranger (voiced by Lance Henriksen). As bizarre events occur and the calls becoming increasingly threatening, Jill ultimately finds herself in the fight for her life and she attempts to protect herself and her charges from the shadowy Stranger (Tommy Flanagan) who has invaded the Mandrakis home. After an intense third act, the tale eventually wraps up with the Stranger in custody, but with Jill left to wrestle with the fallout of the psychological trauma she’d endured over the course of one terrifying night.
Tommy Flanagan as The Stranger in ‘When a Stranger Calls’ (2006)
Given the remake’s success (nearly $70 million worldwide on a $15 million budget), the open-ended nature of its finale, and the fact that there was plenty of story left to mine from the rest of the original ’79 film, a follow-up seemed like an inevitability. Indeed, a sequel titled When a Stranger Returns was in the offing, and yet hasn’t materialized in the near-fifteen years since the remake’s release. So what was the plan for Returns? “Originally, I don’t think there was much thought of doing a sequel. They wanted to see how the original would perform before that even came up. But, in turning the original into the remake, one of the things I did was … I’m a big fan of the original When a Stranger Calls. When I went back and rewatched it before I did the project, I was blown away that what I thought was almost the whole movie, which is the babysitter sequence, was only pretty much the first fifteen minutes. As a kid, I of course thought it was much longer than that. So when I went in to work on that, my angle was, ‘Why don’t we do the full length babysitter version of this? It’s never been done.’
“We were all very surprised by its success. We were very pleased by that. And I think because I only used the first ten or fifteen minutes of the original film for the remake, and because it was a success, we thought ‘Okay, there’s clearly room for a sequel here.’ What we had originally discussed was the concept of having it basically unfold the same way as the original did. Have Jill then later become a mom, and blow that out to an entire film where she goes through the same experience now as a mother, not the babysitter. And so, it was basically taking that original movie and making the first remake and its sequel, in essence, the same [as the original].”
Mr. Wall continues, describing how much planning went into the story before the project was ultimately abandoned. “There was a lot of talk about how to structure that, and when to do it. Because if we were to follow that path, with Jill as a mother now, then we had a problem with Camilla Belle, who was absolutely fantastic in the original. There was a discussion that, if we did that version of it, we’d have to wait a few years because she was quite young when she did the original. Carole Kane, on the flip side, was older and could play older, but could also play young. The studio just thought that we just needed to give it some time to let her age into it. There was also, in that process … I was working out how that would unfold, where it would feel like a new angle of her going through something similar. Because there was that issue of, ‘Well, we’ve got time on this because our actor has to age a bit’, we never actually got to writing the script. It was more the idea phase. It became a project that … the more I would work on it and sketch out how it would look, Screen Gems in the interim became quite successful with their remake films [which included Quarantine, Prom Night, and The Stepfather]. So I think, because they had a series of other successes, there stopped being an urgency to ‘Oh, this is our one hit title, so we have to have to do a sequel to it.’ They were then coming up with quite a few remake successes.”
Beyond Jill being the mother this time around, where else would the story have gone? “A couple of the concepts that I thought would be important … yes, if you borrowed from the back end of the original movie, it’s Jill’s [film]. But I thought that, if we were going to do this again, and make Jill be the mother, we would still want to make it a two-hander and introduce a new babysitter. I wanted to contrast what the current babysitter does – in essence, kind of all the wrong things. And Jill, being the babysitter who did all of the right things, is now the mother who’s kind of placed the safety of her children in someone who she trusts, but … I didn’t want the new babysitter to be a bad character. But I wanted her to basically do the things that most normal people would do that weren’t that smart, that continues to jeopardize the scenario, which forces Jill to come home and take up the leading role again. Now not just to save her own children, but also the babysitter.”
Camilla Belle as Jill Johnson in ‘When a Stranger Calls’ (2006)
In addition to Jill’s story, the original ’79 film also featured a supporting character in the form of John Clifford (played by the excellent Charles Durning), a detective on the killer’s trail. Would Clifford have made an appearance in Returns? “I love him. I thought he was so fantastic in the original. But I felt stylistically, when I did the first one … if we were going to do the remake all about Jill’s night in the beginning, we had an opportunity to contrast the tone [in the sequel]. Because Charles’ portion of the movie is very much a cop/psychological thriller, and the fun of When a Stranger Calls is the slasher portion of it, I think. There was some discussion about pulling in a character like him and giving him some weight, to honor that original character. But because we didn’t actually get to draft, I never got to see how that would have played out. But I did want to honor him and that character in the sequel, because I felt like adult Jill would need to use someone like him in a scenario where she’s even more helpless, because it’s her own children and she’s not there.”
Given that the original film had its own sequel with 1993’s When a Stranger Calls Back, one wonders if Returns would have been made with an eye toward continuing the franchise with yet another installment. “You know, I think it’s such a fun concept. So many people have played around with the babysitter thriller. I do think if we had made the sequel, and it was an equal success, then there would clearly be room to now continue the franchise and perhaps pass it on to the new babysitter in the sequel. But I do think there would be room.”
The conversation turns at this point to Simon West, the director who helmed the ’06 remake. Would he have returned to direct the sequel? “I don’t know what those conversations would have been. I loved Simon. He was fantastic. Had the sequel moved forward, and he had been interested, I think it would have been a fantastic match.”
Now that we’re coming up on the remake’s fifteenth anniversary, it’s worth noting that more than enough time has now passed for Camilla Belle to have aged into the role of an older Jill. So is it possible that Returns could still happen after all these years? “I would like to think as time passes that there’s still an opportunity to fulfill that sequel. Sometimes the concern with a sequel is the speed with which one gets one out. But in order to do this one according to what we had discussed, it kinda feels like the more time that goes by, the better the opportunity to actually do it. But there’s also the notion in this business – ‘Is there even a desire to create a sequel so many years later?’ That would be the conundrum. I’ve been around this business long enough to know that those are really impossible questions to answer. I would say that it would definitely be a possibility, and it would be a possibility that I would be thrilled to be a part of.”
In finishing up our conversation, Mr. Wall offers his final thoughts on When a Stranger Returns. “To follow a lead heroine fifteen years later, and to put her through a situation where she’s encountering the same monster that she thought was gone, but going through the experience with the wisdom of a young adult and mother now – I think it would be a really rich film. And ironically, I think it would be even more timely in today’s world. It’s always interesting when you go through an experience when you’re a teenager, and you look back on it and reflect on it with the wisdom of years and you think, ‘Wow, I would have done this different, or I would have done that different.’ I think that would have been a really unique, fun way to go through a horror movie. With our heroine, clearly out of danger now, having to go back reflectively and seeing what she would have done differently.”
Very special thanks to Jake Wade Wall for his time and insights.
College kids, strippers and vampires—those were Donald P. Borchers’ only requirements when he approached Richard Wenk about writing and directing a movie for New World Pictures. As requested, Wenk cooked up Vamp (1986), a tailor-made blend of the decade’s teen movie craze as well as its horror boom.
Grim and earnest stories were still very much a part of the ’80s horror landscape, yet Vamp is something of a comedy. One difference between it and, say, Saturday the 14th, though, is the former avoids using schtick. Wenk’s movie proves that horror comedies also don’t have to subtract thrills from their recipes. Of course, it takes a minute before reaching that point; college antics and culture shocks preface this one macabre misadventure.
Vamp‘s initial setup is apt for a typical college-set, sex-driven comedy; to bribe their way into a fraternity house, two pledges (Chris Makepeace, Robert Rusler) go looking for some adult entertainment. Without wasting time on any further exposition, the characters embark on an all-in-one-night trip that quickly detours into terror.
To procure their elusive MacGuffin—a stripper willing to gyrate for some frat boys—Keith (Makepeace) and AJ (Rusler), plus a third wheel named Duncan (Gedee Watanabe), trade the safety of their remote college campus for the seediness of some unnamed city. The setting is recognizably L.A. by day, but as soon as night falls, downtown, along with the characters, slips into a kind of surreal universe. Director of photography Elliot Davis gave this early entry on his prolific résumé an unusual yet distinctive look; that Mario Bava-esque, magenta-green lighting is omnipresent, so much so that it’s almost its own character.
Chris Makepeace and Robert Rusler in Vamp
The faint comparisons to Martin Scorsese’s After Hours are merited, although not just because of Vamp’s distinguishing nighttime aesthetic. Save for the primary characters, the supporting roles in Wenk’s movie are also quite colorful and transactional in their behavior. The difference here, though, is the additional urge to ruin Keith and his friends at every turn. Some of that harm is humorous and tolerable enough, whereas the moment Vamp dishes out its first fatality, it’s abundantly clear how this movie qualifies as horror.
Vamp falls into that category of horror movie that reveals its genre with a scream rather than a series of whispers. The opening scene can function as a hint of what lies ahead—things are not at all what they appear to be—but otherwise, Wenk is more than happy to hold off on the horror. When that time does come, though, it catches the viewer off guard. In addition to the pure shock value is that sudden decision to upend the movie’s foremost feature. Or so it would seem.
If afraid of major spoilage, those new to Vamp would be wise to stop reading here. There’s just no skirting around the fact that the central fellowship in this buddy movie hits a serious snag when AJ is killed. That development causes the story to become more of a “long, bad night” journey for Keith and his romantic interest. So while Wenk scores points for subverting expectations, there is also a touch of sadness in his decision. Because if Vamp does anything well, it’s making the characters likable.
Something that comes easily to Vamp—and other teen horror movies from this same era—is its ability to invent young characters worth caring about, or at the very least, are interesting and not so immediately off-putting. More impressive is how Wenk did all this without actually fleshing out those characters. Still and all, Keith and his kind are a grade above cookie-cutter, and in some cases, aren’t completely devoid of growth.
Grace Jones in Vamp
Vamp appeals with an assorted cast of characters. No two are the same, nor are they operating on the same wavelength. The cinematically extroverted AJ, whose actor conveyed charm and vulnerability in near equal amounts, comes alive when he’s at his most undead. Makepeace then makes the chronically cautious Keith a sympathetic fellow, even as he’s more and more affected by the night’s bizarre events. Meanwhile, Duncan is indeed the designated loser of the whole bunch, but Watanabe still manages to humanize him. As a bonus, the role didn’t require him to pull a Long Duk Dong.
As for Dedee Pfeiffer, she is plain adorable as the mysterious After Dark server nicknamed “Amaretto”. She spends all night fixing her dress strap while at the same time trying to get Keith to remember how he knows her. As their offbeat romance grows, it becomes another highlight of this movie. Whether or not Pfeiffer’s character is really a vampire also creates some welcome tension in the story.
Like a lot of its contemporaries, Vamp went on to become a bit of a cult classic. That current status is determined by several factors, but without a doubt, the casting of Grace Jones is the most considerable. The image of her writhing on that unique-looking chair, a Keith Haring original, springs to mind whenever this movie is brought up.
Chris Makepeace, Billy Drago and Paunita Nichols in Vamp
Prior to that first display of unequivocal horror, local vampire queen Katrina (Jones) took to the stage and delivered a strip show like no other. One would expect nothing less from that renowned model and performance artist. By now reports of Jones’ tardiness on set are no secret, yet it’s also hard to deny her commitment to the part of Katrina. It was, in fact, Jones who took charge of her character’s appearance—on top of Haring painting her body and that now-iconic chair, she had Andy Warhol handle her costuming. And not too many actors could seize a room’s attention without saying a single line of dialogue.
In 2022, Vamp received a retrospective novelization from Encyclopocalypse. This literary union of preexisting source material—Wenk’s original screenplay—and new ideas from author Christian Francis amounts to a more comprehensive visit to the After Dark Club. The basic story there is no different than what’s shown on screen; however, Francis gets creative with the characters’ origins and designs, and he enhances a number of key scenes.
The novelization expands on the urban and social decay of the main setting, and supplies a background for the After Dark Club. Sandy Baron’s character, Katrina’s emcee and familiar, is given ample motivation for sticking around; up until the fiery end, he is loyal to his friend and former business partner “Squeak”, who looks like he was “fed through a combine harvester, and left as nothing more than a heap of mangled remains”. Then there is Billy Drago’s character Snow, the leader of a street gang called The Dragons. His reason for menacing Keith and AJ is more altruistic than in the movie; he and his peers act tough to scare off any potential food for the vampires.
Lisa Lyon in Vamp
If not for all the backstories, Francis’ Vamp would be a hell of a lot shorter. Instead, this tie-in read dives into how AJ met Keith—the orphaned Anthony Joseph hailed from a broken home back in Brooklyn—and how their friendship flourished over the years. Keith’s archership is no longer just an assumed part of his entire being; it’s a confidence-building extracurricular for a boy who got picked on before coming into the protection of the new kid in town. These supplemental, in-depth looks at the protagonists, plus their close connection, are maybe unnecessary. The movie already did a fair and concise job of addressing their platonic intimacy without the need for flashbacks and insights, specifically in that scene where AJ lays it all out as he sacrifices himself.
Where the novelization gets off course is its approach to the minor characters. Intermittently backstorying the likes of Katrina’s indentured servants, Seko (Leila Hee Olsen) and Vlad (Brad Logan), ends up disturbing the flow of the writing. Was it absolutely essential that readers know Vlad was the Grand Duke of the House of Romanov, or how Snow’s accomplice Maven (Paunita Nichols) became so dentally challenged? No, not really. However, one’s mileage with these random biographies may vary.
The novelization is a more substantial experience, but for a movie like Vamp, less is more. And as plentiful as they are, it never simply coasts on its campy charms, either. The character work sits comfortably in that realm between cursory and meticulous, the script is sharper than first realized, and Greg Cannom’s vampire makeup is straightforward yet effective. Most of all, the movie didn’t squander its out-of-the-box concept. Richard Wenk made his vision of a “comic nightmare in which just about anything that can go wrong does” come true, and it is very enjoyable.
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