Are You in the House Alone? (1978)

I should probably start by stating that I don't regret watching "Are you in the House Alone?". On the other hand, however, if I had known from beforehand that this was primarily a family melodrama rather than a psycho stalk thriller, I never even would have bothered. The least you can say is that certain things here are slightly misleading. Yours truly is a horror fan! With such a title, film poster and plot synopsis like these, I was expecting a horror/thriller but there isn't a single casualty. I'll be the first to admit there are a few suspenseful moments and, more importantly, the film features many eerie trademarks that later would be copied & pasted in countless of other (and real) slasher movies like menacing phone calls, stalkers' notes and POV camera shots. Sadly, though, that's not what the film is aiming for. Even the whole "mystery" surrounding the stalker's identity is easy to predict, as the stare in his eyes pretty much betrays the perverted rapist quite early in the flashback already. The real story is about the - incredibly cute - teenage girl Gail Osborne of whom we learn at the very beginning of the film that she was raped in her own living room. What follows is a long flashback that clarifies how Gail arrives at a new school and quickly becomes a popular student among the male population of the school; and that includes teachers and boys. She finds disturbing little notes in her school's locker and at home she receives nasty phone calls with uncomfortable silences, creepy laughter and eventually the titular question. For some bizarre reason, there's also a totally irrelevant and dull sub-plot about Gail's father having lost his job and both her parents concealing this for their almost adult daughter. The final act, taking place after the rape, is reasonably interesting but, again, it's drama instead of thrills. Kathleen Beller is an indescribably beautiful lead girl in peril, but if you want to see a truly tense film dealing with similar themes I advise you to check out either "Black Christmas" (1974) or "When a Stranger Calls" (1979)

I think my issue with this film is that I was expecting a very different movie, but I also think it makes sense to expect a different one. It's called "Are You in the House Alone?" and is apparently about a babysitter being stalked by an unknown assailant, but that's really about 10 minutes of the running time. Most of this film is a high school drama about this girl's teen angst and her current boyfriend ... and she receives the odd anonymous note leading into the 10 minutes of not very effective horror. This is not for me.

A format for the 1979 film "When A Stranger Calls". This film actually goes to the way of rape instead of murder but the idea of a young babysitting getting calls from a stranger over and over is the same.A young Dennis Quaid is really good in this one - he plays the bad guy Phil Lawver. Kathleen Beller plays the young, scared babysitter Gail Osborne quite well. The rest of the cast is really good.Some of the first part is boring - a drawn out family drama. But the film does pick up once it gets past all the the character introductions and laid the basis for the rest of the film. It ends up in a question of will the guy be arrested and charged or just walk free.4.5/10

***SPOILERS*** The both buxom-34 C bra size-as well as cute as a Barbi Doll Kathleen Beller is high school student Gail Osborne who at the beginning of the movie is rushed to the hospital after being raped while she was babysitting for a neighbor's child. The film then goes on to show in a number of flashbacks the hell Gail was going through in and out of school with and admirer-or better yet creep-from afar stalking and phoning her as well as leaving crazy and threatening messages that drove her almost to the point of a nervous breakdown.This all began when Gail started dating Steve Pastorinis, Scott Colomby, that seemed to have set off the person who feeling rejected started putting the squeeze on Gail with a number of obscene phone calls as well as letters or notes stuck on her high school locker.Trying to get support from her friends and parents they in fact told her to just forget about it and go on with her life. Things got even more worse for Gail when she found out that her dad big time architect Neil Osborne, Tony Bill, got laid off from his job forcing her mom Anne, Blythe Danner, to were the pants , by getting a job as a real estate broker, in the family which is why her parents took her being harassed so lightly.****SPOILERS**** It's later that Gail together with her boyfriend Steve took matters into their own hands by setting up a trap for the person who's stalking as well as raped, he still didn't learn his lesson, her to get caught red handed when this time around, when caught with his pants down, tried to murder her. The ending was anything but satisfying for Gail in that her rapist using an insanity defense almost got away all Scott free to commit rape again but only being expelled or forced to leave school due to his parents money and political clout in town. But the good point in all this is wherever he goes to school and collage if anyone is raped he'll be the #1 suspect and, if in fact he did it, not be able to get away with it as easily as he did with Gail Osborne.