HOW was it? , " one of the ushers asked as I left the cinema. "At least it was short, " was the best reply I could muster. Director Simon West is more usually associated with helming blockbusters such as Con Air and Lara Croft Tomb Raider.

Here he tries his hand at a small scale chiller, developed from the similarly-titled 1979 movie about a babysitter terrorised by a mysterious telephone caller.

Screenwriter Jake Wade Wall finds a way to separate the girl - teenager Jill Johnson (Belle) - from both her mobile phone and car, thus isolating her in the remote house where she's looking after two children on a dark and stormy night.

The property is the sort of glass, steel and open plan home that often features in Grand Designs - nice to look at but totally impractical, especially if a phone pest won't leave you alone. Still you know as soon as Jill accidentally presses the remote-controlled gas fireplace that this gadget going to come in handy at the climax of the movie. Before that, she has to endure a night of phone calls, eerie noises, two children who'd sleep through an earthquake and a cat that jumps out at the most inopportune moments.

"What do you want? , " she demands of the persistent caller when he refuses to hang up.

"Your blood all over me, " he replies, making her wish he was trying to sell her double glazing not death threats. Belle offers no particular reason for us to care whether she lives or dies. You're more likely to think that she gets what she deserves for running up such a large bill on her mobile phone.

Nobody else has much chance to register.

Even the killer, billed only as The Stranger, remains an anonymous figure, given the physical presence of Flanagan and the voice of Henriksen.

Stars: Camilla Belle, Tommy Flanagan, Brian Geraghty, Tessa Thompson, Clark Gregg, Lance Henriksen
Running Time: 87 mins
Rating: Three Stars