Are You in the House Alone? (1978)

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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)

A teenage girl is plagued by harassing phone calls. Her fear mounts when she is babysitting at a neighbor's home one evening and the caller rings her at that number.There seems to be an effort to get this film marketed as a horror film. IMDb says it is one, Scream! Factory is selling it as one, and the title and cover strongly suggest a horror theme. While it is certainly a situation that would be terrifying to anyone in real life, that does not make it a horror film. It is more a "crime drama" or some such thing.That being said, it is not a bad movie if you go in under proper expectations. A young Dennis Quaid gives a powerful performance, Blythe Danner does her part, and the rest of the cast is quite good. The story is fairly tight in its script.For horror fans, what may be worth pointing out is that this film actually predates "When a Stranger Calls" by a year. Although the calls in this film are not coming from inside the house, there is a similar feeling and possibly a connection (though it could just be coincidence).

The title is a bit misleading on this TV movie, in that we expected a horror film. What we actually get is a reasonably decent high school bullying/stalking drama, with the long-haired Kathleen Beller as the victim. The plot also deals with a rape that goes unpunished, truly edgy material for a 1970s family TV flick. Beller plays a high school senior who starts getting nasty phone calls and notes from a stalker. The adults in her life do not handle the situation particularly well, and she begins to withdraw into herself. There is no end of suspects, to boot. Blythe Danner plays her high-strung mom and Dennis Quaid is one of her fellow students. Looks like it was filmed in a real high school, which helps. But it drags after awhile, and could have been about 20 minutes shorter. Truth is, a little bit of Beller goes a long way. She was a bit exotic looking with her massive mane and big round eyes , but she was not a very good actress.

Are You in the House Alone? (1978) ** (out of 4) Made for TV drama is actually disguised as a horror movie. The film starts off as teenager Gail (Kathleen Beller) is being taken to the hospital after being beaten and raped. We then flashback and see the events leading up to the rape, which include her dating a new guy, being made fun of by her old boyfriend and having several other men set themselves up as red herrings. The first hour builds itself up as a horror movie in the same vein as BLACK Christmas but things take a turn in the final act when the rape happens and I must admit that the movie got rather disgusting to me. This was made for TV so everything is very tame but at the same time I thought the rape stuff was very poorly handled and in the end it come off more distasteful than anything else. To make matters worse is the fact that the build up really isn't anything special because it's obvious from the first five minutes who the attacker is going to be. I caught onto the bad guy right from the start so each additional red herring they threw at me had little effect. The screenplay is full of those "made for TV" holes but that's to be expected. Beller does a pretty good job in her role, although she does go over the top from time to time. Scott Colomby stole the film for me with his very strong and believable performance. Dennis Quaid has a nice supporting part and Ellen Travolta (John's sister) also has a small role. This TV movie seems to have a decent cult following but there really wasn't enough here to keep me interested.