The urban legend lives on. Teenage girl goes to big and/or creepy house in the middle of nowhere; girl gets creepy phone calls; girl stays around the house anyway; girl gets more phone calls; girl calls police but still stays in the house; girl gets even more phone calls and girl inevitably meets the attacker in some malicious way.

That urban legend is recycled in Simon West’s “When a Stranger Calls,” a remake of a 1979 film of the same name. Camilla Belle plays Jill Johnson, a high schooler sentenced to baby-sitting as punishment for running over her cell phone minutes. She gets to the house, and as night falls – dunh-dunh-dunh – the creepy phone calls start right on cue.

Sony Pictures

Although “When a Stranger Calls” falls into the categories of “bad horror film” and “unnecessary remake” automatically, it doesn’t do anything to try to redeem itself from its almost assumed fate. The story has been seen in many other films, from the “Scream” series to the “I Know What You Did Last Summer” franchise.

The movie doesn’t have enough substance in its basic plot to stand on its own, so it has to rely on a weak subplot about a catty high school fight between Johnson and one of her friends to try to up the scare factor. Although this plays a minor part in the overall story, it really doesn’t pertain directly at all to the fact that Johnson is now prey in a box to an unseen predator.

There’s nothing wrong with retelling a story, but the trick to being successful is to either produce a bang-up remake or to make the old story new. “When a Stranger Calls” certainly is a forgettable film, but what’s even worse is that it doesn’t offer any sort of new spin to give the story the force it needs to justify being remade.

The last half hour of the movie does pick up the pace a little, however. Johnson discovers that not only is her complaint to the police about the harassing phone calls legitimate, she’s also in mortal danger because – gasp – the calls are coming from inside the house. Cue the scary music and the frightened children, who until now have been absent from the film. Up until this point, it is just 45 minutes of watching a girl walk around the house and continually answer the phone.

The editing is much quicker in the ending, and there’s more to watch with the serial killer chasing this baby sitter and the two children around their own home. Although the ending is scary enough for people who frighten easily, fans of horror films will probably think the last 30 minutes are still a yawner.

Perhaps the worst mistake on the film’s part is that it reveals the biggest twist it can offer in the trailer by not hiding the fact that Johnson’s attacker is, in fact, inside the house with her and the children. On top of that, when the killer is finally revealed, there’s nothing particularly special about him that leaves him to be feared for some new and disturbing reason.

The film falls short when it could turn an old urban legend on its head and leaves audience members feeling that “When a Stranger Calls,” they should hang up.