Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

azathothpwiggins Doremus and Helen Connelly (Ben Gazzara and Elizabeth Ashley) have been divorced for some time, and Doremus takes it upon himself to simply show up at Helen's home. He says he's come to see their daughter, Peggy, which is a violation of their divorce agreement. Soon after his arrival, Helen begins receiving phone calls from someone claiming to be the title character. Helen doesn't believe it, since her nephew Michael died fifteen years prior. Of course, the calls continue, becoming more urgent, eerie, and unhinged. Has Michael somehow returned from the grave, or is Helen losing her mind? Or, is something else going on? Helen is suspicious, and there are plenty of potential suspects for her to choose from. A school of red herrings, so to speak! Then, Michael begins forecasting death and doom, and everything changes. WHEN MICHAEL CALLS is another made-for-TV horror movie from the early 1970's. This was a time when such quality films as this were being made for network television. All these years later, it's still effective, though I do admit to finding Michael's whiny voice a bit annoying! Co-stars Michael Douglas as Craig, and Marian Waldman (BLACK CHRISTMAS, DERANGED) as Elsa Britton...

Bec_son99 An enjoyable atmospheric, psychological thriller; better than you might expect. A little odd and even humorous at times, but that's part of the charm. Pretty good for a TV movie.

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** As if from the grave Helen Connelly, Elizabeth Ashley,gets these weird calls from what seems like her long dead nephew Michael who perished in a snowstorm some 12 years ago.What really shocked Helen was that the caller addressed her as "Auntie my Helen"! A phrase that only Michael called her when he was alive!Pretty good made for TV psychological thriller with a 27 year old Michael Douglas as both Michael's brother Craig as well as the administrated of the local Greenleaf School for Boys and its in house psychiatrist. It's Craig who was left all alone when his mother was institutionalized for mental illness and his brother Michael got himself lost in the woods, where he was found badly decomposed four months later! Thats when Michael flipped out when both his and Craig's mom killed herself a week after she was locked up into an asylum!***SPOILERS****It was up to Craig to find out who was making those strange phone calls to his Aunt Helen in that if it indeed was his dead brother "Michael", who may in fact have survived, he'll have a lot to answer to him for! Besides making life a living hell for Helen "Michael" also went to work in offing those responsible for his mother's both incarceration and later suicide. It's in fact Helen's estranged husband Doremus, Ben Gazzara, who finally figured out who was both behind the eerie phone calls and murders of both Dr.Brittin and Sheriff Washbank, Larry Reynolds & Al Waxman, the two most responsible for Michael and Craig's moms being committed and later suicide. It was only by Doremus surviving being burned alive by "Michael" in a deserted barn that "Michael" directed, by phone, him to that the cat was let out of the bag in what was Michaels true identity! By then his crazy phone call act was about to be exposed! That's if "Michael" didn't get another chance to off Doremus before he got word to the police as well as his wife Helen in just who this "Michael" really is!

Billy I am a big fan of The ABC Movies of the Week genre. I am only 27, meaning I wasn't even born until after the series ended, but I am trying to collect as many of them on DVD as possible. I have about a dozen or so. I had read such wonderful things about this film, both on here and elsewhere, that I was really excited to see it. I just received my DVD in the mail today and watched it anxiously. I'll admit that the first one or two phone calls did give me the creeps - that boy's voice would give anyone the creeps! But it began to ware off fast and the entire divorce subplot was stupid. I also figured out that Michael Douglas was the antagonist about a half an hour before the movie ended. As soon as that story was told about how Elizabeth Ashley's character had locked up his mother, I knew something was fishy. Plus, didn't anyone ever think to ask him why he happened to suddenly appear that night when the fire occurred in the barn? I'll admit that I thought he was coaching a boy at the school to make the phone calls. I didn't guess the mute boy part or the pre-recorded tapes (did they ever say whose voice that actually was? I doubt Douglas could ever get his voice that high?).I am only giving this movie a four out of ten because I actually liked most of the acting in it. Ashley especially is great.It's a shame, because this movie has such a great premise, but oh well, thats what happens sometimes when one gets his or her hopes up for a movie too much.