MovieChat Forums > When a Stranger Calls Back (1993) Discussion > Landis makes no sense.

Landis makes no sense.

posted 11 years ago by rushknight
5 replies | jump to latest

I know he doesn't necessarily have to.. it's just that there don't appear to be ANY motives that are consistent with his character. Almost every part of his behavior creates questions.

(SPOILERS BELOW)

The babysitter is called in at the last second, and yet she is targeted by the psychopath. This raises the following questions:

1. How did he find her?
2. Why did he pick her?
3. Was he targeting her or was he targeting the family?
4. For what reason does he take the kids when his goal was to attack/kill the babysitter?
5. If his goal WAS to take the kids then why risk alerting the babysitter? 6. Especially when taking the children was so incredibly easy?
7. If his goal was the kids, then why does he hunt down Jill later on?
9. If his goal was Jill, why does he keep the kids alive for a few years before killing them (or refer back to the original question, why take the kids at all?)
10. If he DID want to take the kids, for what reason?
11. If he DID take the kids for any reason, why kill them later rather than sooner?
12. If the goal (as another poster suggested) was to kill the kids to prove that they were not safe in a nice house with lots of money, WHY take them at all when killing them works better?

And after he finds Jill again:

1. Why hunt her down to tell her that the kids are dead? She's not the mother and he KNOWS that.
2. What does he want from Jill and why can't he just take it? It's obvious that getting to her is a simple enough task.

Aww I have more questions but screw it, you get the idea. The reasoning behind the antagonist in this movie is screwy to say the least. It didn't scare me, just made me angry as all hell.

[–] Snyder2277 11 years ago

All of those are very good questions and make sense. I wish the movie explained more instead leaving us wondering WTF!!

[–] george.schmidt 10 years ago

Pretty scary that you have more input to this terrible film than the filmmakers

"I'll have a steak sandwich...and a steak sandwich"

[–] engle_james 9 years ago

Cliff explained it all, remember? "There could be a thousand different reasons with a psychopath." Seriously though, I like that many of the questions you raised weren't answered, because in real life, often times a lot of questions do go unanswered. But I will say that, in the movie's defense, Landis had two objectives: 1) To kidnap the kids and 2) To terrorize Julia. If you accept those two objectives, you'll find a lot of your questions are answered. He was targeting the family to kidnap the kids and he apparently enjoyed his torment of Julia so much from their very first interaction that he decided to continue it throughout the night. So that takes care of questions 1-6- his plan was to kidnap the kids, and he got off on terrorizing Julia as he did it. In other words, it wasn't one or the other; he didn't HAVE to terrorize her while he kidnapped the kids, but it was a nice bonus for him.

Then we find that years later, he has apparently killed the children and decided to revisit Julia and terrorize her again like he did that first night. Again, he obviously enjoyed that game of cat and mouse with her so much, he wanted to do it again, especially knowing she would be carrying the trauma of their previous encounter with her. It's hard to say why he killed the kids, but considering he most likely was abusing them in horrific ways, maybe he lost interest as they got older or he didn't think he could control them as well, or maybe they tried to escape and he had to kill them to prevent it. Anyway, that takes care of questions 7 and 9-12.

For the next two questions, Landis wants Julia to know the kids are dead in order to frighten her. I mean, she's already afraid of him because it's bad enough he kidnapped them while they were in her care; but knowing he eventually killed them is even scarier and only adds to her trauma and guilt. He then goes after Jill because he's pissed that she was empowering Julia, plus he realizes she's an even more formidable opponent for him than Julia was. The implication is that he's terrorized women in this manner before, but was never caught.

I know this might not answer all your questions, but maybe it'll help a little.

[–] heisenberg1981 9 years ago

Inflicting psychological torture seemed to be a primary component of Landis' pathology. He toyed with Julia for hours when he could have just gone ahead and killed her immediately. He got off on creating fear and anxiety.

Kidnapping both of the parents' children, only to kill them down the road, is the absolute worst kind of hell you could put a parent through. The months or years of uncertainty (and morbid imaginings of what he might be doing to them in the meantime), culminating with confirmation of their worst fears, would destroy them psychologically and emotionally. I think that's what motivated Landis.

[–] fiatlux-1 9 years ago

Motive? This is what I thought:

I really think he was trying to shatter the 'illusion' that they all had. Remember how Landis was obsessed with 'illusions'?
I think he was trying to tear apart the illusion that they were safe and in control; a happy family with a happy babysitter in a perfect house.

I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus.
Didn't he discover America?
Penfold, shush.