For baby sitters, it's the scariest question since, "Gee, I'm all out of cash, can I pay you tomorrow?"

	"WHEN A STRANGER CALLS" Rating: PG-13 for intense terror, violence and some language Starring: Camilla Belle Director: Simon West

It's "Have you checked the children?" It terrorized the baby sitter played by Carol Kane in 1979's "When a Stranger Calls" and is back in a toothless remake with the same name.

This time, however, the movie is a cautionary tale about what happens when you go over your cell-phone minutes. High school student Jill Johnson (Camilla Belle) went 800 -- yes, 800 -- minutes over because she and her erstwhile boyfriend were thrashing out the fact that he kissed her best friend.

Jill's parents have grounded her and are forcing her to baby-sit to earn money to pay the bill. That is how she ends up at a modern manse out in the middle of nowhere in Colorado.

The children are asleep when she arrives, the parents set the alarm system before they leave and Jill initially attributes strange noises to the housekeeper rambling around upstairs.

But mysterious, then menacing phone calls start and the housekeeper disappears and the police, at first, won't take Jill's concerns seriously. They do when they call her with this news: "Jill, we traced the call. It's coming from inside the house!" (That was a much more effective gambit in the days before cell phones.)

The gruesome game is on, only this time it's not as gruesome or as scary or as interesting. The remake is PG-13, while the original was R and, when Carol Kane finally checked those children, the results were darn disturbing.

In the '79 version, the killer is sentenced to a state mental institution and escapes after seven years. A cop turned private investigator (Charles Durning) vows to catch him, and the baby sitter is now old enough to be married and have children of her own, putting everyone in jeopardy.

The remake, directed by Simon West ("Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," "The General's Daughter" and "Con Air") and written by Jake Wade Wall, shaves off the first third of the original story and expands that into an entire film.

It feels bloated. It resorts to tired tricks to make the audience jump, from the unexpected appearance of a friend to the spooky presence of a black cat to the repeated ringing of the telephone.

Belle is on camera for almost the entire film as Jill, vacillating between being fearful and fearless. In the end, however, the house is the star of the movie, with its woodsy, lake setting, glass walls, fancy fixtures and atrium, complete with fish pond and birds flitting around.

In nearly 90 minutes, I only had one moment where I felt mildly alarmed. That's if I don't count the ending, which seems to set the stage for a remake of the sequel, "When a Stranger Calls Back."

If he does, I suggest voice mail.