| “ | Have you checked the children? | „ |
| ― Curt Duncan |
Curt Duncan is the main antagonist of the 1979 psychological horror film When a Stranger Calls. He is a brutal serial killer who uses his bare hands as his only weapon.
He was portrayed by Tony Beckley.
History[]
1979[]
Curt hides upstairs at the Mandrakis house when Jill Johnson arrives to babysit. Dr. Mandrakis and his wife quickly leave and tell her that the kids are upstairs sleeping off a sickness. Curt, at some point, brutally murders both the children and calls Jill from downstairs - at first just silent calls but then asking her "have you checked the children?", she panics when she thinks the anonymous caller can see her.
One of the occasions, Jill manages to keep Curt on the phone, to which he threatens her life. He is then angered when she tells him that she has called the police. Jill is about to leave the house at the request of the police when she sees Curt watching her from the top of the stairs and she races out for help.
The police arrive and arrest Curt but instead of jail, a jury send him to a mental asylum.
1986[]
After years in the asylum, Curt manages to escape and is on the run. He hides out a a bar after stealing clothes and sees a woman, Tracy, drinking by herself. He tries to flirt with her and offers to buy her a drink but she rejects him multiple times, and each time he tries again until he is beaten to the floor by one of the bar patrons and kicked out. He follows Tracy home all the way to her hotel room and invites himself inside. She gently lets him down and suggests he leaves.
The next night, Curt breaks into her hotel room and hides in Tracy's closet to wait for her. When she returns, she screams for help as she notices him and a private investigator (and the officer who arrest him originally, Clifford) comes to save her. Curt runs through the city in a long chase, and soon realises Clifford doesn't just want to take him in, but also kill him (having been hired by Dr. Mandrakis). He manages to evade capture in the streets of L.A.
While Jill Johnson is out for dinner with her husband, she gets a call from the restaurant from Curt asking "have you checked the children?". She and her husband Stephen race home to check on her babysitter and children and the police arrive too, but everything seems fine. Curt sneaks into the house at night and knocks out Stephen, traps him in the closet and hides under the bed covers. Jill gets in bed, thinking it's her husband.
Curt reveals himself to Jill's horror and attacks her. But just as he is about to kill her with his bare hands, is shot multiple times by Clifford and dies.