Elizabeth Ashley (with one of the unappealing mullet-like 70s hairdoes) plays a divorced mother who starts receiving calls froms someone who claims to be her dead nephew Michael (he ran away 7 years before and his remains were identified by his jacket). The calls intensify. The local doctor and the sheriff meet strange deaths. Is a ghost calling her, is Michael alive, or is someone playing a trick on her? Her ex-husband (Ben Gazzara) investigates along with Michael's child-psychiatrist older brother (Michael Douglas).

This seventies made-for-TV movie adapted from a novel by John Farris (THE FURY) is creepy even if the story itself is rather routinely told. The calls aren't that creepy at first until the voice screams and says "I'm dead, aren't I?". The film manages some nice chills throughout but the actual shock moments are telegraphed by the music and the editing. Co-star Marian Waldman and co-director of photography Reg Morris would go on to work on BLACK CHRISTMAS together. Although the film was shown on TV as WHEN MICHAEL CALLS, the DVD I saw has the title SHATTERED SILENCE (it didn't look video generated).

Any other 70's TV horror films on DVD under other titles?

Canadian sitcom legend Al Waxman also appears in this Canadian-lensed TV-movie. Farris' novel was adapted by James Bridges, who went on to THE PAPER CHASE and THE CHINA SYNDROME, which Douglas produced. MICHAEL isn't top-drawer, I don't think, but its setting and cast set it apart from the slew of very good TV chillers that hit the airwaves during the 1970s. I saw this on cable a couple of years ago, I think on Fox Movie Channel, so it isn't hard to find.

My buddy Michael Karol is working on a revised second edition of his small but concise book on the ABC Movies of the Week, fyi.