The Caller

THE CALLER is a very strange psychological thriller put out by Charlie Band's Empire Pictures outfit. It plays out as a two-hander in which a mysterious young woman is visited by an older stranger at her cabin-in-the-woods home, and the story follows their developing relationship which appears to be based on secrets, lies and game-playing. The chief draw here is Malcolm McDowell, who gives a typically eccentric performance, but sadly the actress they've put him up against simply isn't very good. The script is pretty poor too, with little suspense and then a big twist at the end which reminded me of Norman J. Warren's PREY, albeit less effective.

It's one of those movies which is progressively making you question if You are going mad / not clever enough to understand any freakin thing in this picture. Then something happens at the very end, and you go A-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-!..!.!...

...and you are probably supposed to re-watch now actually getting the point of every happening and strange set dressings.

Gotta admit the intriguing third "sci-fi" tag made me watching it in the end, and i was right: it is not just an inconsequential "stranger from the street keeps a naive poor soul on her toes for an hour" type of flick.

But don't ask me what type of flick it really is either, because i'm not sure if we are even expected to fully understand what is going on. All i say is, the film sorta hints at the possibility that The Girl is either the last person alive on Earth, or she is one of the handful of "lucky ones" left, being tormented.

I'm yet to re-watch some time, maybe i will be able to rate higher once i saw these two acting the way they do, now in a different light.

(1987) The Caller PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER/ SCIENCE-FICTION

It opens with the Madolyn Smith character leaving with some money to the gas station attendant after filling the range rover up with gas. And when she leaves the gas station, someone's hand is seen grabbing money after she has left. And by the time she comes home, which happens to be a cottage in the middle of the nowhere, someone appears to be watching her. Bringing packages in, one of the odd packages she brings inside is a hat box that has something dripping at the bottom. She first makes a call to her daughter and as soon as someone knocks on her door, it happens to be the character played by Malcolm McDowell, telling her that he has a flat and wanting to use her telephone. At first, she is reluctant since she says she is expecting somebody to show up for dinner as it was in the middle of the night. And it was at this point the mind games begins when both the Madolyn Smith and the Malcolm McDowell characters begin questioning one another's motives and making suggestions the person may have or might have done, ending with a twist the reason the movie is called "the Caller", and it is not what one would think.

A two person performance of Madolyn Smith and Malcolm McDowell as one is attempting to figure out the other from one day after the next. The ending rivals to anything from the "Twilight Zone" which requires some thought.

A woman waits for a friend to visit, she's prepared a meal, and gone to troubles to look great, she gets a knock on the door, but it's not her guest, it's a man who claims to have broken down, he asks to use her phone.

Madolyn Smith Osborne and Malcolm McDowell are both very good in their respective roles, and credit to them, they really do deliver, they bounce off eachother well, when you consider it's just the two of them that's as well.

After the stereotypical start.....it was a dark and stormy night... etc etc, I was expecting to slate this film, but to my total surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I could well and truly imagine this playing out on stage in an intimate Theatre, this would work perfectly, on film it works just as well. I was imagining something along the lines of An Inspector calls, and I think that's what this reminds me of.

Now I may be wrong, but in some scenes you can see a tank full of fish, and in others there aren't any.

It's a little surreal, but I was super keen to learn how it ended, it was worth waiting for.

Through enjoyed it.

8/10.

The suspense of this movie made me late for work, when I got to work I discovered everyone else was late due to this movie being so suspenseful! The movie description tells you all you need to know. The end is something you must see only because I did, and it's only fair you do too. Will say this though; I didn't see it coming. There really isn't much more to say and I don't want to spoil this for any of you so I will most certainly not do that. The acting is decent, and the direction is very good so this is not by any means a waste of time. I say that because I know this will be the initial reaction of most people.