The Night Caller

In THE NIGHT CALLER, Beth Needham (Tracy Nelson) loves listening to her favorite radio personality, Dr. Lindsay Roland (Shanna Reed), who gives advice to help those with "low self-esteem". We're shown early on that Beth has more than just self-esteem issues. She seems to see Dr. Lindsay as more than just a radio doctor. In fact, Beth "sees" her in "visions".

When Beth calls into the radio show, the good doctor gives her some advice. Now, all the creeps in her life had better watch out! Soon enough, even Dr. Lindsay isn't safe!

In a movie like this it's all about the central star's ability to act like a lunatic. Well, Ms. Nelson gets it done. She plays Beth as an utter crackpot with a definite dark side. As the bodies pile up, Beth gets more unhinged and her reasoning gets more absurd.

If you're looking for a serious, suspenseful thriller like THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE, then you're out of luck. However, if you've got a hankering for a more humorous sort of "ferocious female" film like THE LANDLADY, then you've just hit pay dirt!

A rollicking rib-tickler with a boffo finale!...

This is one of my favourite films. People like to dis it because they don't understand it. They were looking for scary and got comedy. Or they were looking for comedy and got twisted. Either way, the film was just excellent. Tracy was so cute and I just love when she is talking to her rabbit. WATCH IT! Go!!!

Tracy Nelson, who couldn't give a bad performance if she tried, takes center stage in NIGHT CALLER, a neat little no-budget thriller about a deranged woman who becomes obsessed with a radio talk show host and who will let no one come between her and her new "friend." As Nelson worms her way into the life of her radio lady, the bodies begin to pile up like cord wood. Nelson is on in almost every scene, and captivates as the sad, delusional child of a drunken, physically abusive father and a bossy, overbearing mother. The killings, of which there are plenty and at least one of which is quite bloody, are mostly inventive and almost whimsical, as the movie is not to be taken seriously for one minute. Nevertheless, Nelson makes a believable, and at at times sympathetic, psychopath. This is no THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE, and in truth Nelson is no Rebecca DeMornay, but NIGHT CALLER is still eminently watchable. Interestingly, Nelson's two co-stars in this (Shanna Reed as the radio lady and Cyndi Pass as a co worker) were both former dancers of a certain type. You can easily tell. This is one of those B flicks Hollywood turns out by the hundreds every year that keep a lot of erstwhile adult video stars employed.

Beth Needham (Tracy Nelson) is a childish, repressed psycho who snaps and develops an extreme fixation on kind, sensitive radio psychologist Dr. Lindsay Roland (associate producer Shanna Reed). She kills her awful, chain-smoking mother (the hilarious Eve Sigall, who returns in hallucinations), cashes in some savings bonds and spends the rest of the movie trying to insinuate herself into the doctors life. Anyone who threatens to ruin their budding relationship must die. She calls people things like "snoopy poopy," "baboon butt" and "bossy the cow" before killing them and gets a job babysitting Lindsay's son so she can photocopy her journal and steal her 'April Fresh' deodorant.

Needless to say, THE NIGHT CALLER is absolutely ridiculous, but the script is so chock-full of hilariously asinine one-liners and unbelievable dialogue, that this is one of the funniest "bad" movies I've seen in many years. The actors, all around, are great, too and give a straight-faced go at their roles.

I really like this movie. It's one-of-a-kind for the fact that the killer this time is a woman named Beth who does not indeed appear to be a killer. She looks like she can't hurt a house fly. Beth's infatuation is not your typical jealousy over a man but over a woman. No, she's not obsessed with the female doctor sexually, but she just needs a friend and it seems this kind doctor is the only person who gives Beth the attention she needs and although the doctor is just doing her job, Beth takes it much more seriously and begins to stop at nothing to become closer to this doctor. She gets a job at the doctor's answering service, baby-sits the doctor's son and will do whatever it takes to make the doctor like her more than anyone. Even if it means killing whoever gets in the way!!

Although the movie was good, I was a little confused about some things that I hope get answered through this. Who's eyes are those on the cover?? They're certainly not Tracy Nelson's. What made Beth become crazy?? There's only a split second that explains why she killed her father, but we never know what caused her unusual infatuation especially with someone over the radio!!

Overall, it was a good one!! GO OUT AND RENT/BUY IT!! IT'S WORTH IT!!