DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE (1979)

[Rev. Powell]

A Los Angeles serial killer rapes and murders women, and calls in to a female radio psychiatrist. This is a stupid, perverted, laughable and sadistic slasher movie; real-deal, unselfconscious 70s grindhouse sleaze.

*Caught this on the Mill Creek "Pure Terror" set, so I assumed it would be the cut version made for TV, but it was the uncut version with all the nudity and rape intact.
*It sounds like a male actor dubbed in the voice of one of the victim's mother on the phone.
*The lead actor wasn't too bad as the middle-aged bodybuilder killer. Naturally he overacted, but you wouldn't want it any other way.
*The scene where he rapes a woman who was molested as a child---which the killer had no way to know---is where the movie goes past any possible line of fun campiness and turns irredeemably creepy. No sane human could write that scene, which plays out like the sickest rape fantasy.
*Psychics were big in the late Seventies, so they bring one in to solve the case, and when he proves he can the cops throw him in jail and then forget about him.
*According to this movie, male cops are better at talking down suicides than female psychiatrists.
*At the climax, I was thinking, "I'll be p**sed if he snaps the handcuffs with his bare hands."
*Choice dialogue: "McCabe, you eat a lot of mayonnaise, don't you? Be careful, it'll go to your brain" and "there's enough porno pictures here to sink a battleship!"

There's a lot that's laughable here, but it's too mean-spirited for me to enjoy. 1.5/5.

[javakoala]

A Los Angeles serial killer rapes and murders women, and calls in to a female radio psychiatrist. This is a stupid, perverted, laughable and sadistic slasher movie; real-deal, unselfconscious 70s grindhouse sleaze.

*Caught this on the Mill Creek "Pure Terror" set, so I assumed it would be the cut version made for TV, but it was the uncut version with all the nudity and rape intact.

Somehow Mill Creek bought up the Crown International catalog of titles, so if you see one in a Mill Creek collection, it should be letterboxed and uncut. Wise move on their part.

Yeah, this flick is a sleazy sickie. It did what it set out to do, which was unnerve and creep you out. I felt that it played things more realistically than a lot of other films at the time. It brings to mind the Harry Reem's movie Forced Entry, but without the hardcore sex.

Did this vile thing EVER play on TV? Even edited, I can't imagine it would play on broadcast TV. Of course, if the attacker was a pretty boy and all the victims were supermodel types, The CW would turn it into a weekly series.

[Rev. Powell]

A Los Angeles serial killer rapes and murders women, and calls in to a female radio psychiatrist. This is a stupid, perverted, laughable and sadistic slasher movie; real-deal, unselfconscious 70s grindhouse sleaze.

*Caught this on the Mill Creek "Pure Terror" set, so I assumed it would be the cut version made for TV, but it was the uncut version with all the nudity and rape intact.

Somehow Mill Creek bought up the Crown International catalog of titles, so if you see one in a Mill Creek collection, it should be letterboxed and uncut. Wise move on their part.

Yeah, this flick is a sleazy sickie. It did what it set out to do, which was unnerve and creep you out. I felt that it played things more realistically than a lot of other films at the time. It brings to mind the Harry Reem's movie Forced Entry, but without the hardcore sex.

Did this vile thing EVER play on TV? Even edited, I can't imagine it would play on broadcast TV. Of course, if the attacker was a pretty boy and all the victims were supermodel types, The CW would turn it into a weekly series.

It was uncut but not letterboxed. I agree, it's hard to imagine you could edit this to make it appropriate for TV. I got that sense from this site: http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=4768.

[javakoala]

Interesting site. I'll check it out.

Yeah, this film doesn't even allow you to sit around with buddies and make fun of it. It's kinda like this video.

! No longer available

[alandhopewell]

      BION, this did play on tv back in the 80's, heavily edited; that's where I first saw it, on the (now defunct) Channel 61's WEEKEND ASYLUM program.

     Mill Creek also has it in this set, which I own presently, having owned PURE TERROR before....



    This is a sick film.

[indianasmith]

I watched that one back in my Navy days.  I remember it being disturbingly violent and chock full of nudity.

[RCMerchant]

I have it on vhs-I'll watch anything with Nicholas Worth.