A woman alone in a cabin in the woods. A mysterious man knocks on her door. The game begins...
This is the perfect film for fans of mystery and intrigue. Like a two-person play, the characters toy with each other, making the viewer sense these two know more than they are letting on. So, we have to try to listen more carefully to what they say and play along. Malcolm McDowell and Madolyn Smith handle their situation effectively and play against each other with ease. Sure, the outcome may seem far-fetched to many viewers, but that's the beauty of this film--you never in a million years would have guessed that THAT was what was going on! Any other solution would have made this a standard "TV mystery", but this one gives you a swift kick and makes sure you are very surprised. It's too bad little gems like these don't get better coverage, even in the magazines that deal with obscure films. Don't try to analyze it too much, but it sure is fun having a brain-teaser for a film as well as be entertained. For such an obscure film, this one is amazingly smart and deserves a more attention. I'm quite confident word of mouth would secure its success this time around over 20 years later.
Update August 2011: A DVD-R is now available as part of MGM's Limited Edition Collection. In 2010 Intrada released Richard Band's soundtrack score on CD, but in a limited edition of 1,000 copies.
The Caller
1987
Action / Crime / Drama / Mystery / Sci-Fi / Thriller
The Caller
1987
Action / Crime / Drama / Mystery / Sci-Fi / Thriller
Plot summary
One night, a seemingly friendly stranger appears at the door of a secluded house in the woods. He asks a woman living there to use her phone because his car broke down. Friendly chatter quickly turns into a game of insinuations, implications and accusations. The two seem to know each other somehow and they are playing a bizarre mind game, where the woman gets points for finding holes in the stranger's story. The next day, they meet again in the nearby town and he gives her a lift to her house as their little game continues. It eventually becomes clear that he's suspecting her of murder of her husband, lover and daughter, which she vehemently denies. Who or what is he, why is he playing this game of accusations with this woman and where is her family or, for that matter, the neighbors or the townspeople? The revelations turn out to be shocking and the stakes of their odd game higher than imaginable. But can she actually win it or was the game fixed from the start?
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
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An intense game of cat and mouse, with an ending you'd never guess in a million years!
bad ending
A woman (Madolyn Smith Osborne) lives alone in a house in the woods. A man (Malcolm McDowell) knocks on the door asking to use the telephone.
This is a two person play with strictly two characters. The first half is a lot of dancing around the issue while revealing a few things. Something is off and I kept wondering. They must be connected somehow. Then the two of them go back into the world. There is an obvious solution to this premise. There is a way to wrap up this movie but the last act takes a really weird turn. It's an unexpected turn and it's not good. I can't abide by this ending.
When Strangers Meet
This one stars Malcolm McDowell and Madolyn Smith Osborne. She lives in a small house in the woods, and one evening McDowell knocks on the door. His car has broken down. May he use her phone. After some hesitation, she agrees. He makes the call, agrees to 15 minutes, and then while waiting, he and Miss Osborne get into a creepy, mind-game conversation. Later, they meet in town, where they hold more creepy talks. What's going on?
When it comes to playing a creep, McDowell has little competition. Here he pitches his voice as a tenor and uses a mid-Atlantic accent that is clearly artificial to let us know he's a phoney, even though we don't know how. Miss Osborne is good too. However, the ending is thoroughly dumb.