Don't Answer the Phone!

The fuck. After a lot of these scummy films one recognizes genius - the true texts that reach with bravery towards the bottom of a trash can in a bathroom of a strip club kind of genius - where they pull the contents out with bare hands and say to themselves, "My God, there's something here!" It's a masterpiece of sleaze and casual racism, embracing nihilism and cynicism without apology. There's also a creative impulse here far smarter than what's on display.

Why the hell was this called "Don't Answer the Phone". Not sure if it is but has a '70s made for TV vibe to it. There is a lot of nudity but not as much as I expected from a sleazy cheese fest like this. The acting was pretty bad in general and quite over the top but the killer was suitability creepy, nasty, and psychotic. Ultimately this was an unpleasant viewing experience of a grimy film that got more extreme as it went along.

Há 40 anos estreava nos EUA. Você já viu esse filme milhões de vezes, blablabla, que preguiça. O que me perturba é o nome do diretor ser quase homônimo do grande cineasta inglês Robert Hamer. BlurayRip RARBG.

Boring and annoying. It never seemed to want to end.

Nicholas Worth is a real beast as the strangler, most of the memorable scenes involve him shouting at himself in the mirror. Decent early slasher with loads of nudity.

Though there's a lot of needless nudity, it's never intended to be pleasant, which is worth noting. The two lead characters are fine, most of the script is actually pretty well put together, and Worth's performance as the villain is spot-on. Still, as a whole there's nothing special about this, & though it came early in the slasher era it largely blends in with the hundreds of similar plots that followed it. It's worth a look for hardcore slasher fans, but beyond that it's skippable.

Way too focused on the police and on superfluous scenes (eg. the psychic, the girl on the ledge). The movie needed much more of the killer. I found him interesting, if a bit cheesy. He was really the only interesting thing in an otherwise uninteresting movie. The gratuitous nudity isn't enough to save this from boredom city.

Cult film? I think so, not for me, though.

Nothing Special

Worth commits so deeply to this ill-considered whackadoo role that he pulls to whole film up a notch to must-see status. He lifts weights, he yammers to a statue of Jesus, he sobs uncontrollably, he carries on imaginary conversations with his dad, and he comes off as a slick photographer when need be. He's a sweaty mass of twitchy psychosis. This film was (understandably) made as "The Hollywood Stranger" and retitled to trick people into thinking it was a teen slasher flick.

Bizarre mix of very sleazy slasher with terrible comedy interspersed

Listed as a slasher by many, but it's more of a serial killer / exploitation film to me. It has a very sleazy rep, which is true but nothing we haven't seen in e.g. notorious Gialli. We know the killer from the start and see as he preys his victims. The film has a lot of humor which creates an odd balance with the gritty material, but doesn't ruin the film. Nicholas Worth is convincing as the killer; it may not be Oscar level but he clearly gives his all. Surprisingly good and worth a re-watch.