Dial: Help (1988)
A Killer What?
Some sort of demon or spirit that works through phone lines. Its powers manifest as using tones to kill fish or hypnotize people, sometimes it manipulates electrical devices, sometimes it makes quarters shoot out of pay phones like a machine gun, sometimes it just straight up strangles people with a phone cord.
Is It Any Good?
Meh. The movie is directed by Ruggero Deodato of Cannibal Holocaust fame and while I obviously didn’t expect something that intense I expected something maybe a bit more exciting.
The movie concerns an English model living in Italy who is being menaced by some sort of supernatural force coming through the phone lines. The phone menace loves her and when she doesn’t return his affection he begins killing those close to her.
If you’ve seen 80s Italian films then you’ve seen this one. An ethereal and beautiful woman with striking bone structure runs around a city to music that’s way more exciting than anything happening on screen, bad acting, ridiculous scenes of violence. The movie certainly delivers on the killer phone premise but when it really cuts loose with the insanity it’s pretty tepid. I wanted an 11 and it gives about a 4. The best bit of insanity the movie gets is the lead character in full lingerie (garter belts and all) gyrating around like an idiot in the greenest bathwater I’ve ever seen.
I suppose it’s a perfectly serviceable picture but it didn’t particularly hold my attention and it’s not good enough or bad enough for me to consider revisiting.
Watch, Toss, or Buy?
Toss it.