The Caller (1987)

I just have to write a review for this absolutely nonsensical and awful movie. Believe me, the movie starts off promisingly, as a typical low budget 80's thriller with a beautiful woman and her invisible stalker who peeps at her from public payphones. Then
 we follow her home through a deserted forest where the woman notices a broken down car with a broken doll inside the glove compartment. At home, she is seen getting ready for a shower as the same stalker peeks through her glass doors and windows.

 The woman who is not named throughout the movie, senses someone's presence and immediately makes a call to her daughter Allisson who lives far away and we hear the woman say that she would take care of everything and that she would make her daughter proud of her. The woman then begins to prepare dinner for a night visitor(probably her boyfriend) when she hears a sound and goes out to the courtyard. She notices that the back tyre of her vehicle has been deflated with a glass bottle and this makes her edgy.

Up till this point, the audience would be in rapt attention, waiting for the stalker to show up and start playing games with her. But nothing comes out of this expectation since soon enough a mysterious stranger(Malcolm McDowell) appears at her doorway and asks for shelter as his car has broken down at the edge of the forest. He calls up the tow-away service and asks for a lift back, and while he waits, the woman and stranger become engaged in conversation. The woman gives no explanation of why she lives in such isolation but states that her husband was killed in the war and that her daughter is away. The man says he is British from London and that he has a girlfriend. Then there follows a bizarre talk on murder and the woman attempts to stab the stranger but he knocks her down. When the woman tells him that she is expecting a guest, the stranger(or caller) prefers waiting outside.

Over the next few days, the stranger follows the woman everywhere, even at her home and breaks into her home several times. The two set out exposing the lies and inconsistencies of each other's stories- the man says she killed her husband, child and lover and that she hangs dead dolls in her daughter's cupboards; the woman says that the stranger has never been to London and that his car never broke down. Through this strange rambling and intense conversation, one would be hoping for a glimmer of reason and logic to both character's motivations.

But unfortunately, the movie tries to be too complex for its own good and thus ultimately fails to appeal to even the most far-fetched imagination possible. There is a half cooked and unconvincing love story between the two characters which leads nowhere and then there is the woman who appears to accept the stranger in her life without knowing his intentions. It is just a clumsily executed attempt where the two people seek to pry open the secrets and lies in the other's life with apparently no meaning. And to top it all, there is the ending which is so idiotic that I am sure that even the feeble attempt of the filmmakers to build a story falls flat on the face. The 'twist' ending converts the 'so called thriller' into a sci-fi movie where the stranger reveals himself to be an android who has been appointed to prevent the woman from getting back to civilization. It seems that the woman has been separated from her daughter and her husband and lover have been murdered and she herself has been isolated by a group of machines who wish to control human emotions, which attempt is of course part of some experiment. Seems like a 'Brave New World' project right ?

It is futile to even try to reason with the script or the aspirations of the film team which wanted to make this movie. Why did they want to make this movie ? Is there a hidden meaning to the words of the two characters ? It is better if these questions remained unanswered.