The Caller — The Caller(Blu Ray)
The Caller was a 1987 Italian production & it was released by Charles Band’s Empire production company, but unlike a lot of Band productions there’s none of the cheesy, camp & playful horror/ sci-fi present here- it’s much more of a sleek, and thought-provoking thriller with light genre traits. The film was directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman- whose been releasing work since the late 1970s with around seventy-plus titles to his name, with his first film been the pretty awful & tacky first Arnold Schwarzenegger picture Hercules in New York- he went onto do a lot of US TV shows, but along the way, he helmed interesting stand-alone films like The Caller.
The Caller starts off with the classic premise of a man turning up at the door of an off-road cabin late at night, with his car supposable broken down. The man is Malcolm McDowell and the house owner is Madolyn Smith Osborne- and that is your cast. From here we get a wonderful & largely mental cat & mouse game between the pair, as the audience first thinks McDowell is the danger, then it’s Osborne that’s the unbalanced/ dangerous one. The film's script is by respected New York writer Michael Sloan(The Equalizer- both films & TV show) it features wonderful twists & turns, with along the way some great moments of tension & heart-stopping stand-offs. Both McDowell & Osborne are really acting their socks off though-out, with a good balance of emotion & punchy trickiness from both. The films largely set & staged at the log cabin, and this mangers to shift nicely between cosy & warming, and slightly creepy & ominous- with wonderful moody & dramatic Cinematographer by Daniele Nannuzzi(Santa Sangre). Towards the end of the film we have a few very impressive effect based moments by John Carl Buechler- but I won’t outline these as they would rather spoil the plot. Following on from that sentiment I won’t detail The Caller’s plot anymore- as this is a film you need to see blind- letting the great & intriguing script & classy acting pull you in. But hands down this is one of the best thrillers I’ve seen in some time.
Moving onto this region A locked Blu Ray and we get a 2k scan from the original 35MM film- this is wonderfully crisp & balanced print- which enhances both the films setting, the surrounding woodlands, the actors close-ups, and the fleeting-if-most impressive effect based moments. For a film from the 80’s the whole thing looks surprisingly undated- as there's nothing strikingly of the decade either in the fashion choice or filming tropes, so that gives the film a very timeless quilty. Moving onto the extras and we get an on-screen interview with the film's director Arthur Allan Seidelman- this runs around the fifteen-minute mark, and finds him firstly talking about how he got to direct the film, moving onto the great set design & how it utilized it to both build tense & push the story forward, he moves onto discuss Carl Buechler effect work & the finished film. Next, we get a just over a nine-minute audio-only interview with the film's writer Michael Sloan- he talks about the challenges of writing a script with just two people in, how the cast was selected, and his vague memories of the film's production- both of these interviews are most interesting, with a good selection of question posed & good/ thoughtful response got.
If you enjoy thrillers that both keep you guessing/ intrigued and cleverly/ subtle blend in other genre tropes then The Caller is most certainly a must. Yet another winner from VS, who stands as one of the most consistent labels around, when it comes to been surprised/ impressed by largely unknown releases.