Editorials
‘The Caller’ – Why You Should Watch This 1980s Hidden Horror Gem
While I appreciate all kinds of horror, I do have a special fondness for movies about telephones. Particularly from a pre-cellphone era. That sense of aural menace is more tangible with a landline connection. However, my expectation for 1987’s The Caller, one solely based on the title alone, was not met upon first viewing; there are no menacing phone calls here. In fact, the titular use of “caller” in director Arthur Allan Seidelman and writer Michael Sloan’s movie is referring to a visitor. My disappointment was fleeting, though, because this story still offers plenty of mind games. The psychological terror is now done at an arm’s length, and with it comes a bizarre ending that seals this movie’s status as a hidden gem.
What stands out about The Caller is its small cast. The dialogue and scenery would suggest a larger group of characters is in store, but the movie is really carried by just Malcolm McDowell and Madolyn Smith. Smith, whose role here is simply credited as The Girl, is first seen walking around in a small town somewhere close to her rural and isolated cabin. She buys groceries, then fills up her car at a gas station. Her sense of decency — leaving money for gas when she can’t find an employee to pay — indicates this is a fair and safe place to live, yet the approaching danger comes from far beyond this area, not to mention is more vague and strange than anything this movie’s contemporaries were delivering at the time.
At first The Caller sets itself up to be more of a straightforward horror movie. But don’t be fooled by the cold open — an unknown party swings an ax down at a photo of The Girl — or any other misleading evidence, including a formulaic prelude to the eponymous character’s arrival. A lone woman showering at a cabin tucked away in the woods, drops of blood going unnoticed, and a sinister camera POV that gives the impression of stalking. Everything so far is textbook slasher. Once McDowell does show up to use the phone for his car troubles, the movie gradually slips into a different change of clothes.
Pictured: Malcolm McDowell in The Caller.
Even though there is no marauding murderer afoot, The Caller (McDowell) is shady from the first moment he turns up. Indeed this random Brit is not met with a warm welcome from his soon-to-be host for the evening, but The Girl was caught off guard; she was anticipating a different guest. Smith’s character caves to the unshakable ways of her polite upbringing, however, there is a sharp edge to her voice, her words, and her mannerisms that imply The Caller is unwelcome.
The movie’s middle portion is a long and tense back-and-forth between McDowell and Smith’s characters. The longer they wait for a tow truck that never comes, the more hostile they behave. This growing display of aggression robs the story of any true uncertainty or realism; it’s clear that The Caller and The Girl are not strangers, and strangers wouldn’t act like this unless they shared bad history. Nevertheless, how they know each other remains hidden for a significant stretch.
With this being a two-hander, the performances are key to its success and your engagement. And McDowell, a seasoned actor both known and celebrated for his scenery chewing, is shockingly restrained here. He tends to take command, but Smith is no slouch. She matches McDowell scene for scene, and she is often the more intense of the two performers. Because of that, you never quite know whether or not to trust The Girl, in spite of our natural inclinations with the horror genre.
Pictured: Malcolm McDowell and Madolyn Smith in The Caller.
The Caller is one of those movies that should be watched more than once. If not for pure entertainment value, then for the sake of catching what you might have missed the first time around. Pointed and allusive words, curious actions, and sudden character choices all serve a purpose. Nothing said or done by The Caller or The Girl is unimportant in the long run. For that reason this movie is less meandering than first let on. The talky and often nonsensical writing is all part of a clever approach to the absolutely nutty conclusion. Over time, this movie slowly slides the rug out beneath our feet rather than yanks.
Despite your initial reaction, the ending doesn’t come completely out of nowhere. Especially if you look and think back on what all transpired before it. Once again, however, there were enough clues along the way; it was just a matter of figuring out what they meant and how they fit together. Having said that, there is still the unlikeliness of guessing this exact outcome.
If you count yourself as an ‘80s horror connoisseur, you won’t want to miss out on this movie. There was really nothing quite like it back then. The Caller slipped through the cracks for a number of years, but now it’s been unearthed and is ready to take a whole new generation of viewers by surprise.
You can now buy The Caller on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome.
Pictured: Malcolm McDowell and
Madolyn Smith in ‘The Caller’ (1987)
The penultimate season of Tales from the Crypt (1989–1996) aired its first three episodes on October 31, so it’s understandable that at least one of those three stories is set on Halloween.
Sandwiched between “Let the Punishment Fit the Crime” (Russell Mulcahy, Ron Finley) and “Whirlpool” (Mick Garris, A. L. Katz & Gilbert Adler) is the most severe episode of the bunch. Maybe the entire series? William Malone and Dick Beebe’s “Only Skin Deep” traded the show’s typical sense of fun for startling amounts of bleakness and kink.
“Only Skin Deep” is, apart from the Crypt Keeper’s intro and outro, noticeably unfunny. There are no considerable attempts at making the viewer laugh. Come to think of it, if those bookends had been replaced, and there was more of a sci-fi element in the story, HBO could have easily squeezed this tale into that successor anthology, Perversions of Science (1997). In Crypt, though, “Only Skin Deep” is much too grim for an audience that had become accustomed to campiness and levity.
What makes “Only Skin Deep” feel dark, among other things, is its protagonist. Showing up to a Halloween party where he’s not welcome, and where his former girlfriend (Diane DiLasco) is attending, Carl Schlag (Peter Onorati) first comes across as your standard bitter ex. You soon realize it’s much worse than that, once Carl threatens Linda (“You know, silly me, thinking I gave you what you deserved. If I’d have done that, I’d have killed you”). Now, I haven’t forgotten that Tales from the Crypt was teeming with vile men who did women harm. Yet Carl’s brand of misogynistic menace hits differently—it borders on being too realistic for this kind of series.
Mike Vosburg’s EC-style comic cover for “Only Skin Deep”, as seen in the Tales from the Crypt episode.
Despite donning a party mask for much of the episode, Carl can’t ever mask his true nature. The invitation did say “come as you are”, after all. That inability to change and be better, however, is why Carl ends up in such a karmic predicament. His outburst of anger at the party attracts the attention of one loner partygoer named Molly (Sherrie Rose, who was also in Season Four’s “On a Deadman’s Chest”). Her bone-white, featureless “mask” and body-bag costume don’t initially register as too strange, especially on a night like this. But at a party chock-full of colorful, cartoonish, and lighthearted ensembles, it does look out of place.
Darkness attracts darkness as Carl ditches the party and accompanies the mysterious Molly to her place. Which, by the way, should have been an immediate red flag. But perhaps she’s so hot, he doesn’t seem to mind the serial killer aesthetic. Resembling a warehouse that has been converted into living spaces, but never then decorated to remove the cold, industrial look, Molly’s home (or lair) is as gloomy as this whole episode feels. It’s like the set of a grungy music video, albeit a tad cleaner. The environments in a typical Crypt episode tend to be small, overfilled, and broken-in. Warm, regardless of any weird goings-on. All that empty space in Molly’s hovel, on the other hand, elicits a creepy feeling that Carl was unwise to ignore.
Tales from the Crypt featured more sex than it didn’t, but hands down, “Only Skin Deep” boasts the steamiest scene in the show’s history. Pushing it over the line, in addition to Onorati showing bare buns and the camera never turning down one of his pelvic thrusts, is the twisted dirty talk. Carl stays in the moment, whereas Molly unleashes charged lines like “the hurt, the anger, give it to me” and “take it out on my flesh like you want to”. It’s all quite kinky, as well as tied into the story’s theme of pain.
How else “Only Skin Deep” differs from other episodes is its twists. Or rather, its lack thereof. Nothing comes as a great surprise here, particularly because the deuteragonist’s ulterior motives are so obvious. By no means is Molly a wolf in sheep’s clothing; her face is a fright mask, she practically reeks of death, and she lives in what can best be described as a serial killer’s hideout. That last-act revelation of Molly’s mask really being her face is also nothing shocking. Cleverness is certainly not this episode’s strength.
A page from “…Only Skin Deep!”, as seen in EC Comics’ Tales from the Crypt.
While “Only Skin Deep” isn’t the most universally loved episode of Tales from the Crypt, it’s an interesting preview of William Malone’s future as a director. Most notably, he went on to helm House on Haunted Hill (1999) and FeardotCom (2002), the former of which was co-written by Dick Beebe, this episode’s writer. Dark Castle Entertainment, that genre house founded by Crypt producers Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler, was instrumental in bringing out Malone’s gruesome, over-the-top vision in House on Haunted Hill. However, FeardotCom and Malone’s Masters of Horror episode, “Fair-Haired Child”, are the most stylistically compatible with “Only Skin Deep”.
As one might guess, this episode is nothing like its source material. The “…Only Skin Deep!” found in the pages of EC Comics is set during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and save for its last couple of pages, is pretty sweet in nature. There, a man named Herbert is enamored with a woman he met five years prior to the present-day story. Every year, he has come down to Mardi Gras to see Suzanne, who’s always dressed as a hag-faced witch. Well, this time, Herbert plans on popping the question and marrying someone who is, for the most part, a total stranger. Suzanne accepts his proposal, but with one condition: they stay in costume until they’re officially hitched. You can probably see where this is going…
Once they are married, Suzanne remains incognito, even when she and Herbert have consummated their vows. A semi-predictive nightmare then rattles Herbert; he dreamt that Suzanne’s real face was as wizened as her mask. Finally, in his haste to find out the truth, Herbert winds up killing his new wife. Faceless and well on her way to bleeding out, the dying Suzanne manages to say she never wore a mask.
For more traditional EC-style ghastliness, your best bet is reading the comic. It’s wickedly sad. For something less conventional, as far as Tales from the Crypt goes, the role-reversing adaptation is worth watching. It’s not the best this show had to offer, although Malone’s visual style, plus the sexual abandon, does set the episode apart. If nothing else, “Only Skin Deep” leaves an impression that, even years later, shows no signs of fading.
Season Six of Tales from the Crypt can be streamed on Shudder, starting on June 5.
Tales from Tales from the Crypt celebrates the show’s Shudder premiere by singling out one episode from each season. So don’t even think about changing that dial, boys and ghouls. More spot-“frights” are to come.
Carl discovers Molly’s collection of human ‘masks’ in the Tales from the Crypt episode, “Only Skin Deep”.
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