Minaccia d'amore (1988), which translates directly as Love Threat, but is known in English as Dial:Help, is a horror offering from Ruggero Deodato
(Cannibal Holocaust, The House on the Edge of the Park, The Barbarian Brothers).
Charlotte Lewis plays a model working in Rome, trying to reach a boyfriend by
phone. She is attacked by every phone she comes near. It is bad enough when the
phones drive her crazy with hundreds of voices, try to strangle her, and kill
all her tropical fish, but when they start killing her friends as well,
something has to change. Luckily, her neighbor rides to the rescue. Although
much of his motivation is a desire to bed her, he does help her solve the
mystery.
I found nothing to like about it. Probably the highlight of the film is a
phone change machine in a subway that kills someone by firing coins from the
coin return. So help me, I am not making this up.
And it is a horror film, not a comedy.
Fans of the
writer/director find this his worst by far.
Scoop's note: and that's saying something,
because he never made a watchable film!! In a career filled with crap featuring
bodybuilders in sandals, his best two movies are Italian cannibal extravaganzas!
After cannibals, his #2 genre is murderous appliance films, with this killer
phone film taking a back seat to his legendary killer washing machine flick.
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If you are not familiar with our grading system, you need to
read the
explanation, because the grading is not linear. For example, by
our definition, a
C is solid and a C+ is a VERY good movie. There are very few Bs
and As. Based on our descriptive system, this film is a:
