What? This movie has NO user or external reviews?! It was moderately notorious if little-seen at the time for being a late entry into the thriller subgenre in which gay people are painted as being inherently unbalanced and thus easily given to murder--in the tradition of "Windows," "Cruising," and (later on) "Basic Instinct."
Michael Sarrazin--who played such sensitive guys in the 60s and 70s that it's embarrassing he accepted this wildly insensitive job--plays a married businessman on a trip who succumbs to an urge and calls a paid sex-talk line. When he realizes the voice on the other end isn't a husky-toned female but a man, he freaks out and calls the phone sex worker various names. Oops! Latter is a psychotic queen who then sets about stalking and terrorizing our hero and his loved ones.
Crafted with routine B-movie professionalism, "The Phone Call" is formulaic nonsense that was obviously pitched as "'Fatal Attraction' meets homosexual panic!," if not in so many words. It's deservedly obscure, I suppose, although if you're looking to howl at an instantly- dated movie's ridiculous exploitation of "gay" as "twisted," this is worth seeking out. Another is "Mercy" (made in 2000!), with Ellen Barkin as a cop enticed into "edgy" sexuality while investigating a series of kinky S&M lesbian murders. Gee, my lesbian friends' lives are exactly like that! All murdering and bondage--plus kids and mortgages. It's a somewhat better- crafted movie than "Phone Call" but still a jaw-dropper.
