User reviews

Brian De Palma has often come in for some flak over the years, his penchant for sticking tight to Alfred Hitchcock thriller formula has been the source of much consternation in certain quarters. Yet when you view something like Peter Hall's Never Talk to Strangers it rams home just how welcome it is to have Hitch like thrillers at least done well!

Rebecca De Mornay is a troubled shrink who whilst dealing with the mind games of a serial killing loony (Harry Dean Stanton), meets sexually charged Latino guy (Antonio Banderas) and indulges in passions unbound. Then she starts to get very unwelcome presents in the post...

The erotic thriller has been well trodden, and will continue to be so for sure, so it feels a little churlish to decry Hall's movie for coming off as a weak willed imitator of previous purveyors of the sub-genre, but this blend of Silence of the Lambs meets Sea of Love - cum - Dressed to Kill - cum Fatal Attraction etc etc just comes across as a cheat. And that's because it is!

The makers know this and try to hide their ridiculous folly behind eroticism as the two lovely looking headlining stars get sweaty and wet, indulging in sexual play that's as powerful as the surroundings (Banderas lives in a loft apartment resplendent with metal cage and wrought iron doors). But, or should that be butt? The mystery element is weak, the suspense equally so, while the back story of De Mornay's father (a key character) is hopelessly under developed.

Then there is H.D. Stanton, stealing every scene is he is in, quid pro quo indeed, yet he's hardly in the film, which ultimately proves to be a tragedy as the plot hurtles towards its implausible and risible revelations. Red herrings come and go as quickly as Becca and Tony's underwear (the continuity editor should have been sacked along with the writers because of one scene BTW), and even though Pino Donaggio scores the music with customary swirling qualities, this just comes off as a piggyback tactic...

This is a poor thriller in spite of two very committed and visually attractive perfs from the leads - and of course Stanton's knowingly sleazy turn. Seek this out only if you think Body of Evidence is in the upper echelons of erotic thrillers. 5/10

Yes, the plot devices were, at times, obvious. Yes, there were clear hints to the outcome in the early stages of the film. Yes, some of the acting wasn't great.

But, I didn't think it was that bad, and (forgive my ignorance in psychiatric matters if this is wrong) that implausible either.

I think, in acting terms, it was a general disappointment in the two main star actors who have done much better work than this. But don't be too harsh.

This is one of the worst movie I have ever seen. It's a thriller with a rather ridiculous ending. I watched this movie hoping for the best and instead found something truly bad. the movie starred two actors that I like very much, Rebecca DeMornay and Antonio Banderas. Sure they had decent chemistry together but for what? The movie's premise was bad to begin with and the execution just made it even worst.

Miss DeMornay plays Sarah Taylor, a psychologist trying to analyze a convicted serial killer whose defense hinge on multiple personality disorder. That pretty much will give you a hint to where the movie is going and the identity of the killer. Early in the movie she gets an unexpected visit from her father. This being made in the 1990's when the bad daddy was the in thing in Hollywood is another clue to the ultimate conclusion.

Mr. Banderas plays a mystery man named Tony Ramirez, who comes into Sarah's life. The whole first meeting and first encounter between Tony and Sarah is so badly done and so unconvincing it makes you wonder how it even got shot. And there's a sequence where the two of them are supposed to be knowing each other that is so sappy it doesn't seem to belong here. One thing that I would admit was that there was a sex scene that's very hot. Anyway creepy things start to happen after he arrives, weird packages arriving, things falling off the wall that could kill Sarah, incident that say things aren't normal anymore.

Overall the movie was badly conceived, the editing at times seem jumpy, and the conclusion was laughable. Another thing that bugged me about this movie was the whole Orchestral music playing in the background. A more subtle musical score would have been better. I have to say this, no matter how bad the ending was, Miss DeMornay was very good in that sequence. It's sad that she never got first rate materials in her career. She's that rare combination of talent and beauty.

I like mystery / crime movies where you try to figure out what is going on. In Never Talk To Strangers you have constant questions about who could be the stalker of Rebecca De Mornay. There is a constant tension between her and Antonio Banderas, sexual and mysterious, and it's a delight to watch. I thought both actors gave us a perfect performance in this movie. I read that some people thought the ending was so obvious. Well I can categorically tell you they are lying. Not in a million years you see the end coming. I would never have guessed and unless you saw the movie before or you read spoilers you will never guess either. And that's what makes Never Talk To Strangers special. If you like that kind of movies, with twists and turns, then this one is definitely worth a watch.

Rebecca De Mornay can be a fascinating beautiful actress but as for the parts she's given to play,if you cannot say something nice...

De Mornay portrays a woman who had terrible traumas as a child with a father she can hardly stand now that she's a grown up and has become a -of course brilliant- shrink.She has an affair with Banderas ,whom we suspect of being (ouch!how original!) a serial killer.Sometimes she recalls Banderas's mother-in-law Tippi Hedren's character in "Marnie" .But I wouldn't count on it:Hitchcock died twenty-four years ago ,and a lot of regents desperately try to replace him .Here the director pulls out all the stops to make a thriller with an unexpected end,but that ending is so far-fetched it is absolutely impossible to buy it.The movie includes the obligatory "conversations with a serial killer" in the "silence of the lamb" tradition,murders (human beings and cats),split personality,and open ending in case the crowds should call for more.Apparently they did not,and they were right.

This Thriller was received poorly on it's release, this is unfortunate as I found much to like here.

Firstly I liked the main musical score running throughout the film and the Director was quite clearly going for a Hitchcockian feel, which only partially succeeds though.

The chemistry between the leads is excellent and the scenes containing both DeMornay and Banderas are the strongest and most watchable. I have to say I did not think Harry Dean Stanton put too much effort into his part as he was not all that convincing and Dennis Miller was just plain irritating. Len Cariou was okay as DeMornay's father, but really the two leads are the main focus and the main reason to watch this. The love scenes although a bit lengthy were stylishly made and did not detract from the film, the ending although a bit of a stretch was at least surprising and acted fairly convincingly (although I am no shrink).

So although being far from a classic I certainly thought it was far from being the worst thriller. I would rate it above the Meg Ryan effort "In The Cut" & Ashley Judd's "Twisted" along with Sandra Bullock's "Murder by Numbers" to name a few.

My rating 6.6 out of 10

A more or less typical thriller made special by Rebecca De Mornay's awesome performance. She is the executive producer of this picture and must have badly wanted to do this role -- I'm glad she did.

She plays a psychiatrist evaluating whether an accused serial killer is competent to stand trial. It becomes obvious early on that she was drawn to psychiatry because of her own severe emotional problems and difficult past. In the meantime, we are shown troubling relationships with men appearing in her personal life. An upstairs neighbor badly wants her, but she wants only to be friends. Her father shows up out of the blue seeking affection and assistance, but she resists him, and it is obvious that their relationship and her childhood were deeply troubled. A stranger (Banderas) she meets in a store ardently pursues her, and they begin an affair, but she has difficulty trusting him, both because he is something of a suspicious character and because, as she tells him, she has difficulty trusting anybody. Their relationship becomes volatile and angry, tinged with violent overtones. Then there is the issue of her ex-fiancé, who vanished abruptly and without explanation just before the scheduled wedding.

As happens in these kinds of films, she is sent a series of mysterious messages and packages with no return addresses. Then violent things start to occur. Someone is clearly trying to terrorize her, but who? So many suspects -- Banderas? The upstairs neighbor (who is of course jealous of Banderas)? The serial killer, acting through friends outside of prison? Her father? The ex-fiancée? I did not anticipate the answer to this question, revealed of course at the film's end, but it was not an especially unusual conclusion for films of this kind. What made this picture worthwhile was De Mornay's utterly believable portrayal of, let us say, a difficult character, reminiscent of what she did in "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle". She is simply great at this kind of thing, besides being classically gorgeous.

The other acting is fine, but no one stands out. Banderas is always good, but in this one he is mostly eye candy for the ladies. Harry Dean Stanton as the serial killer is suitably menacing and crazed, but this picture is really all De Mornay. I found it a bit slow at times, but the last 20 minutes or so made up for the weak spots. Definitely worth watching.

I really liked the plot and directing and acting in this movie. I thought this was one of Ms. De Mornay's greatest dramatic roles I've seen her in. No corny bimbo performance here, great dramatic acting combined with good soundtrack and story-line! It has mystery,intrigue,romance, and spice! I'll even use a word I don't usually use and say the "love scene" playing in the snow and flashing back and forth was the best I've ever scene in a movie! Ms. De Mornay is underrated and all the nude scenes I've seen of her are classy and in good taste.

While it has holes, character-wise, such as; why wouldn't Sarah know her ex-fiancée's sister or his cousin already? Somehow, it's still easy enough to get caught up in the mysterious Tony and his motives in pursuing Sarah, and hey, anyone who doesn't melt when Tony is holding the wine glasses, pouring the wine for Sarah as she enters his apartment has no romantic soul! There was a good combination of mystery, suspense and sex. I recommend this movie to anyone who wants a thrill!

Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

I like this sort of picture, the kind of mystery in which you can't pick out the murderer until the end of the movie. It's not billed as a mystery, though, but that's what it is. Although primarily a mystery, it spends a lot of time as a romance between the two principals, and then switches gears before the onset of tedium. As a result, there is a considerable dead spot in the middle of the film, which may have influenced some reviewers ratings.

As I mentioned, the ending is quite clever and the picture keeps you guessing, since there are few suspects to choose from and the ending was unexpected. Rebecca De Mornay was good as the heroine and Antonio Banderas was even better as the romantic stranger. Len Cariou plays her father in a wasted role. Banderas is often better than the material and does not seem to take himself seriously, as witnessed by the number of crummy movies he has appeared in.

"Never Talk To Strangers" is an absorbing, if uneven, murder mystery which has been given short shrift by reviewers on the IMDb website. If you rent it, give it a chance. I'll bet you won't guess the secret to the ending.

Enjoyed the plot to this story and some very torrid scenes and horrible blood and gore all put into one package. Rebecca De Mornay,(Dr. Sarah Taylor),"Wedding Crashers",'05, played a shrink who was dealing with a mental case in a prison and also had a husband who was a doctor in the same hospital. One night on the way home from the hospital, she meets up with a young woman in the middle of the road in a very dark woods near a bridge. It is at this point in the picture that things really go crazy. As the story progresses, Sarah meets up with Antonio Banderas,(Tony Ramirez),"The Legend of Zorro",'05, who manages to hit on Sarah and gets a date and plenty more interesting torrid events. There are many twists and turns to this mystery tale and the ending of this film may greatly deceive you.

I've been trying to think of a word to describe the main characters in this movie, and the best one is incongruity. A macho-looking Puerto Rican named Tony (Antonio Banderas) dressed in a leather jacket with big silver rings on most of his fingers turns out to be a wine expert and an ex-cop with a great sense of fun and takes his sex either kinky or romantic. An up-scale psychiatrist named Sarah (Rebecca DeMoray) is evaluating a murderer, Max Cheski (Harry Dean Stanton) for Multiple Personality Disorder while she goes through extreme moods shifts. She falls for Tony, who doesn't seem to be her type, yet ends up being the perfect guy to help her with her sexual repression and problems with trust.

This movie doesn't quite work as a thriller. It's poorly written and directed. Too many thriller clichés like the over-use of camera shots, quick cuts, and blaring, screeching music at "shocking" moments. There are a number of stalker suspects - is it Tony? Neighbor Cliff? Dad Henry? Cheski? Yet I never believed any of them to be credible suspects. At no point was I ever on the edge of my seat worried about her being with any of these so-called suspects.

The clues, at least, are nicely woven in. Although it makes a sartorial and editorial error when it gives us a clue about the real stalker - the film unwittingly rules out one of the suspects, yet keeps on trying to make us believe he's one of them. I had a sense of who it was by the end. Although I found things about it distasteful and not well presented. I was surprised a couple of things, so I didn't guess the entire ending beforehand.

I found DeMoray's acting go from passable to over the top at times. The only one who actually makes this movie watchable is Banderas, who manages to do some good things with the poor material he's given. When the film wants to be an erotic thriller, he's the one, not surprisingly, who gives it the eroticism it wants, not DeMoray. Not that they lack chemistry, but she's not as up to the job as he is. When the film wants light, fun romantic moments, he's the one brings them to the film. When the film wants serious dramatic tension, Banderas serves it up. Sometimes, DeMoray either seems to lag behind him or goes over the top in an effort to match him.

In spite of it's flaws as a thriller, once you know what's really going on and watch it again, it makes for a decent drama (as long as you ignore the annoying overdone "shocking moments.") Second time through lets you actually understand the whys about things. Unfortunately, most people aren't going to want to watch this thing a second time.

The ending to this movie was easy to guess. Just think of the stupidest possible way to end it. This movie is like one of those long, drawn-out jokes that takes 5 minutes to tell, only to set up a unfunny punchline. Save yourself the time and watch the last 10 minutes first. Then you won't have to watch the rest of the movie.

Hi there from 2021. Boy, it's the first time I disagree with the IMDb rates so much! It actually pushed me to create a channel and comment.

I remember I put this movie on in the middle of my Banderas binge-watch, not expecting much, and - because of the rates - waiting for it to go bad any second. But to my delight, it didn't!

The plot got me involved. Sarah seemed to be surrounded with truly vicious men, so I started to suspect each one of being the bad guy. But I still didn't see the final twist coming.

While pondering on the suspects, I also enjoyed the way a sexual tension between Sarah and Tony was pictured. They click with each other! Especially it's seen while compared to "Original sin" (another erotic thriller with Antonio). Even though I find Angelina Jolie astonishingly beautiful, in that movie I didn't feel any chemistry between her and Antonio at all, but here I saw a genuine passion between him and Rebecca De Mornay.

I also really liked some power moves from Sarah - they were not that common for 90s, so they added spice to the picture.

To sum up - I recommend to watch this movie, if you are in the mood for light mysteries, blood-boiling sex scenes and esthetic of 90s. It's interesting, relaxing and pleasent for your eyes.

I don't recommend it, if you are into super-scary stuff or expect to tempt your intelligence with highly difficult riddles.

I remember seeing this film one night on TV scrunched between a Very Brady chritmas and Benji gets stuck on a Leg. This film is a pretty standard thriller with Banderas being a typical bad guy who does the main things in a psycho-thriller to the victim). Not too great of a film to watch, unless your a fan of the actors. And I think co-star Dennis Miller said it best in a rant on animals a few years later- (Come to think of it, I'm an animal. Where were the animal rights people when I signed up to be in that f***ing Rebecca De Mourney film a while back?). And he might've been right, I think. C+

This thriller is a bit rough-edged, but a lot of people like that sort of thing. Rebecca DeMornay was the at the top of her game around this time (early to mid '90s).

GOOD NEWS - Overall, an interesting and involving story, especially in the second half. The movie is capped by a surprise ending I defy anyone to guess correctly. There are a few steamy scenes, too.

BAD NEWS - No likable characters, too much profanity; a few minor holes in the story; an obvious feminist bias and DeMornay's foul mouth and morals are pretty rotten for a psychologist, the character she plays. The guys - Dennis Miller and Antonio Bandaras - play pretty sleazy characters, too.

OVERALL - Interesting movie but too sleazy a feel to it.