The Phone Call

Music by Larry Cohen

Married computer salesman Michael Henderson (Michael Sarrazin) goes away to a weekend seminar with his co-worker Ben (Vlasta Vrana). Bored and lonely in his hotel room, Michael decides to call up a phone sex hotline Ben introduced him to and begins chatting with the husky-voiced Carey. Not long into their conversation, Michael discovers he's been redirected to the wrong place and is actually on "The Man Line" talking to a dude. Disgusted, he calls Carey (Ron Lea) a "sick bastard," hangs up the phone and goes about his business. Unfortunately for him, Carey turns out to be a down-on-his-luck ex-con (and psycho) who doesn't take lightly to being insulted. He uses Michael's name and credit card information to track him down at the hotel and then shows up in person demanding an apology. Michael refuses, calls hotel security and has him dragged away, but not before Carey leans in and gives him a nice wet one on the lips, which his co-worker sees. When Michael returns to work, it doesn't take long for him to realize that Ben has spread it around the workplace that he's gay, which causes problems with his homophobic boss (Harold Ryshpan) and others. And that's just the beginning of Michael's problems when Carey begins to stalk and terrorize both him and his family.