Murder by Phone | |
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Directed by | Michael Anderson |
Screenplay by | Michael Butler Dennis Shryack John Kent Harrison |
Story by |
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Starring | Richard Chamberlain John Houseman |
Cinematography | Reginald H. Morris |
Music by | John Barry |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | New World Pictures [1] |
Release date |
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Running time | 95 minutes |
Countries | United States Canada |
Language | English |
Murder by Phone (also known as Bells and The Calling) [2] is a 1982 science fiction slasher film directed by Michael Anderson. Its plot follows a series of murders committed by a disgruntled phone company employee who designs a device that kills victims when they answer their telephones.
The movie was preceded by a novel called Phone Call written by the screenwriters Michael Butler and Dennis Shryack by author Jon Messman. It was published in 1979, three years before the film version. It is never credited in the film's credits. The link was mentioned on the cover in later editions of the book. [3]
Murder by Phone was filmed in 1980 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. [4]
It was known as Bells and was picked up for distribution by Roger Corman's New World Pictures. [5]
The score by John Barry is electronic, played entirely with synthesisers. This was a rarity for Barry. Whilst he composed and conducted the score, it was performed by Jonathan Elias and John Petersen. Elias later went on to work with Barry on the scores for Jagged Edge and A View to a Kill.
Murder by Phone was released in the United States on October 8, 1982. [lower-alpha 1]
Leonard Maltin noted the film's cast and direction as being legitimately "talented," but deemed the film a "hoary horror exercise." [7]
Murder by Phone was released on VHS by Warner Home Video in 1984. [8] The VHS was reissued in 1998. [9]
The Face Behind the Mask is a 1941 American film noir crime film directed by Robert Florey and starring Peter Lorre, Evelyn Keyes and Don Beddoe. The screenplay was adapted by Paul Jarrico, Arthur Levinson, and Allen Vincent from the play Interim, written by Thomas Edward O'Connell (1915–1961).
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The Beast with a Million Eyes is a 1955 independently made American black-and-white science fiction film, produced and directed by David Kramarsky, that stars Paul Birch, Lorna Thayer, and Dona Cole. Some film sources have said that the film was co-directed by Lou Place. The film was co-produced by Roger Corman and Samuel Z. Arkoff. and was released by American Releasing Corporation, which later became American International Pictures.
Bog is a 1979 American independent horror film directed by Don Keeslar and starring Gloria DeHaven, Aldo Ray, Marshall Thompson, and Leo Gordon.
Don't Answer the Phone! is a 1980 American psychological horror film co-written and directed by Robert Hammer. While not prosecuted for obscenity, the film was seized and confiscated in the UK under Section 3 of the Obscene Publications Act 1959 during the video nasty panic.
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The Vampire is a 1957 American horror film produced by Arthur Gardner and Jules V. Levy, directed by Paul Landres, and starring John Beal and Coleen Gray. Its plot follows a San Francisco physician who inadvertently ingests pills laced with the blood of vampire bats, leading him to take on vampiric qualities. Like 1956's The Werewolf, it offered a science fiction take on a traditionally supernatural creature, although the films were produced by different production companies.