Okay so Shawnee Smith and Tammy Lauren (along with the much younger Candace Cameron Bure) aren't exactly playing the wacky duo who "invented" post-its, but their characters are nearly the same, dizzy yet likeable, making prank calls on struggling composer Robert Carradine. He has just killed the girlfriend trying to break up with him, so they pick the wrong time to prank him. He's spotted trying to bury her so his tension is very noticeable when they keep calling him up. He is also dealing with an older brother who is trying to worm out a place to stay, and they deal not only with Smith's annoying little sister, but "mango man", a spooky looking neighbor who sells fruit door to door. David Carradine joins his brother here as the opportunistic older brother, but I think he would have been better cast as "mango man".
A much better version of the story than the 1965 original, this basically cut out the Joan Crawford character from the original, so the camp element is missing, but in this case, that's a good thing. Smith and Lauren are much better than the two girls from the original, playing an immature joke which puts them in jeopardy. Robert Carradine, as far from "Revenge of the Nerds" as he can possibly be, rather dour as a character but quietly sinister which is a subtle way of making the character much more dangerous. By changing much of the plot and the way it is developed, this becomes a much more traditional thriller, moving at a very fast pace and never lacking in the tension. I wasn't expecting much having disliked the original so I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed it. No award winner, it's a pleasant and intense time filler that puts a different swing on a story that has been redone in many different ways.
A much better version of the story than the 1965 original, this basically cut out the Joan Crawford character from the original, so the camp element is missing, but in this case, that's a good thing. Smith and Lauren are much better than the two girls from the original, playing an immature joke which puts them in jeopardy. Robert Carradine, as far from "Revenge of the Nerds" as he can possibly be, rather dour as a character but quietly sinister which is a subtle way of making the character much more dangerous. By changing much of the plot and the way it is developed, this becomes a much more traditional thriller, moving at a very fast pace and never lacking in the tension. I wasn't expecting much having disliked the original so I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed it. No award winner, it's a pleasant and intense time filler that puts a different swing on a story that has been redone in many different ways.