''Never Talk to Strangers'' is a 1995 erotic thriller film directed by Peter Hall and starring Antonio Banderas and Rebecca De Mornay.

Plot

Psychologist Dr. Sarah Taylor is a guarded, aloof criminal psychologist who interviews a client who is a rapist, and is pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. It is later revealed that she was the subject of daily rapes as a child by her estranged father, who is now shown to be very ill. Sarah meets Tony Ramirez in a shopping mall, and she gives him her number. She begins a relationship with Tony, despite the creepy advances of her neighbor, Cliff, with whom she once had a

one-night stand A one-night stand or one-night sex is a single sexual encounter in which there is an expectation that there shall be no further relations between the sexual participants. It draws its name from the common practice of a one-night stand, a single ...

. Days into this new relationship, Sarah begins to get death threats and strange gifts, such as dead flowers. As she gets more romantic with Tony, the gifts get more extreme. Her cat is dismembered which leads to Sarah going to the police. Sarah then hires a detective and has Tony followed, and breaks into his apartment only to discover that he has a file on her, including information about her mother's death in a gun accident, twenty years before. Tony is actually investigating her, trying to learn the whereabouts of a former boyfriend of hers who had disappeared suddenly. Ultimately, it is revealed that Sarah suffers from

multiple personality disorder Dissociative identity disorder (DID), better known as multiple personality disorder or multiple personality syndrome, is a mental disorder characterized by the presence of at least two distinct and relatively enduring personality states. The di ...

, brought on from her abuse as a child, and from her father brainwashing her to cover up the murder of her mother. Her alternate personality is responsible for all of the strange gifts, and for murdering her ex-boyfriend. When Tony goes to her father's house, Sarah (under the control of her alternate personality) follows him, shoots and kills him there, and then kills her father when he tries to intervene. When Sarah reverts to her normal personality, not remembering what has happened, she presumes that Tony was crazy and killed her father, and that she killed Tony in self-defense. In the end, she is seen entering into a relationship with Cliff.

Cast

* Rebecca De Mornay as Dr. Sarah Taylor * Antonio Banderas as Tony Ramirez *

Dennis Miller Dennis Michael Miller (born November 3, 1953) is an American talk show host, political commentator, sports commentator, actor, and comedian. He was a cast member of ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1985 to 1991, and he subsequently hosted a stri ...

as Cliff Raddison *

Len Cariou Leonard Joseph Cariou (; born September 30, 1939) is a Canadian actor and stage director, best known for his portrayal of Sweeney Todd in the original cast of '' Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'', for which he won the Tony Award ...

as Henry Taylor *

Harry Dean Stanton Harry Dean Stanton (July 14, 1926 – September 15, 2017) was an American actor, musician, and singer. In a career that spanned more than six decades, Stanton played supporting roles in films including ''Cool Hand Luke'' (1967), ''Kelly's Heroes ...

as Max Cheski *

Eugene Lipinski Eugene Lipinski (born 5 November 1956) is a British-Canadian character actor and screenwriter. He was born in Wansford Camp, Soke of Peterborough, England, and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. He began acting at the age of twelve in amat ...

as Dudakoff *

Martha Burns Martha Burns (born 23 April 1957)"Martha Burns ret ...

as Maura *

Beau Starr Beau Starr (born September 1, 1944) is an American actor who has starred in movies and on television. He is known for his film role as Sheriff Ben Meeker in the 1988 hit horror movie '' Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers''; he reprised his ...

as Grogan * Phillip Jarrett as Spatz * Tim Kelleher as Wabash

Reception

''Never Talk to Strangers'' received negative reviews. On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has a score of 15% based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 3.60/10. The site's consensus reads: "''Never Talk to Strangers'' -- and never make the mistake of believing this silly stalker mystery is the best available viewing option". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale. Brendan Kelly of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote: "''Never Talk to Strangers'' is a reasonably entertaining but largely uninspired erotic thriller that's too much a chip off the '' Fatal Attraction'' block. The promise of high-impact bedroom aerobics will generate some interest, but the fully clothed drama isn't nearly as enthralling as the steamy scenes, so the pic isn't likely to maintain much

ox Office An ox ( : oxen, ), also known as a bullock (in BrE, AusE, and IndE), is a male bovine trained and used as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration inhibits testosterone and aggression, which makes the m ...

ardor." Peter Stack of the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...

'' called the film "mysterious and sexy", adding that it is "enough to keep tension alive until, too bad, the whole thing collapses with a twist ending that is nearly laughable". Caryn James of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' called the film's ending "idiotic" and wrote that Peter Hall, the director, "is obviously more at home with

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

than with this material".

Hal Hinson Hal Hinson is an American film critic who wrote for ''The Washington Post'' from 1987 to 1997. As of July 2015 he has 887 reviews collected on the website Rotten Tomatoes. Hinson has been cited as a critic who is unpopular with his fellow critic ...

of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' praised the director of the film, calling him "legendary", while '' Time Out'' called it an "adequate psychological thriller on a topical theme".

Soundtrack

The film features "Love Sick" performed by Alfonzo Blackwell.

References

External links

* *
''Never Talk to Strangers''
at Virtual History {{DEFAULTSORT:Never Talk To Strangers 1990s crime films 1995 independent films 1990s mystery films 1990s psychological thriller films 1990s romance films American crime films American mystery films American romance films American psychological thriller films Canadian psychological thriller films Films about dissociative identity disorder German crime films German psychological thriller films Erotic romance films American erotic thriller films Films shot in Budapest Films shot in Toronto American independent films American neo-noir films American serial killer films TriStar Pictures films Canadian independent films German independent films Films produced by Barbet Schroeder Films scored by Pino Donaggio Canadian erotic thriller films English-language Canadian films English-language German films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films 1990s Canadian films 1990s German films