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

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.

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.

I write this for people who've seen the movie, and don't understand it. First of all, you have to understand that Sarah suffered from multi-personality disorder from a long time before the movie started; most likely since she was a child. She didn't know this herself, because it's like that with MPD's. The regular personality doesn't know what the other(s) are doing. They are simply unaware. And her other personality hated men, while her regular just didn't trust them. That's why she thought her old boyfriend Benny left "without a note or anything". Her other personality reacted aggressively against a man that her regular personality loved; it killed him, and made it seem to her and her close friends, that he just left suddenly. She didn't know he was dead. However, although her other personality usually hates men, it falls in love with Tony, as well as Sarah herself. This is obvious in the scene where Sarah appears in Tony's home, slaps him, and has sex with him. Her regular personality wasn't ready for that kind of commitment yet; also, her other personality's way of having sex is very aggressive. Everything weird, bizarre, or directly threatening that happens towards Sarah, is caused by her other personality, because it's jealous. It wants Tony for itself. It starts out threatening her(the paper, the flowers), and ends with trying to kill her(with the heater in the bathtub). Sarah, who doesn't know that it's her other personality, and isn't good at trusting men, especially men who are close to her, blames Tony, because she doesn't feel safe when he's around. However, at the end, she is told the truth by Tony: He is investigating her, in order to find out what happened to Benny. In the beginning, Sarah doesn't believe that she's "been stalking herself". However, when her father enters, he triggers some memories, that awakes her other personality. She reacts aggressively to both, because she feels, as usual, that men are the root of all evil. She starts by killing Tony, because she was, in fact, in love with him, and it seems(to her, at least) like he isn't in love with her. After killing him, her father, not knowing she is not "herself" at the moment, tries to calm her down; this triggers more unwanted memories; she feels like she's back at the top of those stairs, her father making her cover his crime. She reacts very aggressively, as that memory is one part of the origin of her hate against men(the other being sexual abuse by her father). After killing him, she destroys the tape, which is the only devastating proof toward her suffering from multi-personality disorder. At that point she's still not "herself", but her other personality. She then covers her own crime, as she feels that it was her father's fault, just like back when she was little. After covering up her crime, she sits down by the body of Tony, and her other personality subsides. Sarah is herself again; thereby, she doesn't know what happened, but guess/thinks that Tony killed her father(which would seem logical to her, as she was certain that Tony was insane) and she shot him in self-defense. We hear that the police aren't going to file charges, since it seems like an obvious case of self-defense. She then gives us a definition on a multi-personality disorder(which fits perfectly on herself) and goes out with Cliff. She doesn't know that she is guilty of killing two people close to her, and the movie ends with the disturbing conclusion, that unless something hinders her from killing more, her other personality can keep killing men, while her regular personality can have a clean consciousness, as she doesn't know the truth.Review:While watching this movie, I thought that it was just the regular thriller. I was very surprised at the ending, which tries to turn it into more... I'm not quite sure it succeeds, but it made everything that preceded it easier to forgive. The movie has a very Hitchcock feel to it; suspense, shocks, atmosphere... It felt like it could have been the work of the late Hitchcock himself(save for the sex scene, which I'm not quite sure was so much necessary as an easy device to attract those on the look-out for such a thing). I recommend this to fans of thrillers(just don't expect a masterpiece... but hey, it's got Rebecca De Mornay, does anyone actually see her name on the cast list of anything and think "oh, quality cinema lies ahead!"?), particularly those who like them with a "twist". Yes, I actually just made that pun. 6/10.