Popular reviews

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  Review by Ian West ★★★★ 10

  Hazy super late 80’s early 90’s LA weirdo phone sex cat and mouse evil lifetime-esque movie that I may or may not have seen on cable a million years ago. I didn’t expect to get so engrossed in this slick serial killer thriller that’s basically (I wish I coined this next phrase but I didn’t) Harriet the spy vs Patrick Bateman. Gary Sherman delivered the exact kind of coming of age Nancy Drew and the case of the American Psycho slasher pulp I was looking for today—slick eggshell white modern architecture synth-sax trash with a wild ending complete with a giant chefs knife, mace to the face, and a baseball bat attack while soundwaved by intense whammy bar feedback.

  
  Damn.

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  Review by Ziglet_mir ★★★★½ 3

  My heart utterly breaks for Cheryl Ladd in this. Before I move on, let us please pour one out for all the single parents out there, especially the single mothers struggling to keep so many things afloat just to not be appreciated at the end of the day. You’re strict because you care, and get called a “bitch” just because you’re tightly wound by the compounding stress yet no one else sees or notices. I see you. You are the rock of your family and you rock.

  Gary Sherman’s Lisa is set-up like a steamy—maybe even erotic—thriller that gets turned into one of the most uncomfortable yet realistic coming of age stories based on the film’s main relationship; mother and…

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  Review by single white femalien 1

  i rly loved this movie about a tween doing phone sex with a hideous serial killer. i wonder how many fugmo murderers i talked to in aim chat rooms in 2003. probably every internet bf i had was a old man who slit women's throats just to get a boner?? merely a guess, but extremely likely! i love the way this does teenage longing and romantic/sexual desire AND needlessly fraught mother/daughter relationships! i do not look back fondly at screaming in my mother's face in undiluted pubescent rage but it sure happened, un42n8ly!!

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  Review by Edith ★★★★★ 2

  It’s surprising for a film involving a phone cord to remain relevant a few decades later. Namely, even if you’re a complete incel, the prospect of not fully realizing who is at the other end of the keyboard is a looming peril if you let it fester. On top of that, the mysterious stranger motif is undeniably alluring — an attraction blended with fantasy and a desire for escapism overrides the reality of who someone may actually be. It’s like a novel materialized, putting your own idealized sense of adventure unto yourself and the other person. Now how do you navigate that when you’re only fourteen years old? It’s in this that Lisa remains an unknown classic that frankly like,…

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  Review by Liz ★★★★

  Don’t Tell Mom I’ve Been Sexting with a Serial Killer: A Lifetime Original Movie Event

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  Review by pd187 ★★★★ 2

  strong turn-of-the-90s domestic (malibu) phonethriller thats secretly an exploration of bored teenage girls dickin around in almost ghost worldian ways (or clowes early 2-pager 'squirrel girl & candy pants,' even better). its a hard pg13 so the batemanesque "candlelight killer" keeps pumping weights or chainsmoking in a towel to symbolize what hes really doing (crankin off) in his creeper r/male-living-space apt taking dirty dials from suzanne somers' sarcastic 14 (!) yr old off step by step.* directed in lifetime mode (great interiors) by VICE SQUAD/RAW MEAT/DEAD & BURIED pro gary sherman. with cheryl ladd, pre-POISON IVY (katt shea's inversion) & a killer (not literally) reveal of jeffrey tambor, who's somehow the least problematic person in this. *white urkel's sister: letterboxd.com/pd187/list/gif-the-psychotronik-step-by-step/

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  Review by Amy Hensarling ★★★★ 12

  “If you have to wait ‘til you’re 16 to date, everybody’s gonna think you’re weird.”

  Oh Lisa, Lisa, Lisa. Leece. 

  Tonight I strapped into a time machine and landed in golden 1990 where teenage girls make scrapbooks, own pink Polaroid cameras, wear pink scrunchies, and chat exclusively about wanting to be older so they can go out with boys. People leave voicemails on, like, answering machines. Lisa twirls her white phone cord just like I did at 14. And when she tells her bff a secret, she whispers it in her ear and giggles after. Memory lane. 

  Lisa took me back. I kept a diary, I longed to be 25, I told my mom everything, and then one day, I…

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  Review by Michelle Parsons ★★★½ 8

  I, too, once dated a guy who looked like a serial killer, but he was nowhere near as hot as D.W. Moffett.

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  Review by nomenclature ★★★★★ 5

  This is something you can keep coming back to for all the intricate little details: the multi-layered composition, the different kinds of music combined to build tension, the way Lisa picks up words and phrases that she hears, the mistaken identity intrigue. What really jumped out at me on this viewing was how amazing these shots are—a staircase leading into the dark, a closeup of a slowly turning lock, a neon-slicked city street, the final window light in a tenement building going out, the killer's Bauhaus-chic apartment, the little brother being yanked into a doorway as the door buzzer sounds in mock-imitation of a kill scene; everything builds the lingering dread and urban fear even before anything bad happens. The…

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  Review by The Horror of Marna Larsen ★★★★★ 3

  When asking yourself, is this 90s thriller sleazy enough? Consider the following bullet points

  🎷 A saxophone theme is an absolute must. You need to feel as though something inappropriate but like, nostalgia inducing, because let me tell, you things are SO MUCH WORSE now, is about to happen at any -

  ☎️ Wow immediately some man who we do not see is fondling some underwear. Should he be in the house? Whose underwear is it, anyway? I'm guessing we're about to find out!

  🗡 I'm not sure if this is a given, but I like a lax uniform like, I see nothing really that even says uniform other than skirts and cardigans as apparently there are no rules about…

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  Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★½

  Terrific little B thriller that has a surprising good balance between its more grounded and heightened elements. It has a very good hook, a teen girl yearning for adulthood starts to stalk and regular phone a hot older man unaware the guy is a serial killer, and it manages to use his constant threat of danger while the plot puts him in the passive position to advance the thriller. The scenes between the main character and her best friend and her mom have a very good intimate feel, and much above average ear, and director Gary Sherman let them shift into the more alluring horror elements with ease. The only false note is the scene Lisa says no one that…

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  Review by oldsoulkaty 🧸🍰 ★★★★ 2

  i wanted so badly to jump through the screen and punch lisa in the face. you couldn’t even blame her age for her behavior at a certain point. her absolute stupidity and lack of any common sense blew me away. she was in a mega state of delusion. i totally understood why her mom wouldn’t let her date anyone at the age of 14. she was 14 and pulling stunts like this?? she was a full blown stalker. she did exactly what richard did except for actually killing anyone. let’s be real.

  when she started putting her mom in danger, i thought i was going to lose it. i was absolutely fuming. like WHY?? her mom was an angel. and…