Oh man, so there I was losing time, finding people killed, the usual. But then I thought “huh … do I have multiple personality disorder?” … Naw. But I do indeed not remember anything. Do you remember what happened in Never Talk to Strangers?
Pop Quiz Hot Shot!
1) Sarah Taylor is a psychologist studying criminal Max to determine if he is fit for trial. What is Max accused of, and what is her initial diagnosis?
2) Later on she meets Tony Ramerez. Where does she meet him, where does he claim he comes from, and why does he claim he’s talking to her?
3) Her family seems to be a bit of a mess as well. Her father Henry shows up, but is unwelcome. What does he do for a living? And her mother was killed when she was a child, how does she say?
4) Throughout the film Sarah receives several disturbing gifts and notes. Name them. And who are they from?
5) From there we start to see flashbacks to an event in her past. What event?
Bonus Question: Ultimately how does the murderous Sarah get caught?
Answers
1) He is accused of being a serial rapist and murderer. And her initial diagnosis is that he’s faking it, because he is exhibiting symptoms of both schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder, which had never been seen in the literature before (you are either one or the other, not both).
2) She meets him in the wine section where he quite annoyingly criticizes her wine selection. He says he just moved there from Puerto Rico, and that he merely wants to make some friends since he doesn’t know anyone in the neighborhood.
3) He is a travelling salesman. And her mother died in a car accident. They were living in Albany at the time, but after the accident moved to New York City.
4) First she receives a bunch of dead flowers. Weird, but maybe just an oversight from a flower delivery company I guess. Then she receives a note pointing her to her own obituary in the newspaper. Alright, now that is pretty crazy, but probably just like a jokester right? And then she receives her own murdered cat in a box. … Yeah nevermind we are dealing with a psycho right? WRONG, we are dealing with Sarah herself, she has multiple personality disorder … oh wait, yeah, we are dealing with a psycho. But the psycho is Sarah. BAH BAH BAH!!!!!!
5) We see her falling down the stairs. And then later on we learn that when she was five her mother actually died from a gunshot wound. And the newspaper indicated that Sarah killed her. BUT, oh what a twist! Actually, her father had been raping her and her mother confronted him, and her father accidentally killed her mother. Her father then made her shoot her mother’s dead body to get him off the hook! Boy, you really could just get away with murder back in the day. Like you can’t just shoot a corpse and have the police be like “that didn’t happen post-mortem” right? My daughter shot her … and then she fell down the stairs and broke her neck, ignoring that the gunshot angle is all wrong and the husband has gunshot residue all over his hands.
Bonus Answer: You would think she’s good to go. All of the people who knew about her trauma as a child are dead, and Banderas is dead as well. But alas, the family of her ex-lover (whom she killed) who hired Banderas is still on the case. And there is one last loose end, the private detective whom Sarah hired. Endlessly fascinated by the trail of bodies left in her wake he takes it upon himself to dig into her past a bit more, for his peace of mind. Uncovering the shooting when she was younger, and deducing the crimes her father committed against her, the PI figures out that Sarah’s story of the murderous Banderas doesn’t add up, what makes more sense is Sarah killed her father and then framed the (now dead) Banderas! But uh oh, all this snooping has once again awoken the protective personality within Sarah. The detective confronts Cliff, but is murdered before showing him the evidence, but now Cliff knows too much and needs to be gone as well. But this is one too many boyfriends for the State of New York to ignore. Ultimately Sarah is arrested and diagnosed with her disorder, slow fade out of the asylum where she is held for treatment. Never Talk to Strangers 2: The Chase.
Imagine if rote thrillers got crap sequels all of the time? It is a little weird that the genre was so popular for such a long time when there is little room for a true sequel / franchise to emerge from them. Beyond the Ashley Judd Cinematic Universe of Thrillers I mean.
Bad Movie Twins 