USA/1988
Directed By: William Webb
Written By: Richard Brandes, Tom Byrnes
Starring: Richard Hatch, Richard Roundtree, Leif Garrett
Color/90 Minutes/Not Rated
Region A
Release Date: February 26, 2019
The Film
Seth and Angelina are brother and sister who have a bad habit of sitting around their dad's mansion and using the telephone "party line" to lure horny strangers into a sex party that ends with Seth using a razor blade to kill them. As the bodies pile up Detective Dan breaks from "by the book" way of doing things to try and find the killers before anymore party line callers fall victim to their sick games!
PARTY LINE is a mash up of slasher film, crime thriller and late 80s Skinemax erotic feature but doesn't really excel at any one of those genres let alone cramming them together. It's middles around sort of blending the different styles but ends up just feeling messy throughout. There's misplaced humor involving a subplot with underage girls that never works for me but ends up playing fairly large role in the film. The acting including Leif Garrett as Seth, Richard Hatch as the detective and a supporting role from Richard Roundtree is pretty decent and the movie looks good, using a handful of memorable and very eye catching locations. PARTY LINE undoubtedly had more production value than similar erotic films that would make the late night subscription cable channels famous.
I can't say I wasn't entertained by PARTY LINE because I was but I think it was a missed opportunity at being something better. And it could have been anything better. Had it picked one of the many directions it splintered off in and focused on it then we could have had a winner with PARTY LINE.
The Audio & Video
Vinegar Syndrome delivers PARTY LINE on Blu-ray with a 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer from a brand new 4K scan and restoration from the original 35mm camera negative and looks excellent. The picture quality is quite nice with beautifully rendered skin tones that show no sign of waxiness and great detail level in all of the wonderful 80s clothing and textures. Colors are vibrant and lively without being artificially pumped up. The audio is presented in a DTS-HD Master Audio mono mix that sounds decent. The track is clear with a nice mix between dialogue and score and the sound effects give enough punch despite lacking true power. There's a very small amount of noticeable pops but otherwise not much in the way of distortions.
The Extras
Aside from the original theatrical trailer the lone special feature is an interview with the screenwriter Richard Brandes entitled "Party Line Fever" and runs around 16 minutes.
The Bottom Line
I'm lukewarm on PARTY LINE but I think the transfer is nice and there's enough in the movie to warrant a mild recommendation.
PARTY LINE is available HERE
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