Don't Answer the Phone!

Don't Answer the Phone! is a 1980 American psychological horror film that Robert Hammer co-wrote and directed. Though never prosecuted for obscenity, authorities in the United Kingdom confiscated copies of the film under the Video Recordings Act 1984 during the video nasty panic.

The story follows Kirk Smith, a Vietnam veteran, amateur bodybuilder, and skilled pornographic photographer who prowls Los Angeles strangling young women and sexually abusing their corpses. The film begins with him killing a nurse and stripping her body. Between murders, he performs twisted religious rituals and weeps while holding imaginary conversations with his dead father. He repeatedly contacts Dr. Lindsay Gale, a psychologist who hosts a radio show and runs a private therapy practice. Calling her show with a fake Spanish accent, he complains about chronic headaches and blackouts. He follows one of Dr. Gale's female patients, Carol, home from a session and tortures her to death. He also murders a prostitute while on the phone to Dr. Gale's show, forcing her to listen to the victim's screams.

Two bumbling detectives, Hatcher and McCabe, are assigned to catch him. McCabe initially questions Dr. Gale in a brusque, unsympathetic manner, and she strongly dislikes him. However, after he stops one of her patients from committing suicide, she grows fond of him and they begin a brief affair. Hatcher and McCabe visit a drug-and-prostitution house to find a witness who saw the strangler leaving a crime scene, but the witness—a pimp and drug dealer—attacks them, and they shoot him dead before questioning him.

Smith is interrupted at his next murder by the victim's landlady and flees, leaving behind a portfolio of photographs. The detectives show these to local pornography dealer Sam Gluckman, who identifies them as Smith's work, noting Smith had supplied him with high-quality pornographic images. Searching Smith's apartment, they find pictures of Dr. Gale and realize she is his intended next victim. Meanwhile, Smith breaks into Dr. Gale's home, ties her up, and terrorizes her for hours, ranting about his childhood. McCabe arrives just in time to rescue her. After a prolonged struggle, McCabe shoots Smith many times, including several in the back. Smith stumbles toward a pool and dies as he falls in.