crisis hotline posterA cynical counselor at a crisis hotline finds himself in a life or death situation when a young man calls and threatens to kill three people and then himself

High Octane Pictures, the company who just last year brought the DOA extraterrestrial thriller, Fighting the Sky, has returned with another thriller, except this time, one that is more so a psycho-sexual melodrama, with the upcoming film Crisis Hotline. Written, produced, and directed by Mark Schwab, the film’s look into the dark side of online dating was an uncomfortably uncanny premise, and though the film had some very sexy scenes, it may just make you want to forgo dating and roll solo!

Crisis Hotline begins in the room of a suicide hotline center aimed at serving those of the LGBT community. In the room is Simon (Corey Jackson), a crisis counselor just starting his second week and already bored by the mostly non-emergency calls. After listening to the problems of a transgendered caller stressed about job discrimination, Simon unsympathetically dismisses the caller’s woes as not meeting the center’s criteria for staying online and ends the call, unconcerned. He resumes his game of classic solitaire, but soon after, the phone rings again.

The tentative voice on the other end introduces himself as Danny (Christian Gabriel), needing to talk to someone but claiming to have too complicated of a story to tell within the center’s reported 20-minute time limit. Simon asks him if he is in crisis, which seems to open a floodgate as Danny starts into an intensely sexually charged tale of love, power, and deceit, promising to pop the oxycodone in his possession slowly instead of downing it — if Simon listens. He recounts his romance with Kyle (Pano Tsaklas), a man he swiped right on only to find himself soon lead down the rabbit hole of the web-porn industry. Victim to its ever-hungry thirst for innocence, Danny vows to kill his abusers and himself at the end of his call.

Crisis Hotline was surprisingly absorbing. Though it technically takes place inside of a room, most of the film cuts away to scenes where we are introduced to the film’s most interesting characters as Danny tells his story. At times the scenes drummed on and on, and I would lose interest in one character in particular who had the ‘Clear Eyes guy effect’. The romance between Gabriel’s and Tsaklas’s characters, Danny and Kyle, was passion-less for all of their making out, especially when they were in the same room as August Browning and Christopher Fung who played Lance and Christian, the other two names on Danny’s revenge hitlist and a couple that did come off as believable — and far more interesting. Speaking of the hitlist, it seemed to be missing a name — a character by the name of Forrest, well performed by Michael Champlin, who was the master of online porno puppets. Forgetting about this character seemed to be a glaring plot point to me.

Besides the script suffering from some lag and inconsistencies, I thought much of the acting was great, especially from Fung and Jackson who gave their character’s interesting quirks and personality in order to breathe life into them. I also liked the little twist ending tacked on for the closing; it takes place within one scene where an unintroduced detective goes into the expositional ‘See, what really happened here was…’ spiel. Furthermore, I appreciated the use of different colored lighting vs darkness, as well as the use of close up vs overhead shots, to create a microcosmic atmosphere in the film. All in all, the movie’s cinematography was done well and is a major component of the film being a pretty good watch.

Though Crisis Hotline was mostly slow-paced, it lightly treaded into Rosemary’s Baby territory towards the end. The surreal imagery that captured its otherworldly-like encounter gave the film a firm climax after its scattered lulls, and despite those lulls, the film has some earnest acting performances, good atmosphere, and is at the very least topical for its socially commentative premise. A dark romance that shows how toxic love can be a killer, Crisis Hotline is written and directed by Mark Schwab and stars Corey Jackson, Christian Gabriel and Pano Tsaklas. Catch it on digital and DVD June 11.

Crisis Hotline
RATING: NR
Crisis Hotline - Trailer
Runtime: 90 Mins.
Directed By:
Written By:

About the Author

Adrienne Reese is a fan of movies - the good, the bad, and the ugly - and came to the horror genre by way of getting over her fear of... everything. Adrienne also writes for the Frida Cinema, and in addition to film enjoys cooking, Minesweeper, and binge-watching Game of Thrones.