I stumbled across this short film quite by accident on YouTube. Within 30 seconds I recognised it as "that" film I had seen in the early 80s and which terrified the life out of me. Even more amazed to find all these reviews on IMDb from people who must have seen it at the same time as me all those years ago and for whom the impact has not lessened in the slightest with the passage of time. Watching it again 30 years on, I find it not so much terrifying as extremely disturbing and with a very powerful message. I can interpret this movie in a number of ways but I believe it is telling the viewer that each of us, quite at random, can find their lives completely changed for the worse - and without hope of repair - by a whim of fate. That may be a fatal illness, an accident to ourselves or a loved one, or any number of such scenarios. The point being that a) it's as likely to happen to us as anyone else and b) we have to live with the consequences, however unfair or unjust they undoubtedly are. And, like the man in the phone box, we ask "but why me??" The real genius of this short film is that it supplies no answer to the question - nor does it even hint at one. For there is no answer.
