DISCONNECTED

Alicia is a young woman working as an employee at a video rental store in Waterbury, Connecticut. One afternoon, she is met outside her apartment by an elderly man dressed in black who asks to use her phone. She obliges, but finds after the two enter her apartment that the man has strangely disappeared. While out for drinks later, Alicia recounts the bizarre incident to her boyfriend, Mike, a local disc jockey, and her glamorous twin sister, Barbara Ann—both dismiss it as a strange coincidence. Meanwhile, a serial killer is murdering young women in the town, and the crimes are being investigated by Detective Tremaglio.

While working at the video store one afternoon, Alicia is met by an awkward young man, Franklin, who peruses the store, despite telling her he does not own a video player. He attempts to make conversation with Alicia before leaving. He returns the next day and asks Alicia out on a date, but she politely declines. Later that night, Alicia receives several bizarre phone calls in which she hears Mike and Barbara Ann discussing the romantic affair they are having, apparently unaware they are being listened to. Alicia subsequently has several nightmares within nightmares in which Mike and Barbara Ann come to her apartment and murder her.

The next day, Alicia phones Franklin and tells him she would like to go on a date with him after all. He obliges, though he says it will have to wait as he is busy; unbeknownst to Alicia, he is lying in bed with a woman's bloody corpse. After their phone call ends, Franklin has sex with the dead woman's body. Several days later, Alicia and Franklin go on a date to see a movie. At the theater, they run into Barbara Ann, who is also on a date. Alicia, having to work early in the morning, ends her date with Franklin and returns home. Meanwhile, Franklin visits a local bar where he meets another woman and brings her to his house. The two have sex before he eviscerates her with a switchblade.

Alicia continues to be tormented by strange phone calls, some of which emit unearthly sounds. Despite changing her phone number, the calls continue. Alicia goes to Franklin's for a dinner date, after which the two have sex. In the morning, Franklin prepares to murder Alicia, but finds she has already left for work. The next day, Barbara Ann visits Franklin at his home and seduces him. After she performs oral sex on Franklin, he murders her. Alicia stops by the next morning to visit Franklin, and finds Barbara Ann's body before being confronted by Franklin. Her screams are heard from Tremaglio, who happens to be patrolling the neighborhood. As Franklin declares that he is not the serial killer, he is shot and killed by Tremaglio and his partner.

Distraught, Alicia returns to her apartment where she continues to be bothered by the recurring phone calls, and enters a depressive state. She is further horrified when she hears on the radio that another female murder victim has been found in town, suggesting Franklin may not have been the primary serial killer. Alicia's mental state continues to rapidly decline. She accepts Mike's repeated requests for a date, and the two begin seeing each other again. After dropping Alicia off from an evening date, Mike makes a call from a pay phone. In her apartment, Alicia receives yet another demented call. She proceeds to destroy her phone in a fit of rage, but the ominous sounds persist as blood pours from the phone receiver. In the morning, the elderly man whom Alicia let into her home several weeks prior is seen emerging from her apartment.

Franklin is killed by Detective Tremaglio after murdering Barbara Ann, but Alicia continues to be tormented by disturbing phone calls and learns that another murder has occurred, suggesting the threat remains.

The ending reveals that the danger Alicia faces is far from over, as the true source of the menace may not have been stopped. This unresolved conclusion amplifies the film’s sense of paranoia and uncertainty, leaving Alicia (and the audience) disconnected from any sense of safety or closure. The final moments reinforce the film’s bleak atmosphere, where sanity and reality remain fragile under the weight of ongoing terror.