DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE!

Vietnam vet, amateur bodybuilder, and talented porno-photographer Kirk Smith is a crazed killer who stalks the streets of Los Angeles, strangles young women in lurid fashion, and sexually abuses their dead bodies. The film opens with Smith killing a nurse before stripping her corpse. Between murders, he carries out twisted religious ceremonies and has imaginary conversations with his dead father while weeping. He repeatedly contacts Dr. Lindsay Gale, a psychologist with a radio show as well as a private therapy practice. He calls her show, speaking with an assumed Spanish accent and complaining of chronic headaches and blackouts. He follows one of Dr. Gale's female patients, Carol, home from her therapy session, and tortures her to death. He also murders a hooker while on the phone to Dr. Gale's show, forcing Dr. Gale to listen to the victim's cries.

Two goofy detectives named Hatcher and McCabe are charged with the task of tracking him down. When McCabe first questions Dr. Gale, his manner is brusque and unsympathetic. She develops a strong dislike for him. However, he later prevents one of her patients from committing suicide, after which Dr. Gale becomes fond of McCabe and they have a brief love affair.

Hatcher and McCabe visit a whore-and-drug-house in search of a witness who has seen the strangler leaving the scene of one of his murders, but the witness, a pimp and drug dealer, attacks them and they shoot him to death without being able to question him.

Kirk Smith is interrupted at the scene of his next murder by the victim's landlady, and he leaves a portfolio of photographs behind as he flees the scene. Hatcher and McCabe show the photographs to the local pornography dealer Sam Gluckman; he identifies them as the work of Kirk Smith, who has provided him with high-quality pornographic pictures in the past. When the detectives search Smith's apartment, they find his pictures of Dr. Gale and realize that he has selected her to be his next victim. During this time, Smith invades Dr. Gale's home, ties her up, and terrorizes her for hours, and ranting about his childhood.

McCabe goes to Dr. Gale's home just in time to rescue her. At the end of a protracted struggle, McCabe shoots Smith many times, including several times in the back. Kirk stumbles towards a pool and expires as he plunges in. The film ends with a shot of Smith's bullet-ridden floating body as McCabe snarls, "Adios, creep!"

Kirk Smith invades Dr. Gale's home, terrorizing her until Lt. McCabe arrives and fatally shoots him. Smith dies in a pool as McCabe delivers a final quip.

The film resolves with the killer's violent demise at the hands of law enforcement, symbolizing the end of his reign of terror. The final image of Smith's bullet-ridden body floating in the pool drives home the film's nihilistic, grindhouse sensibility, while McCabe's callous farewell underlines the lack of catharsis and bleak justice characteristic of exploitation cinema.