It's real easy to find out what happened in real life; the video is on YouTube multiple times in various edits; the longest version I found is at this link. And this movie, while changing the actual names for legal purposes, pretty much follows the story beat for beat. This review assumes you know the story, but if you want to be surprised beforehand, don't click on the video and stop reading now because I'm going to give stuff away. You've been warned.

The film is based on an incredible true-life incident in which a prank caller phoned a small-town fast food restaurant and pretended to be a police officer, telling the manager Sandra (played by actress Ann Dowd in an amazing performance) that one of the female workers there has stolen money from a customer's purse. Using the vaguest of descriptions to identify her (19-years old, blonde hair) he tricks the manager into pulling Becky (the beautiful Dreama Walker) off the floor and confronting her with the allegation. Of course, the innocent girl knows nothing and denies having taken anything. But the voice on the phone is very insistent and authoritative, and the manager, believing he's really a cop, follows his every instruction.

After going through her purse and not finding anything, the officer tells Sandra that she must strip search Becky. Both women object and feel that's going over the line, but again, the man on the phone tells her it's either that or Becky will go to jail.

At this point, the humiliated Becky reluctantly agrees to take off her clothes. It's a pretty revealing scene, watching this cute girl wearing a uniform suddenly revealing herself to be a beautiful young woman, exposed for all to see. She is forced to get fully naked, but the camera slowly pans away as she strips off her panties.

But even though no money was found, it's not over for Becky, not by a long shot. The caller orders Sandra to put Becky's clothes and cell phone into a bag and take it to her car to be collected later by the police. Becky is given only an apron to cover herself and left alone in the office, unable to go anywhere.

And it gets worse. The fake cop tells her to get a male to watch her while Sandra covers the evening rush. She calls the only man she feels she can trust...her boyfriend Van, who's had a few too many beers that evening but still comes down to help out. And with Sandra gone, the perv on the other line takes it to the next level, telling Van to perform a cavity search on Becky (implied only) and then make her jump up and down and do jumping jacks to supposedly dislodge the money she's hiding. We do see some more topless nudity during this scene, although Becky turns her head to the side in shame as she's going through the humiliating ritual.

There's a point in the film where the fake cop talks to Becky on the phone and she stops protesting and sort of gives up, realizing that no matter what she says or does to proclaim her innocence, it's not going to matter. She's resigned to whatever's going to happen to her, which is why she doesn't protest when he tells her she's going to be punished for not cooperating, and then she's going to "do something nice" for Van to thank him for doing a good job. I think we can all guess what that means.

She hands the phone off to Van, and while he's clearly not comfortable with what he's told, he nonetheless agrees to bend Becky over his knee and give her a spanking. He even suggests to the caller that he could put the phone on her back so that the caller can hear every swat. And of course, the sadistic man on the other line thinks that's a great idea.

This scene is not shown explicitly; I don't recall seeing any bare ass cheeks, but we see Becky's pained reaction to the beating. She doesn't cry out or scream; like I say, she's sort of resigned to her fate.

The oral sex scene is again only implied, and at the end, there's no satisfaction at all from Van, who can't even talk to Sandra when she returns. He goes out to his car and calls one of his buddies, telling him, "I did a bad thing".

And the look on Becky's face afterward is truly heartbreaking. You have to feel sorry for this poor girl and question how in the world all this could have happened to her. But it did. All because of a sick prank caller getting his jollies at the expense of real people's lives.

The ending of the film will have you shaking your head in disbelief. I won't give it away any more details, but what's revealed is pretty astonishing.

And sorry guys, this is not an exploitation film. I've come to expect that in 2012, that era is sadly long over. And even in the screening I attended, about 10 people got up midway through and left the theatre. I can just imagine how many would have left had it been sexually graphic. And this is one time when I actually agree that the filmmakers made the right decision. A film doesn't have to be loaded with nudity to be compelling entertainment.

And if the focus has been on nudity and humiliation, it would have missed the point. Despite the subject matter, it's ultimately a film about following authority. It's a powerful indictment of the human condition...why is it so easy for us to obey orders even though we know they are wrong? What would I have done in that situation? What would someone else have done? If this were a fictional movie it would be hard to believe, but the characters aren't stupid and at no time does the story ring false, even as the situation becomes more and more outrageous. With the exception of the fake policeman on the other line, there are no bad people in the film, even though they ultimately do reprehensible things.

The acting is superb all around by a cast of mainly unknown actors, from the leads down to even the most minor characters. I came to see Dreama Walker get naked and ended up being blown away by her outstanding performance as the unfortunate victim. Her scenes with Ann Dowd are especially poignant because both come across as sympathetic characters, but for obviously different reasons. Sandra is a sad, middle-aged woman who's truly just trying to do what she feels is the right thing. If the Academy Awards paid attention to independent films, she would be a shoo-in for Best Actress. But the film itself is too dark and too disturbing for mainstream attention. Nonetheless, it's definitely one to seek out. You won't forget it any time soon.