The Call Reviews
Crude as it is, The Call milks its jump scares and don't-go-down-to-the-basement tension for all they're worth. See it with a full house, if you absolutely must see it at all.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Let's call The Call what it is: high quality trash that both diminishes and is redeemed by all the talents who have deigned to bring it to life.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Entertainment Weekly
Top CriticIf you're going to watch a movie in which two people talk on the phone for most of the film, it's not the worst thing in the world for one of the folks involved to have the face of Storm from the X-Men.
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| Original Score: B
This is as brain-dead as a movie can be and it assumes the audience will have the I.Q. of a rutabaga.
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| Original Score: 1.5/4
It's a lot better than you might expect a movie like this to be.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
"The Call" consciously decides to slowly drown itself in the tub.
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| Original Score: D+
I'll say one thing for "The Call": Its ending is actually a bit of a surprise. Just when you think it couldn't get any stupider, pow!
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| Original Score: 1.5/4
Can't someone come up with screenwriting software that signals when a script has made the fatal slip from hyped-up suspense to sheer ludicrousness?
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
... a breakneck, truly thrilling thriller, one that builds excitement through both brains and brutality ...
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| Original Score: 4
The material has the mild impact of a special episode of a network crime series, with Eklund's villain a figure of mannered creepiness rather than profound chills.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
If it were any more intense would require a complete physical and medical clearance for admission into the theater.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
A sputtering, so-so B thriller with a neat hook but very little personality.
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| Original Score: 2/4
The Call cribs from so many other psychological thrillers that it might as well be called "The Girl With the Lovely Bones Cellular Silence of the Lambs.''
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| Original Score: 2/4
An effectively creepy thriller about a 911 operator and a young miss in peril, "The Call" is a model of low-budget filmmaking.
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| Original Score: 5/5
The shoddy attention to character, plausibility, and detail is particularly surprising coming from Anderson, a director of smart indie thrillers like The Machinist, Session 9 and Transsiberian.
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| Original Score: 4/10
Thinking about seeing The Call? You may want to put that on hold.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Maybe Anderson wants to sell out, but he's not very good at it.
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| Original Score: 2/4
"The Call" dials up a shallow thrill ride, but one efficiently peppered with your typical "don't go in there!" moments.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
The film is at once shamelessly transparent, manipulative, and far-fetched, and impossibly suspenseful. You'll want to take a shower afterward - that's how icky you'll feel.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
When The Call focuses on Berry and her headset, the movie maintains an entertaining level of suspense; when it becomes yet another Silence of the Lambs rip-off, you can feel the tension seep away.
There's little to differentiate this high-pitched screamer from a particularly feverish Law and Order rerun.
For the most part ... a tense, extreme-jeopardy thriller that delivers the intended goods.
