Director: Eric Valette
Writer: Andrew Klavan, Minako Daira (Screenplay) Yasushi Akimoto (Novel)
Starring: Shannyn Sossamon, Edward Burns, Ana Claudia Talancon, Ray Wise, Azura Skye, Johnny Lewis, Jason Beghe, Margaret Cho
Plot: Several people start receiving voice-mails from their future selves – messages which include the date, time, and some of the details of their deaths.
Tagline – What will it sound like when you die?
Runtime: 1 Hour 27 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Another Bad American Remake
Story: One Missed Call starts when one of a group of friends has been killed, believed to be suicide, Leann (Skye) receives a phone call from the friend which is dated in the future and is a recording of her death. not long after this Leann dies, leaving a message to another friend, this continues until Beth (Sossamon) meets detective Jack Andrews (Burns) who has seen his own sister killed in mysterious circumstances and her phone records show a connection to Beth’s friend.
The two team up to figure out what is going on as the latest friend Taylor (Talancon) turns to a spiritual miracle television from producer Ted Summers (Wise) for answers.
Thoughts on One Missed Call
Characters – Beth is the young woman that starts seeing her friends die after receiving phone calls that are recordings of their deaths in the future. She teams up with a detective to get to the bottom of everything after she receives a call herself. Being a student to tries to use her qualification to psycho analysis what is going on and with a dark past which teases a connection we never see. Jack is the detective that has seen his sister die in the circumstances, he works with Beth to investigate the strange goings on trying to stop more victims from being killed, this is a strange cop character who for some reason thinks it is ok to bring a civilian into the case. We do meet the friends, though we learn nothing about most of them with most being killed off within the first 30 minutes and the seedy tv producer which is a story arc which is forgotten within ten minutes.
Performances – Shannyn Sossamon is not the best in the leading role, she never makes us believe that she is scared in the film while also not being convincing in anything else, Edward Burns is likewise, not very good for what we know he can do, he might not have the best character to work with, but it sums up the weak acting through the film which includes wasting Ray Wise.
Story – The story follows a group of friends that start receiving a recording that is them dying in the future. They must investigate what is going on before the time of the recording comes true. For me I like a good ghost investigation style movie, which this story tries to give us, the problems come quickly here, it is a remake of a much better told story from Asian cinema, the supporting characters are offed way to quickly and the side story that is meant to hint at something else seems to be a complete waste of time. It does rely on the twist ending which is drawn out too long because the false ending happens just over an hour into the film and we clearly know that isn’t the end of the film. the story has plenty of pacing problems which only leaves us disappointed.
Horror/Mystery – The horror in the film comes from mostly bad CGI and the lack of ability to capture the same haunting feeling the inhaler had in the original films. The mystery side of the film is the highlight only it goes down too many false paths leaving us feeling flat by the end of the film.
Settings – The film uses basic student housing, police station and creepy burnt out hospitals as the settings, none of which see to be able to capture any moments of tension.
Special Effects – When it comes to the effects, this is a giant miss too because the attempted creepy face just look way to fake to be able to strike up any fear in any sensible person.
Scene of the Movie – One good inhaler jump scare.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The acting is very bad with no on being able to show fear.
Final Thoughts – This is another one of those terrible American remakes of a truly scary movie, it lacks tension, fear factor and anything to make us scared.
Overall: Terrible remake.
Rating
