The Call (2020)- Film Review
A call from a serial killer… She’ll begin to hunt your past
Netflix has developed a reputation for bringing incredible foreign horror films to watchlists everywhere. The post-apocalyptic zombie thriller #Alive is a perfect example of a Korean offering that left horror fans everywhere thirsty for more, so it’s not surprising that The Call now has everyone talking just as excitedly. But will The Call make you glad you answered, or are you better off hanging up instead?
Directed by Lee Chung-Hyun, The Call is the story of two young women — Seo-Yeon (Park Shin-Hye from #Alive and The Evil Twin) and Young-Sook (Jong-Seo Jun). Seo Yeon lives in the present day, but Young-Sook lives in 1999. The two women somehow connect over a series of otherworldly phone calls and begin to get to know one another. As this process continues, we learn Seo-Yeon’s father died in a house fire that she believes was due to her mother’s negligence. On the other hand, Young-Sook is being tortured by her deranged stepmother back in 1999, who’s also trying to kill her.
Eventually, the girls realize that it may be possible for Young-Sook to save Seo-Yeon’s father from the fire that killed him, so she gives it a try. It works, leading to a vast improvement in Seo-Yeon’s quality of life in the present. Naturally, she wants to return the favor and save Young-Sook from her stepmother, so she also seeks to intervene. Can Seo-Yeon succeed, and what might it mean for her strange friendship with Young-Sook if she does? Perhaps even more importantly, what is the true nature of the force that facilitated the connection between the two girls in the first place?
Naturally, any film that involves time travel to any extent is hit or miss, as everything depends on how well the little details are handled. Chung-Hyun and the rest of the team behind The Call did a bang-up job in that regard. The present-day and 1999 sequences contrast beautifully with very different color palettes that eventually play into the larger storyline. Thoughtful production design touches and unusual camera perspectives add even more to the plotline’s eeriness and atmosphere.
Both lead actresses turn in terrific performances but keep your eyes on Shin-Hye in particular. She shines as the intriguing Young-Sook, her acting prowess successfully keeping the audience guessing about the character’s true nature clear up to the end of the film. If you happened to catch #Alive, you already know how much promise she showed in that performance. In The Call, she proves she’s more than capable of nailing an even more complex role, so it’s easy to understand why viewers can’t wait to see what she does next.
To be fair, The Call is filled with twists and turns, but some of them are more successful than others. At times, it almost feels like it’s trying too hard to surprise you, and there’s a final end-credit sequence that feels incredibly unnecessary. The writing on this film is good, but it sometimes feels like it would have been even better with fewer twists, as they would have had more impact. Viewers will perhaps also be left with more unanswered questions than they’d probably like, so The Call may not be for you if you like your horror movies all tied up in the end in a nice, neat little package.
These are minor complaints, though. The Call is a solid, entertaining film with so much going for it. The performances and cinematography are outstanding. There’s plenty of gore, wickedness, suspense, and mystery to get excited about. This is a film that’s genuinely original and incredibly satisfying to watch in more ways than one.
