User Reviews

Inspite of having horror veterans like Lin Shaye and Tobin Bell, the film is not at all interesting. It aint scary n has a lousy n ridiculous screenplay.

Honesty, i got enticed into seeing this cos of the two veterans starring together in a horror film.

Firstly the film takes almost 45 mins to pick up n then when the action starts, it gets filled with cliches, traumatized childhood, teenage secret, etc.

It has the same lol demon/possessed fella doing hyper extension of the joints but this time the demon/possessed fella looked as if it were doing break dance movements. Why these demons/possessed fellas gotta do unnecessary hyper extention of joints is beyond me. Ther is unnecessary annoying screaming, unnecessary red color n one helluva lousy screenplay. The end is a big wtf.

5.5/10

Is this movie the worst of 2020! No, is it a masterpiece?! No!

Reviews are quite weird for this one, it is true the storyline is basic and seen may times but it was fun enough to keep me on my seat till the end.

Pros: Cinematography is beautiful, loved the colour contrast and the aesthetic of it. Creep factor was there and present in every location set. Some of the acting is decent. Story is good enough to keep you entertained for an afternoon.

Cons: Some of the actors just need to go back to acting school, makeup of the ghosts sometimes was a bit basic and amateurish. Predictable jumpscares. Rushed ending. And the storyline could be better, it felt this was the first draft of the script tbh.

Not worthy to be seen in cinemas so I would suggest for anyone who wants to watch it to wait till it drops on streaming.

Initially when I sat down to watch the 2020 movie titled "The Call", I must admit that I was sort of having some hopes for the movie, as it had two horror icons on the cast list.

Well, as it turned out then the storyline in "The Call" was definitely interesting enough, if it wasn't actually being original. However, the movie's writer, Patrick Stibbs, just didn't really manage to deliver where it mattered for a horror movie. Sure, I mean, the movie was watchable and sort of entertaining enough, but it just was way too bland and generic for my liking.

And yeah, it was because of Tobin Bell and Lin Shaye, two iconic names, faces and voices in the horror genre, that I initially sat down to watch it. And I will say that they both definitely did spruce up the overall enjoyment of the movie.

The acting was good for a movie such as this. It wasn't outstanding, but it was adequate enough. Perhaps it was because of the limitations of the script and the directorial hand of Timothy Woodward Jr. that sort of restrained the performers to fully give what they had.

Visually, for a horror movie, then "The Call" just didn't deliver. I mean, the atmosphere in the house was interesting and lots of nice details to the house, but the otherworldly sequences were just too flaccid, and didn't really feel like being scenes of personal hell and anguish enough.

"The Call" is the type of horror movie that came and went without as much as leaving a dent in the horror genre. I mean, I didn't even know about the movie before I had the chance to actually sit down and watch it. And having watched it now, I can honestly say that I highly doubt that I will ever be sitting down to watch "The Call" a second time.

Perhaps if you are a newcomer to the horror genre, then you will find some proper entertainment in "The Call", or even some spooky stuff and scenes. But for a seasoned horror veteran such as myself, this was but a stroll in the park.

My rating of "The Call" lands on a very mediocre five out of ten stars.

Besides a few creepy bits with Lin Shaye, the movie was pretty crap. No real story and boring.

No offense to the rest of the cast, but without Lin Shaye and Tobin Bell ... this movie probably would not have faired as good (with me and others I'm sure). Having said that, it doesn't mean everything else is bad. The story may be quite by the numbers (with a decent twist, even if you can guess that from miles away), but I've seen worse.

Talking about seeing: cinematography is also really good. So a neat little movie overall, that has almost all the horror movie cliches you can imagine ... just be aware of what you are to watch ... and if that is worth your time.

Oh wow...like any horror fan I was really rooting for this one, with "Mr Saw" Tobin Bell and "Mrs Insidious" Lyn Shae, both in the same movie how could you go wrong? The script is the worse piece of garbage that ever existed. The only good thing about this movie is Lyn Shae's acting and she's not onscreen very much. Sadly, this was/is a terrible movie.

What the heck is Lin Shay and Tobin Bell doing in this mess - Yes you guessed it, to give it that poster appeal to all the Saw and Insidious fans out there and really is shameful exploitation of us the viewers who will pay for this thinking it is going to be of the same level of cinematic excellence!

Exceptionally good actors appearing in sub average nonsense like this; it seems they have joined the Ron Perlman, Lance Henriksen, Nik Cage and John Cusack brigade in the let us just take any old rubbish for a paycheque club - very sad!

Do not get me wrong the acting for the main part is good and it had a good build up but the denouement and idea just fizzled like a wet, limp little firecracker. I did love the homage to the 80's with the old style John Carpenter'esque analogue synths in keeping with when the movie was supposed to be set and I didnt see a smartphone or tablet anywhere so they got the setting right and the premise had promise, so where did it all go wrong?

Well, for a start there is no real horror, zero scares and crucially the idea behind the call was....well just a telephone call to the dead woman that really did not give us an oooh or an ahhh like movies like Saw or Final Destination did and so just followed the sad old tropes of budget bin horror basket movies of yesteryear and so it fails execrably in every way almost.

I am not so harsh as to give it a 1/10 as many of the reviewers have as this means it is the worst movie you have ever seen and we have movies like the Bad Batch with Keanu Reeves for that and many others; the acting is good, it is well filmed and professionally made unlike a lot of the shaky cam, dreadful acting Netflix ordure pouring out of film schools these days, so I give this one a harsh but fair, harsh but fair...4/10 hatchets!

After his wife commits suicide her husband Edward Cranston invites a group of 4 friends to his house under mysterious circumstances. Edward explains to the 4 friends that his wife has included them in her will and they will receive a $100,000 (which puzzles the friends as his wife hated them). The catch? They have to stay on the phone for 1 minute... A seemingly straight-forward task, but what's really going on here?

It's rare that I'm shocked by a film's rating (if anything I tend to find that I am overly critical and will usually rate films lower than their IMDB rating), but here I am rating a film with a current average IMDB rating of 4.2 with a 9 out of 10 and this is coming from someone who has reviewed just over 900 films and rated over 1300 films at the time of writing this review. Am I insane? Have I genuinely watched the film I here you ask? Well the answer is No and Yes respectively and I will try to explain my rating...

The Call was pretty much everything I both want and expect from a horror film; it was creepy, suspenseful, intriguing and at times pretty damn chilling. Despite what others have said this film does have a story to it and it's a fairly good one (not mind-blowing, but engaging enough). The 4 friends are not the most likeable of people initially, but later when they are developed further we can see painful events from their past proving that a lot of what we were witnessing earlier was mere bravado.

Director Timothy Woodward Jr does a good job overall in his handling of the material; true what you see here is nothing you haven't seen before, but the scares that he put in front of me did come across as quite genuine rather than silly (again this seems to be a bone of contention with many reviewers).

The film contains well-known faces such as Lin Shaye and Tobin Bell who, despite not having as much screen time do put in the best performances; then again the younger cast members lack experience, but all have varying degrees of potential.

I concede that the abrupt way the film ended did come as a bit of a shock, but at the same time The Call's various knots had been tied together meaning it did reach a natural conclusion (albeit an abrupt one).

Perhaps the film caught me in the right mood or maybe the wind tonight in the north west of England is blowing in the right direction, but whatever the reason I liked this film and still cannot quite believe its low rating.

Speaking slowly and having long pauses between sentences is not suspenseful or scary.

The stupid make up is not scary.

The ridiculous script, now that was scary. How someone thought that nonsense up and how it held a 6.9 rating at the time of my post is scary.

The movie felt like it went for 400 hours, no exaggeration.

Please avoid

They story follows a group of four friends who torment an elderly woman because they suspected she's a witch. After her unexpected death, they're invited to her home and are forced to call a phone that's installed in her casket.

This movie manages to keep me glued to my seat half way through, The story has an interesting set-up and the conflict isn't that bad. The characters are introduced well even tho they aren't much developed. The scene where Tobin Bell's character explain to them what to do and how to do it, is handled very well, when he says "let's play a game" it felt like Saw all over again. But the film loses its status of excellence when the whole "calling" thing started. It resorts to typical horror elements like jump scares and fiddling with the character's mind, and the ending fails to make an impact. However, the film's cinematography is great with fantastic camera work and lighting that adds to the ominous feel in conjunction with Samuel Joseph's score with its piano and synths that add to the creepier moments. The costumes and hairstyle are fitting to the time period. The performances are good with the best coming from Lin Shaye and Tobin Bell, the actors that played the four main characters are decent as well.

This film isn't too bad. It is not a horror gore fest, and it is more about the story of the characters than anything else.

The acting is good, and the production (a la 1980s theme) is well executed.

The ending is a bit weak, otherwise it is a reasonable watch.

This seemed like a low budget Netflix movie with two known actors they hired in order to get more views. Not scary at all. Seemed like a bad teen movie. The ending was terrible.

I believe this is the third movie I've watched now called 'The Call'. The first two were pretty good. This one not so much. Firstly, it wasn't the type of film I was anticipating. The synopsis implied a very different film to what I actually got. I was not expecting the supernatural to be the basis for the film. Secondly, my goodness these were some awful characters to be expected to root for. The film didn't do itself any favours in that regard.

I'll get some positives out of the way before I further discuss what I didn't like. If you have Lin Shaye and Tobin Bell in your film then you are very lucky. Regardless of the material, they are going to be fantastic, as they rightfully are here. Bell is more of a guide for the film, which we know he does so well. Shaye is relied on to be the horror - and she is the one thing that is actually scary in this movie. Her unhinged character works perfectly and is very disturbing.

The film also has a decent concluding sequence. At the point where most horror films tend to fall apart, this one actually manages to find its footing and become a little unsettling.

The problems though outweigh the good stuff. Very little works in the way of scares. Things just get too unrealistic, too quickly and it feels very fake. The main four teenagers (who I can only guess were intended to be the film's protagonists) are detestable people and not the type that anyone wants to be rooting for. If anything you should be rooting for Shaye's character.

'The Call' is a film that is going out of its way to be original and creative and it has to be given props for that. It rarely hits the mark, but hey you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. And some of the shots in this film do indeed stick the landing. It's far from perfect, however I don't believe it's as bad as a 4.2/10 IMDb rating implies.

Lin Shaye and Tobin Bell are horror Icons. Unfortunately they can't save bad writing, scare less deaths, poor dialog and a weak story.

Set in the mid eighties, the dialog is far more cliche than real, unlike Stranger Things and the recent It Ch 1. The acting is maybe a notch above a soap opera, but I'll give the lead credit. At least he's trying unlike the other 3 "teens." Seriously the line delivery felt straight out of Not Another Teen Movie.

The plot, the dreadful plot. Teens harass an old woman one of them suspects of witchcraft and the disappearance of her sister. Something happens to old woman. Teens must face their past...yada yada.

It is as cliched as it sounds but unlike movies like Saw, the past of a few of them is not their fault. So badly done.

I'd recommend watching any movie with Tobin Bell or Lin Shaye besides this one. It stinks.

This movie couldn't be less interesting. It's so painful to sit through. I'm so glad I watched it at home and not in a theater.

Whoever rated this film a 10 was obviously paid to do so. Easily the worst movie I've seen in theaters. Hands down. No plot. Horrible acting. Absolutely horrid !!!!!

Great god, what was my wife thinking? She saw this trailer and showed me it. Sadly, I was on board. I never saw any of the Saw movies, but I recognized him from the movies as I did the old woman who played in the Insidious movies...huh. Two great horror actors playing in the same movie. How bad could it be? Dear god. The only thing that made me watch this garbage was that it was set back in the 80's...my teen years. The acting was okay and the kids really did deserve what they got and I know that horror movies rarely end happily, but this movie actually had me hoping for a rescue...a point where I face my past and I get to live. Unfortunately, it did not happen this way. I really hope you avoid this waste of time. It sucks. Peace.

We really liked it! My cousin & I are really big horror fiends and we actually enjoyed this one. I don't get all the bad ratings. It was not boring in the slightest to us.