One Missed Call misses the mark

One Missed Call

While there was a lot of potential with the horrific illusions and overall idea, One Missed Call lacked the material to be great.

When a child-like ringtone sounds through your cell phone and a voicemail message appears, your number is up. The voicemail gives details of the date, time, and what it will sound like when you die. From that moment, and until the time you die, you are haunted by terrifying sights that could even make the sanest person paranoid.

After three of her close friends die mysteriously subsequent to receiving a strange voicemail, Beth Raymond (Shannyn Sossamon), turns to the police for help. Whilst most people do not believe Beth's theories about the deaths, Detective Jack Andrews (Edward Burns), immediately smells something fishy. Certain that there is a connection between the recent death of his sister and the deaths of Beth's friends, he takes over the investigation to find the killer. Side-by-side, Beth and Detective Andrews search for clues and follow them down the rabbit hole to find the mysterious killer of at least six people.

This movie started off well, with lots of death and horrifying scenes. The illusions that the marked characters see are quite scary looking, unfortunately much of what is scary in the movie are cheap thrills, lots of loud noises and faces that pop out at you. Nevertheless, the scare tactics soon become predictable and repetitive. The two main actors in this movie, Shannyn Sossamon (The Holiday), and Edward Burns (27 Dresses), were great and helped to make this movie frightening and believable. I personally think that Edward Burns is an awesome actor and truly wish he were in more movies.

While parts of this movie were enjoyable and scary, overall, I left with a slight feeling of disappointment. For myself, I really dislike it when scary movies are inconsistent. For example, in One Missed Call there is a specific way that almost everyone dies and then all of a sudden it changes without explanation, which leaves the movie feeling disjointed. I left the movie asking why this happened and why that was there, which was frustrating. I recommend this movie to people who like scary movies and have enjoyed other Japanese remakes such as The Ring and The Grudge.

Final words: Saw it. Wished I had waited to rent it. Why the red candies?