One Missed Call (2008)

O Masterpiece
O Excellent
O Rental
O OK
O Mediocrity
X Avoid

Review by Jason Pyles / January 31, 2008

The first movie release of the year is always sketchy. If you try the first Friday’s flick, you take your chances. “One Missed Call” is one such example; it was released on January 4 and is somehow still in theaters.

“One Missed Call” is supposed to be “a scary movie,” but here is a list of things that are scarier: flowers, butterflies, cotton candy, puppies, Garfield and the first day of kindergarten.

Sure, I realize that it’s fashionable to update the cinema to correspond with our technological age. That’s why we’ve had flicks like “You’ve Got Mail” (1998), “Firewall” (2006) and this year’s “Untraceable.” But why, oh why do we need a movie where people are terrorized by their cell phones? I mean, that’s already a fact of everyday life, isn’t it? Perhaps that was the filmmakers’ underlying, sad-but-true joke. If so, it’s a costly, needless joke, much like this movie.

Actually, “One Missed Call” is yet another remake of yet another Japanese horror film called “Chakushin ari” (2003), which, roughly translated, means “Even though this movie is unmistakably similar to “The Ring” and “The Grudge,” it’s different, honest.”

No it’s not.

“One Missed Call” gives us a group of friends in their twenties who begin to be terrorized by their cell phones’ inexplicable, incoming calls that allow them to hear their own voices responding to their awful, near-future deaths … talk about bad news. Hence the movie’s tagline, “What will it sound like when you die?”

The movie’s primary strength is its lead actress, Shannyn Sossamon, who looks like she could be Jessica Alba’s sister, though she’s not. Hers is the only credible performance in the film, considering what she has to work with. You might recognize her from “The Holiday” (2006), “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” (2005) or “A Knight’s Tale” (2001). Edward Burns, who’s usually decent, is disappointing as Jack Andrews, the cop who tries to help Beth (Shannyn Sossamon).

Because its characters are facing supernatural phenomena, “One Missed Call” can cheat and sidestep the rules of plausibility. And it’s not the movie’s incredulousness that bothers me; it’s just that once we find out why (not how, mind you) these killings are happening, we aren’t convinced or satisfied. This last statement, unfortunately, is one that I cannot elaborate on without revealing too much, so I won’t.

But I can write this: When we find out why the maniac in “Untraceable” is killing people, it sort of makes sense. We can buy the reasoning, as crazy as that sounds. On the other hand, when we find out why the killings are occurring in “One Missed Call,” we wish our cell phones would have called us about 87 minutes earlier with bad news.

Directed by Eric Valette
Shannyn Sossamon / Edward Burns / Azura Skye
Thriller 87 min.
MPAA: PG-13 (for intense sequences of violence and terror, frightening images, some sexual material and thematic elements)

U.S. Release Date: January 4, 2008
Copyright 2008: 230