Although some of the earlier Americanized remakes of Japanese horror movies—such as The Ring (2002)—provided a welcome respite from our homegrown shockers (which focused either on serial-killing slashers or mutant monsters created in derailed lab experiments), the market for Nippon-inspired fright films (which mostly seem to revolve around paranormal phenomena related to the tragic, long-ago deaths of children, whose apparitions always have pasty white skin and black greasepaint ringing their eyes) has become overly saturated. Filmmaker Eric Valette's One Missed Call adheres to the same formula, including the characteristic tendency of malevolent spirits to use modern-day technology to spread terror. Shannyn Sossamon stars as Beth Raymond, a young woman who is somehow linked to a chain of people who died after hearing recorded phone messages of themselves having conversations in the near future. Edward Burns costars as Jack Andrews, a sympathetic cop prepared to overlook the seeming impossibility of all of this since his own sister was the first victim. The film consciously strives for a sense of dreariness, which it handily achieves—along with boredom and absurdity—making this one movie viewers can safely miss. Not recommended. (E. Hulse)
One Missed Call
Warner, 87 min., PG-13, DVD: $28.99, Apr. 22 Volume 23, Issue 3
One Missed Call
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As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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