The Caller

Rachelle LeFevre is very good in the role as a displaced, recently divorced student in S. America wanting to make a new start and get away from abusive ex-husband.

The cinematography is very evocative, moody and suspense provoking. She is in San Juan, Puerto Rico and meets a handsome teacher Gianni Guidi, who becomes friendly toward her. Meanwhile she gets harassing calls via an ancient telephone in her apartment. An old woman, who seems at first to need help, but ten other developments ensue.

Luis Guzman has a good cameo here as sometime maintenance/owner of apartment building she lives in

There are twists and turns, the dog, the sudden appearances of sadistic ex-husband (reminds me a bit of "Sleeping with the Enemy" in beginning). However, do not tune this film out, there are Hitchcockian elements to it and the screenplay is well-written and not over the top.

The visuals are excellent and well worth watching. Don't give up on the premise, it works in the end and there are some beautiful shots of Santa Margherita cemetery. Gothic and interesting. 9/10.

***SPOILERS*** A lot like the 2000 time traveling movie "Fequency" in the "The Caller" there's this young woman Mary Kee, Rachelle Lefevre, who somehow gets in touch with her past in 1979 through a number of mysterious phone calls from this woman who calls herself Rose,Lorna Raver, who claims that she stole her boyfriend Bobby away from her. You see right away that something isn't right with the phone that's in Mary's shabby 1st floor apartment being an rotary phone that's been out of production-you can't even find it in a novelty shop-by the phone companies for at least 15 years! Mary also has trouble here in the present-2011-with her abusive husband Steven, Ed Quinn, who despite an order of protection by the courts, to stay 500 feet away from his estranged wife Mary,is constantly showing up at her door and threatening Mary with bodily harm or even worse if she doesn't take the bum back. A a bum he is looking for every excuse to get into Mary's apartment to raid the refrigerator for free food & beer which he's too cheap to buy for himself.

It's later in the movie that Mary finally realized that this Rosa is holding her hostage as a little girl back in 1979 or 32 years in the past and planning to kill her to keep Mary stealing her just back from the Vietnam War, with serious mental problems, boyfriend Bobby when she grows up! With Steven planning to murder her in the present and Rosa to do Mary in back in 1979 it's no wonder that she's on the brink of a nervous breakdown and about to be committed!

***SPOILERS**** Mary in checking out old newspaper microfilm in the public library sees that a major fire took place in her neighborhood bowling alley around the time-September 1979-that Rosa is calling her and tries to get her to go there to see her with the excuse of boyfriend Bobby being there so she'll end up being one of the fires many victims. Wise to what Mary is up to Rosa now goes full blast to do in the young Mary that in effect would make the Mary of 2011 no longer around and living! Like in the movie "Frenquency" this film about changing the past as well as future is a bit too confusing as well as hard to follow. With the Mary of 2011 being attacked by the Rosa of 1979 as at the very same time trying to save herself as a little girl from Rosa back in 1979! It in fact does have a somewhat happy ending with both Rosa in the past and Steven in the present getting their comeuppances which is about the only good thing you can say about the film!

i went to see this movie without thinking i was going to be completely engrossed in the film and its complex characters. The story starts with a young woman that is currently in divorce proceedings from her estranged husband, moving into a new apartment. Everything starts off OK except that during her settling in to her new apartment she answers the phone where a older woman on the other line asks for a man that doesn't live there. from there on a phone relationship builds with this seemingly unstable elderly woman and a lonely young woman going through a difficult divorce. in time, strange things begin to happen and the movie takes a scary turn, it becomes extremely suspenseful and scary even though there is a lack of blood and graphic violence. i found the movie very entertaining and with its numerous twists, a movie that made you have discussions afterward in the theater with your friends about who was who, what does it really mean and what was real or a dream. a must see movie!

When I watched this movie almost 9 years ago, I loved it and I remember the plot and helplessness of the main protagonist, and how well it was made, every now and then. Watching the Korean remake (how to turn tables...), I think this one is weaker but still such a nice and well made little movie. It works well as a thriller and drama. I suggest you to watch the Korean one first, and then this one, both are well worth of your time.

I totally agree with the other reviewers that say that the film is not your average horror, it draws you in and is very clever and is a very good film of the horror genre without being a total cop out in the slasher come blood guts type, and its the story line that gives it its power, excellent.I know of a lot of this type that do not deliver in the way that you wish, but this film does not operate in the visceral way ,its more of the mind and makes you think more of what comes next, believe me , this film is better than most run of the mill films of this type.

horror films and I would recommend it most highly to anyone that appreciates intelligent but not over the top dark, but not total degenerate films of that ilk, I hope this has helped your choice.