The Calling

This typical straight-to-video release (complete with washed up actors that used to belong to the C-list) goes where countless films have gone before: a young mother gives birth to a child that seems to be uncommonly fascinated by morbidity, torture, death, or generally speaking all things evil. Naturally people around the once happy couple start dying left and right and our young female protagonist, estranged from her surroundings, starts to wonder whether or not this is related to her son's need to impale his pet guinea pig. People, it has all been done before in a much more satisfying fashion, see Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, The Exorcist, Poltergeist, or even The Devil's Advocate, Eyes Wide Shut or The Ninth Gate for all I care but don't waste precious time that could be spend delving into the many great works that cinema has to offer.

This was definitely not as bad as I thought it would be. The acting was a little dry, I guess, but the kid who played Dylan was definitely creepy. There was a lot of symbolism, or maybe I was just making some up to make the movie seem more profound, but the raven part was pretty cool, and plus, the raven is also a Carrie thing... Heh, so all in all, this wasn't so bad, and it reminded me of Rosemary's Baby, what with the devil's child and all. I gave it 4/10.

A young American woman gets married with a famous British newscaster, and apparently lives a perfect life in the Isle of Man until she discovers that his husband is part of a satanic cult trying to start the Antichritst's reign over Earth.

Sounds familiar? This movie gives more than a nod to horror classics "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Omen"; as its plot is like a mixture of both story lines with not even a quarter of the magnificence of those movies.

Richard Caesar's debut is a low-budget movie that puts Laura Harris in Mia Farrow's role as Kristie, the woman trapped in a blasphemous conspiracy by her husband Marc St. Claire (Richard Lintern). Betrayed by everyone, it is up to her to save the soul of her son Dylan (Alex Roe) who plays the role of hateful evil kid perfectly.

The movie's main problem is the lack of originality and poor development of the script, nothing really outstanding happens and it is quite formulaic; the characters' actions are unrealistic, and the dialogs are uninspired. However, the ending is particularly good, and it is a shame that one has to endure more than 70 boring and tedious minutes to arrive to the only good part of the movie.

The acting is nothing special and while Laura Harris makes a good lead, her character has some of the worst lines in the movie. It is a shame to see her waste her talent like that. On the other hand, Francis Magee has the best part in the movie as the mysterious taxi driver Carmac, and he easily steals every scene he is in.

The movie has a nice photography considering the low-budget, and the Isle of Man serves as a beautiful and different location. Caesar's direction is quite typical for modern day suspense thrillers but it works and the movie flows at good pace.

It is definitely not a bad movie, as even with its flaws it still manages to entertain and has a few good things to offer (specially the ending); however, there are similar movies that are far superior than "The Calling" as it stays in a mediocre level. 5/10

Let there be no mistake: The Calling is not a very good movie. But then again, how many really good movies are there in this genre? Off hand I can only think of a few...The Omen, The Exorcist (the best of them all), The Shining, Poltergeist, The Blair Witch Project and The Changeling amongst a few others perhaps (I also liked The Ninth Gate). I can think of a lot more titles that REALLY stinks, and this is my favorite genre! As for The Calling I think it is an OK movie for the genre, and well worth seeing for those who enjoy this type of movie. It is nowhere near as good as any of the above, but it's still not all that bad. And even though we've all "seen this story before" I find the ending quite original. Helge Iversen

In this film there is a very young pretty gal who gets married to a handsome guy who has the large home and everything to go with a prosperous person. After the large celebration and all the people have left for the evening, usually romance starts in the bedroom. However, in this picture it encounters a walk through the woods on a moon-lite night and then a stroll to a high cliff area overlooking the ocean below. The couple embrace and make love on the hard rock surface, instead of a nice warm cozy bed; it is from this point on in the picture that things start to change for the worst. The young bride is pregnant immediately after the hard rock love making and a sweet lovely child is conceived for the entire world to enjoy. If you like this type of film and especially,"Rosemary's Baby", you will enjoy this film.