''The Call'' is a 2013 American
psychological crime thriller film
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...
directed by
Brad Anderson and written by Richard D'Ovidio. The film stars
Abigail Breslin
Abigail Kathleen Breslin (born April 14, 1996) is an American actress. She rose to prominence with the comedy-drama film ''Little Miss Sunshine'' (2006), for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at ...
as Casey Welson, a teenage girl kidnapped by a mysterious
serial killer
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A
*
*
*
* with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...
and
Halle Berry as Jordan Turner, a
9-1-1 operator, still suffering emotionally from a prior failed botched 9-1-1 call, who receives Casey's call.
Morris Chestnut
Morris Lamont Chestnut (born January 1, 1969) is an American actor. He first came to prominence for his role as Ricky in the 1991 film ''Boyz n the Hood''. He has appeared in feature films and on television series, including the starring role of ...
,
Michael Eklund
Michael Eklund is a Canadian television and film actor who is known for playing the role of the villain or antihero. His characters are often described as being "creepy".
His roles include a kidnapper who terrorizes characters played by Halle ...
,
Michael Imperioli
Michael Imperioli (born March 26, 1966) is an American actor, writer, and musician. He is best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti in the HBO crime drama ''The Sopranos'' (1999–2007), which earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Ou ...
, and
David Otunga
David Daniel Otunga''Lawyer ' (born April 7, 1980) is an American actor and former professional wrestler. Otunga is best known for his time working with WWE. He was the runner-up on the first season of ''NXT''. He is also an original member of ...
also star. The story was originally envisioned as a television series, but D'Ovidio later rewrote it as a film. Filming began in July 2012 and spanned a period of 25 days, with all scenes being shot in
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, mainly
Burbank and
Santa Clarita
Santa Clarita (; Spanish for "Little St. Clare") is a city in northwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. With a 2020 census population of 228,673, it is the third-largest city by population in Los Angeles County, the 17t ...
.
A screening of ''The Call'' was held at the Women's International Film Festival hosted at the Regal South Beach theater on February 26, 2013.
TriStar Pictures
TriStar Pictures, Inc. (spelled as Tri-Star until 1991) is an American film studio and production company that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, part of the multinational conglomerate Sony. It is a corporate sibling of Sony ...
released it to theatres on March 15, 2013. Considered to be
high-concept by many reviewers, the film proved a commercial success, grossing over $68 million against budget of $13 million. Halle Berry was nominated for Choice Movie Actress in a Drama at the
Teen Choice Awards
The Teen Choice Awards is an annual awards show that airs on the Fox television network. The awards honor the year's biggest achievements in music, film, sports, television, fashion, social media, and more, voted by viewers living in the United ...
and Best Actress at the
BET Awards
The BET Awards is an American award show that was established in 2001 by the Black Entertainment Television network to celebrate black entertainers and other minorities in music, film, sports and philanthropy. The awards, which are presented annua ...
while Michael Eklund won Best Supporting Performance by a Male in a Motion Picture at the
Leo Awards
The Leo Awards are the awards program for the British Columbia film and television industry. Held each May or June in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the Leo Awards were founded by the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Foundation of British C ...
. Critics gave the film mixed reviews, but praised Berry and Breslin's performances and the film's suspense. It is currently the most successful WWE produced film.
Plot
Seasoned
LAPD 9-1-1 operator Jordan Turner receives a call from 15-year-old Leah Templeton, fearing for her life as a man breaks into her home. Calmly advising her to hide, when the call is disconnected, Jordan calls back. The ring gives her location away to the intruder. Jordan attempts to dissuade him, but he responds, "It's already done," and hangs up.
The next day, a television report confirms that Leah has been murdered. Emotionally affected, Jordan decides she can no longer handle field calls.
Six months later, she trains 9-1-1 operators. Teenager Casey Welson is kidnapped from a mall parking garage by a man named Michael, forced into the trunk of a car. Using a
disposable phone she calls 9-1-1. Brooke, a rookie operator, receives the call but can't handle it, so Jordan takes over. However, since Casey is using a 'burner' phone, her exact location cannot be determined by GPS.
As Michael drives, Jordan gets Casey to knock out a
tail light
The lighting system of a motor vehicle consists of lighting and signalling devices mounted to or integrated into the front, rear, sides, and in some cases the top of a motor vehicle. They illuminate the road ahead for the driver and increase t ...
and signal people nearby. A woman who sees Casey's arm calls 9-1-1 on a phone with GPS, allowing the police to narrow the search, but Michael notices the caller and quickly loses her. When Casey discovers paint in the trunk, Jordan has her pour the paint out of the taillight hole. This attracts the attention of another driver, Alan Denado, but Michael knocks him out with a shovel, and assuming him to be dead, stuffs him into the trunk of his black
Lincoln Town Car
The Lincoln Town Car is a model line of full-size luxury sedans that was marketed by the Lincoln division of the American automaker Ford Motor Company. Deriving its name from a limousine body style, Lincoln marketed the Town Car from 1981 to ...
with Casey.
On the road again, Alan awakens in his trunk, screaming uncontrollably, so Michael pulls over and stabs him to death. When he stops for gas, Casey tries to crawl out of the trunk and scream for help. When the gas attendant tries to open the car door, Michael douses him with gasoline and burns him alive. Meanwhile, the police find Michael's
Toyota Camry
The Toyota Camry (; Japanese: トヨタ・カムリ ''Toyota Kamuri'') is an automobile sold internationally by the Japanese auto manufacturer Toyota since 1982, spanning multiple generations. Originally compact in size (narrow-body), the Camry ...
abandoned in a parking lot, and discover his identity through his fingerprints.
Arriving at their destination, Michael removes Casey from the trunk. He finds the phone in her pocket, connected to 9-1-1. Jordan informs him that his identity, Michael Foster, is uncovered, advising him to surrender and not hurt the girl. Before smashing the phone, Michael responds, "It's already done", making Jordan realize Michael also killed Leah.
Meanwhile, her boyfriend, officer Paul Phillips, and others raid Michael's home, finding only his wife and children. Seeing a photo of Michael and his sister, Melinda, Paul recognizes Casey's resemblance. Additionally, the house in the photo is eventually revealed by Michael's wife to have burned down, although a nearby cottage still remains. The police raid it, but find nobody.
Michael begins to torture Casey slowly, strapping her to a foldable wheelchair, cutting her shirt off to her bra, and forcing her to take nitrous oxide. Determined to rescue her, Jordan drives to the cottage where she finds a number of photos of Michael with his
leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...
-stricken sister. Stepping outside, she recognizes sounds from an outdoor
flagpole
A flagpole, flagmast, flagstaff, or staff is a pole designed to support a flag. If it is taller than can be easily reached to raise the flag, a cord is used, looping around a pulley at the top of the pole with the ends tied at the bottom. The fla ...
—exactly what she'd heard in the background at the end of the 9-1-1 call. Next to the flagpole, she also finds a trap door where the primary house once stood. Jordan accidentally drops her cell phone down the cellar and climbs down to get it.
Jordan hides from Michael in the cellar. At one glance, his story is clear. He had
incest
Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adopti ...
uous feelings towards his sister Melinda and was distraught when she fell ill and died. Michael has a prop head he keeps there which he treats like his sister. He has been scalping and killing young girls who have similar blond hair, trying to find scalps that match his sister's hair, which she lost from
chemotherapy
Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs ( chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemothe ...
.
Jordan soon finds Casey strapped to the wheelchair and attacks Michael as he begins to scalp her. She frees her and they try to escape, during which Casey stabs Michael in the back with scissors. He pursues them and they injure and kick him back down into the cellar, rendering him unconscious. While knocked out, they tie him to a chair. When Michael regains consciousness, the women reveal they intend to leave him there to die. They will claim Casey had escaped and Jordan found her in the woods. People will believe that Michael simply disappeared. He first insults, then pleads, saying they cannot do this to him. Jordan replies with his own words, "It's already done," and locks the door.
Cast
*
Halle Berry as Jordan Turner, a 9-1-1 operator
*
Abigail Breslin
Abigail Kathleen Breslin (born April 14, 1996) is an American actress. She rose to prominence with the comedy-drama film ''Little Miss Sunshine'' (2006), for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at ...
as Casey Welson, a kidnapped teenager
*
Morris Chestnut
Morris Lamont Chestnut (born January 1, 1969) is an American actor. He first came to prominence for his role as Ricky in the 1991 film ''Boyz n the Hood''. He has appeared in feature films and on television series, including the starring role of ...
as Officer Paul Phillips, Jordan's boyfriend
*
Michael Eklund
Michael Eklund is a Canadian television and film actor who is known for playing the role of the villain or antihero. His characters are often described as being "creepy".
His roles include a kidnapper who terrorizes characters played by Halle ...
as Michael Foster, Casey's kidnapper and Leah Templeton's killer
*
Michael Imperioli
Michael Imperioli (born March 26, 1966) is an American actor, writer, and musician. He is best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti in the HBO crime drama ''The Sopranos'' (1999–2007), which earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Ou ...
as Alan Denado, Michael's victim
*
David Otunga
David Daniel Otunga''Lawyer ' (born April 7, 1980) is an American actor and former professional wrestler. Otunga is best known for his time working with WWE. He was the runner-up on the first season of ''NXT''. He is also an original member of ...
as Officer Jake Devan
*
Justina Machado
Justina Milagros Machado (born September 6, 1972) is an American actress, known for her roles as Penelope Alvarez on the Netflix and Pop TV sitcom '' One Day at a Time'', Darci Factor in The CW dramedy ''Jane the Virgin'', Vanessa Diaz on the H ...
as Rachel
*
as Marco
*
Roma Maffia
Roma Maffia is an American actress.
Life and career
Roma Maffia grew up in Brooklyn, New York and is of English, German and West Indian descent. Her Italian surname reportedly comes from her stepfather.
Maffia began her official acting career ...
as Maddy
* Evie Thompson as Leah Templeton
*
Denise Dowse
Denise Yvonne Dowse (February 21, 1958 – August 13, 2022) was an American actress and director. She was best known for her roles as Mrs. Yvonne Teasley in the television series ''Beverly Hills, 90210'' (1991–2000), Judge Rebecca Damsen in ' ...
as Flora
*
Ella Rae Peck
Ella Rae Peck is an American actress. She portrayed the roles of Charlotte "Lola" Rhodes in The CW series ''Gossip Girl'' and Mia Bowers in the NBC series '' Deception''.
Life and career
Peck was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and went to scho ...
as Autumn
*
Jenna Lamia as Brooke
* Ross Gallo as Josh
* Shawnee Badger as Melinda Foster
*
Tara Platt
Tara Platt (born June 18, 1978) is an American actress and author who has provided voices for dozens of English-language versions of Japanese anime films, television series and video games. Her notable roles in anime include Temari in ''Naruto' ...
as Female Trainee
Production
Writing and casting
Screenwriter Richard D'Ovidio was inspired to script the story after his wife heard an NPR segment with a 9-1-1 operator discussing her job. He began to research the subject and visited the Los Angeles Metropolitan Communications Dispatch Center (MCDC). Finding the center, which has backup generators, bulletproof windows, and a moat surrounding the building, to be "pretty amazing," he decided to shed light on what he viewed as a previously overlooked occupation. The story was originally conceptualized as a television series titled ''The Hive'' (a reference to the constant calls and conversations sounding like bees buzzing), but D'Ovidio decided to redraft it as a film on realizing that "the operators couldn't be the ones kicking in doors and going out into the field" all the time. As a result, what was planned to be the pilot episode was expanded and revised as a movie.
For most of the film, Berry's character, Turner, the 9-1-1 operator, does stay inside "the hive" before becoming actively involved in the search for Breslin's character, Welson, the kidnapped caller. D'Ovidio chose two female leads, explaining, "I wanted strong women... I think it was appropriate here, since most 911 call operators are women."
Berry remarked, "I love the idea of being a part of a movie that was so empowering for women. We don't often get to play roles like this, where ordinary people become heroic and do something extraordinary."
D'Ovidio chose to tell the story from the perspective of two characters—the operator and the caller—believing that it would become repetitive if it focused on only one. As a result, he switched perspectives every ten pages when writing the screenplay. As well as collaborating on the story with his wife, Nicole and Jon Bokenkamp, he accepted suggestions from Berry, Breslin and Eklund: "Halle came in with some great notes and Abigail and Michael and it started to flesh things out. I'm not one to say 'no' to a great suggested line of dialogue. It just makes me look better as a writer! I feel it's a very collaborative process, and some of the happiest accidents happen when you just listen to people. When someone comes up to you and says, 'Why don't we do it this way?' I think that it's important to listen."
Chestnut, who plays Phillips, a police officer and Turner's boyfriend, prepared by riding along with Los Angeles police officers to observe what it is like to be an officer in a squad car
and Berry prepared for the role by visiting a call center and observing the operators at work.
She told a ''
Miami Herald'' interviewer, "You get a different perspective by doing research... You can't know what its like to be a cop even though you've seen it in the movies. But nobody ever saw a 9-1-1 center. I thought they lived in the ground somewhere! It was interesting to see who they were and how they deal and how stressful it can be. I was a wreck watching them. They would just be as cool as can be doing their thing. I thought, 'I could never do this job.'"
Filming
Producers scheduled for ''The Call'' to be filmed in Canada in June 2011 after they failed to make the cut for a California tax credit. With a low budget of $13 million, they settled on
Ottawa, Ontario
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
, where director Anderson had just finished another project. However, the
California Film Commission
The California Film Commission (CFC) was founded in 1985 by then California Governor George Deukmejian to act in an economic development capacity for the state. It is a part of the California Trade and Commerce Agency, formerly the Business, Trans ...
(CFC) called back nine months later and informed them that the waiting list had been largely cleared and that they now qualified for $1.9 million in tax deduction. According to Producer Michael Helfant, they were "literally days from starting to put down a deposit." Berry was reportedly pleased with the news, wanting to stay in Los Angeles and the CFC helped secure film locations for the project.
With a crew of roughly 120 persons, filming took a total of 25 days, spanning from July to August 2012. Car chase scenes were shot at
Long Beach
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California.
Incorporate ...
and a
Westlake Village
Westlake Village is a city in Los Angeles County on its western border with Ventura County. The City of Westlake Village incorporated in 1981 becoming the 82nd municipality of Los Angeles County.Baker, Pam (2002). ''Thousand Oaks Westlake Vill ...
office building was modeled as the emergency dispatch center. The latter was also used for the scenes in which Welson is locked in the trunk of a car. Other filming locations include the
Burbank Town Center
Burbank Town Center (formerly Media City Center) is a large shopping mall and complex that opened in August 1991 on Magnolia Boulevard in Burbank, California, with three levels of interior shopping anchored by Macy's, Burlington, Sears, and RO ...
on Magnolia Boulevard in
Burbank, California,
Santa Clarita, California and the 170 Highway.
At one point, Berry was rushed to
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit, tertiary, 886-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over 2 ...
after falling headfirst on concrete while shooting a fight sequence. A spokesperson for Berry confirmed that she suffered a minor head injury and was taken to the hospital as a precaution, but she checked out healthy and was released.
Berry told interviewer Kimberly Grant, "The hard part for me was to try to stay connected to Phillips and Welson." This was because, Grant writes, "she had to spend an entire day reading 21 pages of dialogue, rattling off in quick succession 911-operator jargon, that would be cut and edited to fit the film... In film terms, that means Berry performed for 21 minutes straight with no breaks, not an easy feat for any actor." Though she enjoyed working with Chestnut,
Berry told Grant that it was difficult being unable to see her co-stars for most of the film: "That was my constant challenge; to stay on such an emotional level
s Jordan so that I would be on the same level as they
.e., Casey and Officer Phillipswere. I used that feeling of frustration and of being stuck to fuel my character."
Music
The score of the film is composed by John Debney. Unlike the other films he composed with an orchestra, the film's score is completely filled with dark and intense electronic and synthesized elements although he used little orchestral elements in the score.
Promotion and release
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA) is a specialty film division of Sony Pictures. The company specializes in acquiring and producing films for a wide variety of distribution platforms.
History
The group became a stand-alone division of ...
paid very little money to acquire U.S. distribution rights.
But the film screened for a test audience in November 2012 and scores were even higher than anticipated, prompting Sony to give the film a wide theatrical release.
Spanning 94 minutes upon completion, the movie received an R rating for violence, disturbing content and some language.
Berry and Chestnut promoted the film at the ShowPlace ICON movie theater at the red-carpet premiere in Chicago on February 28.
Berry also traveled to Rio to promote ''The Call'' in anticipation of its April 12 release in Brazil.
The Women's International Film Festival hosted a screening of ''The Call'' at the Regal South Beach theater on February 26, 2013. Chestnut told the audience that he would sign on for a sequel, saying about Berry, "I didn't get to kiss this woman enough!" Berry added, "I'm in the movie and even I was scared." The film was released in theatres on March 15 and on
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
and
Blu-ray Disc on June 25 of that same year. DVD extras included a
featurette
In the American film industry, a featurette is a kind of film that is shorter than a full-length feature, but longer than a short film. The term may refer to either of two types of content: a shorter film or a companion film.
Medium-length film ...
entitled "Emergency Procedure: Making the Film" and commentary from Abigail Breslin, Halle Berry, and other filmmakers. The Blu-ray version came with more features, including
deleted scene
A deleted scene is footage that has been removed from the final version of a film or television show. There are various reasons why these scenes are deleted, which include time constraints, relevance, quality or a dropped story thread. A similar o ...
s, an alternate ending, Michael Eklund's audition tape, featurettes entitled "A Set Tour of The Hive and The Lair" and "Inside the Stunts", as well as all of the original DVD content.
Reception
Box office
According to ''
Boxoffice
''Boxoffice Pro'' is a film industry magazine dedicated to the movie theatre business published by BoxOffice Media LP.
History
It started in 1920 as ''The Reel Journal'', taking the name ''Boxoffice'' in 1931 and still publishes today, with ...
,'' ''The Call'' was expected to earn about $11–12 million on its opening weekend in 2,507 theaters across the United States but surpassed this by a significant margin and grossed $17 million in its first three days. This indicated good profits, as the film cost about $13 million to produce and Sony paid a much smaller amount to acquire U.S. distribution rights.
With box office takings of over $68 million, ''The Call'' is
WWE Studios
WWE Studios Inc. (formerly known as WWE Films) is an American film studio owned by the professional wrestling promotion WWE. WWE Studios movies frequently mix well-known actors and actresses in lead roles with WWE wrestlers, and teams with exist ...
' most commercially successful film to date, the previous top-grossing productions being ''
See No Evil,'' which stars
professional wrestler
Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...
Kane (Glenn Jacobs) ($19 million) and ''
12 Rounds,'' which stars
professional wrestler
Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...
John Cena
John Felix Anthony Cena ( ; born April 23, 1977) is an American part-time professional wrestler, actor, and former rapper. He is currently signed to WWE. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he is tied ...
($17 million).
Critics were surprised by the movie's box office success because "Berry hadn't had a hit in a number of years" and because the R rating narrowed down the audience.
WWE Studios head Michael Luisi commented that ''The Call'' "
xceededour most optimistic forecasts."
Critical response
On
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film has an approval rating of 44% based on 133 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''The Call'' builds plenty of suspense before taking a problematic turn in the third act." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, another film review aggregator, the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.
''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...
'' gave the film a B rating, saying that the tale "is surprisingly good and surprisingly gruesome fun. Eklund makes the most of the maniac role and Breslin is a sympathetic victim." Reviewer Dwight Brown wrote, "The script gives Berry a blue-collar character she can make accessible, vulnerable and gutsy... Chestnut is suitably gallant and stalwart as her caring lover and a cop on a mission... This film is a whole lot scarier than you think it's going to be."
Manohla Dargis
Manohla June Dargis () is an American film critic. She is one of the chief film critics for ''The New York Times''. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
Career
Before being a film critic for ''The New York Times'', ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' wrote, "An effectively creepy thriller about a 911 operator and a young miss in peril, ''The Call'' is a model of low-budget filmmaking." She praised its "clean, clever premise" and said that Berry's Jordan is "an old-fashioned hero in many respects, so it's fitting that Mr. Anderson uses old-fashioned filmmaking techniques, like crosscutting, to build tension and old-school exploitation tricks like evil to justify taking the story dark and then dark and bonkers."
A reviewer for ''
The Hutchinson News
''The Hutchinson News'' is a daily newspaper serving the city of Hutchinson, Kansas, United States. The publication was awarded the 1965 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service "for its courageous and constructive campaign, culminating in 1964, to bri ...
,'' Jake Coyle, commented, "Director Brad Anderson... working from the simple, high-concept screenplay by Richard D'Ovidio, ably cuts between Berry's increasingly emotionally-attached Jordan Turner and Breslin's panicking Casey Welson, contrasting the fraught strategizing of Turner with the frantic police pursuit of the kidnapper." Coyle stated that "''The Call'' dials up a shallow thrill ride, but one efficiently peppered with your typical 'don't go in there!' moments," but concluded, "''The Call'' is a rudimentary, almost old-fashioned 90-minute escape that manages to achieve its low ambitions." Rating the film 2 stars out of 4, Coyle writes that once the film "manages to build some suspense from the trunk of the car-- the clever attempts to elicit help, the dwindling cell phone battery-- its deficiencies become less forgivable once the action turns off the road."
Roger Moore of ''
The Seattle Times
''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington ...
'' showed mixed feelings in his review: "Rare is the thriller that goes as completely and utterly wrong as ''The Call'' does at almost precisely the one-hour mark. Which is a crying shame, because for an hour this is a riveting, by-the-book kidnapping." Moore explained what he saw as the highs and lows: "Brad Anderson turns this...serial-killer hunt...into a real edge-of-your-seat thriller. Given...a half-decent tale of horror, guilt, problem-solving and redemption, Anderson couldn't go far wrong," but, Moore states, "It's only when our Oscar-winning heroine puts down the phone and sets out to do some sleuthing of her own that ''The Call'' disconnects, turning into something far more generic and far less exciting." The ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' turned in a similar review: "The semi-fresh thriller, set mainly in an emergency call center and on the freeways of Los Angeles, puts a tech slant on a damsel-in-distress setup. It buzzes along for a while, the promising plot innovations inviting suspension of disbelief, before by-the-numbers implausibility, over-the-top valor and unsavory contrivances take over and the line goes dead."
Accolades
Berry was nominated for two awards for her role as Turner in ''The Call'' in 2013. She was nominated for Best Actress for the
BET Awards
The BET Awards is an American award show that was established in 2001 by the Black Entertainment Television network to celebrate black entertainers and other minorities in music, film, sports and philanthropy. The awards, which are presented annua ...
, which were created by the
Black Entertainment Television network to celebrate
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
s and other minorities in music, acting, sports and other fields of entertainment over the past year, Berry lost to
Kerry Washington
Kerry Marisa Washington (born January 31, 1977) SidebarCertificate of Live Birth: Isabelle Amarachi Asomugha(County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health). Gives Kerry Washington birth dateArchivedfrom the original on May 2, 2016.Note: Fi ...
for the role in ''
Django Unchained
''Django Unchained'' () is a 2012 American revisionist Western film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson, with Walton Goggins, Dennis Ch ...
''. She was also nominated for Choice Movie Actress in a Drama at the
Teen Choice Awards
The Teen Choice Awards is an annual awards show that airs on the Fox television network. The awards honor the year's biggest achievements in music, film, sports, television, fashion, social media, and more, voted by viewers living in the United ...
, but lost to
Emma Watson
Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson (born 15 April 1990) is an English actress and activist. Known for her roles in both blockbusters and independent films, as well as for her women's rights work, she has received a selection of accolades, includi ...
for ''
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
''The Perks of Being a Wallflower'' is a coming-of-age epistolary novel by American writer Stephen Chbosky, which was first published on February 1, 1999, by Pocket Books. Set in the early 1990s, the novel follows Charlie, an introverted and obs ...
''.
The film was also nominated for Best Thriller Film at the
40th Saturn Awards and Berry was nominated for
Saturn Award for Best Actress, but lost to ''
World War Z
''World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War'' is a 2006 zombie apocalyptic horror novel written by American author Max Brooks. The novel is broken into eight chapters: “Warnings”, “Blame”, “The Great Panic”, “Turning the Ti ...
'' and
Sandra Bullock, respectively.
2022 Resurgence
On April 10, 2022, close to a decade after its theatrical release, the film was added to the streaming platform,
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
. By April 11, 2022, it was the most popular film on the platform. The film surged to #1 on Netflix and on April 13, 2022, both Halle Berry and Michael Eklund addressed its resurgence with fans on social media. Berry jokingly
tweeted
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
to fans asking''"Are y'all Ok?''" while Eklund tweeted that he was ''"glad you all still enjoy it"''.
See also
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List of films featuring home invasions
There is a body of films that feature home invasions. Paula Marantz Cohen says, "Such films reflect an increased fear of the erosion of distinctions between private and public space... These films also reflect a sense that the outside world is mo ...
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Call, The
2013 films
2013 thriller films
2013 crime thriller films
2013 psychological thriller films
2010s serial killer films
American crime thriller films
American films about revenge
American psychological thriller films
American serial killer films
Emergency communication
2010s English-language films
Fictional portrayals of the Los Angeles Police Department
Films about child abduction in the United States
Films directed by Brad Anderson
Films scored by John Debney
Films set in 2012
Films set in Los Angeles
Films shot in Los Angeles
Incest in film
Stage 6 Films films
TriStar Pictures films
WWE Studios films
2010s American films