Review of One Missed Call (2008) by James S — 02 Aug 2009

There is so much that doesn't make sense about One Missed Call that the after effect is one of slight dizziness from trying to work out where all of it's loose ends may tie together.

Another offering from the J-horror remake closet, this time a group of pretty students receive phone calls from the future telling them when they are to be offed in some kind of a malevolent and violent fashion. It's a novel idea but one which comes with so many unanswered questions. Slowly, a take of child abuse and hospital fires is unveiled before a twists which although a little surprising makes absolutely no sense so adds little to the overall film before the movie finishes seemingly in mid-scene.

The death scenes are hardly anything to write home about and are nothing which haven't been used in the Final Destination movies. The script is so incredibly bad it reads like someone wrote it on the back of a train ticket on a particularly bumpy journey and the acting is woefully dire as a consequence.

There are one or two good points about One Missed Call that stop it from being a complete disaster. A couple of good jump scares are included, the ring tone for the calls is suitably creepy and whether through sheer bafflement at what's going on, you do want to see it through to the end but it's just everything surrounding this that makes it seem like such a mess.

We're never really sure whether people are hallucinating, nor how the calls can be made to mobiles with no batteries in them, we're just supposed to take it as some supernatural force which isn't even explained in the end which throws up even more bizarre circumstances than before. And why the hell does the cat get killed in the beginning?.....cat's can't even answer phones. It's this sort of senseless horror cliches that make this seem like someone trying very hard to put a film together but with no real thought. It's like the homework done on the bus on the way to school.....it doesn't matter what it looks like, whether or not it makes sense just so long as there is something to hand in.

One Missed Call would not be missed by anyone.