Introduction
The Call, is a thriller film released in March, 2013. The film stars such established actors like Halle Berry, Abigail Bresslin, Morris Chestnut, Michael Eklund and Michael Emperioli. The film has been produced by Bradley Gallo, Jeffrey Graup, Michael A Helfant, Michael Luisi and Robert stain, and directed by Brad Anderson. Anderson is a renowned director whose career in directing and production began way back in 1996 and has since directed and produced several films and T.V series. Amongst his most notable works are The Machinist, in 2004 and the T.V series Fringe, which he directed two episodes. Other films which he has directed are, Next Stop Wonderland, Happy Accidents, Session 9, Transsiberian and Vanishing on 7th Street. The film lasts approximately one and half hours long.
The movie revolves about a call operator, Jordan Turner, played by Halle Berry. She receives a distress call from a teenage girl, Leah Templton (Evie Thompson) who is being attacked by a killer. She helps her to escape the killer but when the call disconnects, she Turner calls back again thereby alerting the killer who captures Leah and eventually kills her. Turner is traumatized blaming herself for the death of Leah and quits fielding calls. Six months later, when Turner is a trainer for call operators, another kidnapping happens. Casey Wilson (Abigail Breslin), who is also a teenager is kidnapped and the call comes through to the call operation centre. It is picked by Brooke (Jenna Lamia) who is a rookie call operator and clearly she cannot handle it, forcing Turner to take over the call. Turner uses her experience to instruct the teenager to give signals to nearby motorists who in turn call the police, but the serial killer counters by killing those who try to help and also switching cars with one of his victims, Alan denado (Michael Emperioli). This, however, is his undoing as he leaves finger prints at the scene which leads the police to uncovering his identity, Michael Foster (Michael Eklund).
Paul (Morris Chestnut), who is Turner’s boyfriend, observes that Casey looks so much like Foster’s sister. The dig deeper and find out that Foster’s childhood home had been burned down but another house belonging to them still stood nearby. They invade the house but do not find the killer and his victim. Turner is distraught at not being able to save a teenager again and decides to visit the other house. it is here that he discovers a trap door where the original house stood and she enters without informing the police. In there, she discovers the cause of Foster’s actions; he had a sister whom he was in love with and wanted to marry. She, however, contracted a disease, her hair fell off and she passed on. Michael has a prop head she treats like her sister and that is why she was killing teenage girls to replace her sister’s hair. None of the girls he has killed has a scalp that matches his sister’s and so he has conducted several repeated killings without even the police noticing. Turner and Casey overpower Foster and tie him up leaving him for dead.
Conclusion
Brad Anderson is well known for thrillers and horrors so The Call was almost certainly going to fall within this category. The film turns out to be a thriller, driven largely by suspense the producer manages to create, and the class act of Halle Berry and Eklund. The film keeps the viewer on the edge of the seat especially when Turner sets out to go try and save the teenage girl. There is the use of old school filming techniques like crosscutting to create tension in the film, to good effect. The language used in the film is also viewer friendly because there is only minimal use of swearing words and so parents will be happy to watch it with their kids. The call also brings to the fore the life of call operators, notably the overlapping calls and also that operators receive all kinds of queries, including the inclusion of the real call where a husband calls to report that his wife had overdosed. In general, the movie is a good one, fits the title of The Call, but strays a bit at the end when Turner goes to the field and also when they leave foster for dead.
