"One Missed Call" follows a college coed named Beth (Shannyn Sossamon), whose friend, Leann (Azura Skye) dies in a freak accident after receiving a strange phone message that seems to be a recording of her death that followed two days after it was received. Not only that, but another one of Leann's friends, Shelley (Meagan Good) had a similar incident before her bizarre death. When Beth meets detective Andrews (Edward Burns), who believes there is truth to the strange events, the two team up to try and discover the source of the murderous chain of phone messages. And when Beth receives one herself, it becomes a race against time before she meets her predetermined fate as well.
To get things clear in the beginning, I have not seen the original Japanese version of this film, so I cannot make a comparison between the two. However, I can say that this remake was quite a mess of a movie, regardless of whether or not the original was a good film. For one, the writing is pretty lousy. The story begins kind of all over the place before focusing on one central character, and that initial opening scare scene was flat-out ridiculous. There are dozens of plot holes scattered throughout the film, and many things that simply do not add up. It's pretty clichéd as well, relying on a never ending slew of "jump" scares to get a reaction from the audience - problem is, most of them are so much expected that few are even minorly effective. There is little to no suspense as well, and I felt this could have been a fairly suspenseful movie.
The second area where the script fails is in the characters. We get their names, but that's about all. They have no depth, little personality, and are really overall bland, even the protagonists that we are supposed to be caring about. The acting was average, but I have a feeling the reason some of the performances lack is because the script was poorly written to begin with, and the performers had little to go on. Shannyn Sossamon leads the cast and does decent with what she has, as does Edward Burns, but neither are anything remarkable. The rest of the more minor characters are even more bland, and have even less to go on. Azura Skye is notable in her performance as Sossamon's friend, but she suffers from a poorly-written character as well. I also had a bit of a problem with the chemistry between the characters/the actors, because sometimes things just did not feel 'right'.
There is some good to be found in this movie though, however little it may be. While some may bash it for it's PG-13 rating, I don't have a problem with that, because it's not a movie that needs to be gory to begin with. I also thought that the general premise was interesting, even though it is a remake. It's a neat idea, but the execution of it was horrible. I will give it the benefit of the doubt though when it comes to some of the visuals and images - there are a few creepy visuals in this movie, and the 'villians', for lack of a better term, were pretty spooky, as was the sinister "warning" ringtone. I thought the hospital sequence towards the end was fairly creepy - that is until we are shown a grinning monster-infant playing with a cell phone in a crib, which was not only ridiculous, but was supposed to be taken seriously. That bit ruined the good that I saw in that scene to say the least, even during that semi-scary attack by a reanimated corpse. The ending was a letdown as well, and I was really disappointed.
Overall, "One Missed Call" is one of the worst horror films I've seen at the theater in awhile. The script is messy, the characters are bland, the scares are ineffective, there is little to no suspense - and the entire film felt like it was carelessly thrown together. It's a shame too, because the premise is interesting and this could have been a decent movie, but the filmmakers' execution of it was poor. Besides a few creepy visuals, I can't recommend much here. You'll probably want to skip this one, or wait till it comes to video. 3/10.
To get things clear in the beginning, I have not seen the original Japanese version of this film, so I cannot make a comparison between the two. However, I can say that this remake was quite a mess of a movie, regardless of whether or not the original was a good film. For one, the writing is pretty lousy. The story begins kind of all over the place before focusing on one central character, and that initial opening scare scene was flat-out ridiculous. There are dozens of plot holes scattered throughout the film, and many things that simply do not add up. It's pretty clichéd as well, relying on a never ending slew of "jump" scares to get a reaction from the audience - problem is, most of them are so much expected that few are even minorly effective. There is little to no suspense as well, and I felt this could have been a fairly suspenseful movie.
The second area where the script fails is in the characters. We get their names, but that's about all. They have no depth, little personality, and are really overall bland, even the protagonists that we are supposed to be caring about. The acting was average, but I have a feeling the reason some of the performances lack is because the script was poorly written to begin with, and the performers had little to go on. Shannyn Sossamon leads the cast and does decent with what she has, as does Edward Burns, but neither are anything remarkable. The rest of the more minor characters are even more bland, and have even less to go on. Azura Skye is notable in her performance as Sossamon's friend, but she suffers from a poorly-written character as well. I also had a bit of a problem with the chemistry between the characters/the actors, because sometimes things just did not feel 'right'.
There is some good to be found in this movie though, however little it may be. While some may bash it for it's PG-13 rating, I don't have a problem with that, because it's not a movie that needs to be gory to begin with. I also thought that the general premise was interesting, even though it is a remake. It's a neat idea, but the execution of it was horrible. I will give it the benefit of the doubt though when it comes to some of the visuals and images - there are a few creepy visuals in this movie, and the 'villians', for lack of a better term, were pretty spooky, as was the sinister "warning" ringtone. I thought the hospital sequence towards the end was fairly creepy - that is until we are shown a grinning monster-infant playing with a cell phone in a crib, which was not only ridiculous, but was supposed to be taken seriously. That bit ruined the good that I saw in that scene to say the least, even during that semi-scary attack by a reanimated corpse. The ending was a letdown as well, and I was really disappointed.
Overall, "One Missed Call" is one of the worst horror films I've seen at the theater in awhile. The script is messy, the characters are bland, the scares are ineffective, there is little to no suspense - and the entire film felt like it was carelessly thrown together. It's a shame too, because the premise is interesting and this could have been a decent movie, but the filmmakers' execution of it was poor. Besides a few creepy visuals, I can't recommend much here. You'll probably want to skip this one, or wait till it comes to video. 3/10.