User Reviews

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

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.

THE CALLING is an updated ROSEMARY'S BABY / THE OMEN hybrid that's actually pretty good.

Laura Harris is believable as Kristie St. Clair, the increasingly suspicious mum of young Dylan (Alex Roe). She faces what she sees as a satanic conspiracy of historic, global proportions. Not surprisingly, no one believes her, except for those who are already involved in the whole thing.

The magnificent Alice Krige co-stars as the wicked Elizabeth Plummer. Unfortunately, Ms. Krige is underused here. The rest of the cast is serviceable, with Francis Magee's enigmatic cabby, Carmac being the standout. The story is engaging and suspenseful, with a building sense of doom. There are some cool twists, and the finale is a grabber!

Yes, a boom mic is clearly visible during the church scene, but it doesn't ruin the entire movie. Worth a watch...

Someone should tell the director and writer that there is a huge difference between a heroine who is naively innocent and one who is criminally negligent in ignoring the obvious goings-on and behavior problems of her little boy (the kid kills his guinea pig on a stake and then hangs his dog alive and this mother accepts a "boys will be boys" explanation!? What is THAT possibly about? Not even a suggestion of counseling/therapy for the boy... The unintended real horror of the movie is the writing).

Luckily, I spent only $1.98 for this flick where plot, continuity, and creativity were kept to a minimum; and overwrought ham acting ruled the day. Still, I'm taking it back for a refund; it's not even worthy of a garage sale since any buyer would know where I live and either try to return it or vandalize my yard after watching even ten minutes of this load of celluloid waste.

***SPOILERS*** Another "Omen" clone with the Antichrist coming back to earth to usher in the year 2000. At the beginning of the movie "The Calling" we see Kristie St. Clair, Laura Harris, being chased into the sea by a group of black-clad Satanist and then shot. In the hospital Kristie under intensive care is attended by her priest Father Mullin, Peter Waddington, whom she tell her story, as we go into flashback, about the string of events that ended up almost costing her life.

Being married to top Isle of Man TV news commentator Marc St. Clair, Richard Lintern,Kristie's life could never be more happier until she gave birth to her son Dylan, Alex Roe. On the very day that Dylan was born Marc's station's manager Jack Plummer, John Standing, and his wife's Elizabeth (Alice Krige)seven year old son Sammy, Liam Hess, disappeared. Found some time later Sammy had his heart cut out in some kind of gruesome Satanic ritual but the story was kept from the public by news-reporter Marc; it was reported that Sammy was strangled.

It becomes obvious that young Dylan is some how connected with Sammy's murder in that the dead boy's parents Jack & Elizabeth become his surrogate parents. It's as if they in some way traded in Sammy for him! Growing up Dylan get's influenced by both the Plummers and his father Marc in the black arts which includes the unchristian rites of Satanism like reading backwards as they do with passages of the Bible in some of their secret rituals.

Kristie's friend Lynette, Camilla Puner, about the only person in the movie, besides Kristie, who isn't a Satanist later interrupts an ungodly act preformed on young Dylan by his father Marc and Elizabeth which later cost Lynette her life. Dylan in a mocking of the crucifixion was himself crucified by Marc & Elizabeth , but lived to tell about it, upside down!

"The Calling" get's very confusing with it's attempt to show how powerful the grip of Satan is on the people of the Isle of White by over doing a number of wild crazy and ungodly scenes. There's a drunken sex orgy, where this dirty old man get's electrocuted in a Jacuzzi, that Kristie secretly attends. Earlier a woman, for what seemed like no reason at all, jumps from a tower and lands on top of Kristie's car almost killing her and Dylan who was with her at the time. There's also the weirdo cab driver Carmac, Francis McGee, who's some kind of religious nut popping up in scene after scene and giving Kristie, and the audience, the straight dope to what's really happening on the screen.

You sense right away that this Carmac knows a lot more then what he's saying and as the movie moves to it's predictable conclusion you start to realize that he does a lot more then drive a taxi for a living in fact he drives almost the entire cast of the movie into a wild and hysterical frenzy in the films end-of-the-world-like final scene.

Even though nowhere near as effective as "The Omen" the film "The Calling" has the same eerie and disturbing look to it, in fact it's one of the most shocking and unnerving TV movies that I've ever seen. The ending of the movie like in "The Omen" leaves you with a bad feeling in your heart and mind in that there's no way in stopping Satan, or the Devil, from doing his evil deeds on earth. Even the priest Father Mullin get's so disturbed by what he sees that he just rips off his collar and throws it away.

The movie ends almost crying for a sequel, like in The Omen, but now some six years later that sequel has yet came to pass; maybe it's because the movie was such a flop in the box office that it wasn't worth, for it's financiers, in making one.

Although there's been MANY films where I left the cinema early as I didn't like them this is truly the one which has been UNBEARABLE to watch! Surely, you all know the situation when you watch a film the umpteenth time and can mouth along the dialogue?! Well, I watched this film once (not even actually) and after 10 minutes a friend and I started "predicing" what was going to be said next and hey we were right - word by word by word. But it isn't only the dialogue; the whole thing is disastrous! The actors are bad (and by that I don't mean the characters they are supposed to impersonate) and the story is weak - it's been done too many times before. If you have a gripping story and use flashbacks to build up the tension that's fine, but as everything is o too predictable in this film they only fill the time till a long awaited and long anticipated end. We went to see it and managed an entire 70 minutes and that was including adverts and trailers... So my advice: STAY AWAY FROM IT and may this film rot in hell!!!

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.

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

This film was one with huge aspirations and enormous implications. However, so many things were done poorly that the audience is left numbed instead of scared. Every single plot point which, should frighten us with a new revelation is murky and thus needs clearing up with a flashback. Both the script and the directing seriously hinder what is in essence not a bad story. While it certainly trudges along like "The Omen" it misses the impact of "Rosemary's Baby." Another huge problem is that the acting is terrible. Laura Harris looks as if she was plucked from the cast of "Beverly Hills 90210" and acts like it. Alice Krige as always plays the seductive vixen, HOW ORIGINAL! Francis Magee's character doesn't play evil necessarily but more like a deranged version of Groundskeeper Willie on the "Simpsons. " This whole cast deserves to have this be their swan song aside from Alex Roe-Brown because he's young and blameless in this tragedy. What's sad is that this story had the potential to be truly great but so many mistakes were made with it that it ended up being a joke.

I give a 7, and thats being conservative! You have to pay attention mid-movie to stay with plot. Solid acting as far as I could judge! Few plotholes, making the movie smooth in laying everything out. Great ending. I give this an over-all B+! Thanks!😀

This film was extremely low budget. At one point we noticed the boom (microphone) dip down onto the screen during a scene in the church. Laura Harris has proved herself a good actress in other films, but this one does not do her justice. Also, the story becomes sketchy at the end and is slightly underdeveloped. There were several moments in the movie where I found myself asking, why are they doing this? And thats not such a bad thing, if they're explained. But they never are. See it if you're into religious, cult type movies, but even then you really might not enjoy it much. As far as the editing and special effects go, this movie is also very lacking. But to be honest, I have seen worse low-budget films. So if you're into this type of movie, go ahead and give it a try. But consider yourself warned.

This is a bad ripoff of the Omen. It's the same storyline. There are so many similarities it's pathetic. The only difference is the ending. But really, save your time and watch the Omen. The acting is better and it's an original.

If you made a B-Movie that was deritive of The Omen and Rosemary's Baby then this would be that movie. Do not see this movie, see The Omen and Rosemary's Baby instead, their way better. This really isn't that good. Now there are worse horror movies, but this is pretty crappy. And that one scene where the kids parents are giving him a bath and videotaping it - he's like 12 years old! Thats pretty disturbing, its like child porn. I suppose this actually could have been a really good film, but however that could have been done, the people that made this film made sure it was just crappy enough not to salvage. Crap, that really sums this movie up quite nicely.

Laura Harris plays a mother with the perfect child. Damian...err Dylan speaks backward, spikes pet rodents, kicks dogs, makes people to kill themselves,spends his spare time hanging upsidedown nailed to crosses and woofs at the most interesting times.Not too shabby for a baby devil. The plot has definately been seen elsewhere and as the Antichrist horror movies go I really liked this one.This particular subgenre is always gonna be bogged down by the same old plot devices. Unless new scriptures and divine writings are found I don't think this will change. However I enjoyed pretty much every aspect of the film and even play the devil's advocate by saying that I would like to see another one. My opinion is that this is a decent timewaster and if you keep your expectations to a minimum you might enjoy yourself. 8/10

A decent storyline, nice atmospheric setting, but the entire thing is destroyed by the dreadful lead actress, she simply isn't up to the task.

There are a couple of howlers continuity wise, something happens and she says something that does not make sense because of the preceding scene.

So, could have been a good film with better casting.

If you like cult movies like Army of Darkness, Starship Troopers, The omen or End of Day, anything that has to do with the world ending or the world ending with a religious theme then you might like this. The acting is OK and I could see the boom in the church seen. And the end of the movie caught me by surprise. So watch it on a night when you are bored and in the mood for the devil and some sex. And if you are not Catholic watch Dogma, it will give a good lesson about it. The movie is good but not worth ten lines, so you can submit it or not. We aren't talking about the God Father. Or Hamlet. Or The French Connection. Oh how about,She wore a yellow ribbon. Finally made ten lines and didn't have to mention Taxi Driver, and my old favorite Gone with the wind.

Well well well, a straight to video with lets say, some really well known names in the UK like Nick Brimble. But somehow this low budget fails to deliver us evil. The acting is okay but the script fails to make it creepy or atrocious. I was never scared watching it, you can see the killings done by Dylan, the devil's child, coming from take one. As a child he almost kills a child, later on he kills others but it just don't work. It's a pity because they could have made more out of it, there is no gore or bloody scene's, almost no effects, it's done in an off screen way. You see it coming, the they cut away, and blood splatters all around. But what takes the movie down is the way they made it, a complete rip off of The Omen. And to get it worser, when they have a birthday party for Dylan they have to be masked and guess what, nudity just like in Eyes Wide Shut. And we can go on, something to watch on a Sunday afternoon with some scones and afternoon tea....

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.