The Calling (2000)

Director:

Richard Caesar

Writers (WGA):

John Rice (written by) &
Rudy Gaines (written by)

Release Date:

21 December 2000 (Germany)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Plot:

A woman is used as a pawn to bring to fruition the rule of the Antichrist.

Plot Keywords:

Altar | Antichrist | Beach | Blood | Child Murder

Cast

Laura Harris	...	Kristie St. Clair
Richard Lintern	...	Marc St. Clair
Francis Magee	...	Carmac
Alex Roe	...	Dylan St. Clair (as Alex Roe-Brown)
Alice Krige	...	Elizabeth Plummer
John Standing	...	Jack Plummer
Peter Waddington	...	Father Mullin
Nick Brimble	...	Police Inspector Oliver Morton
Rachel Shelley	...	Shelly Woodcock
Camilla Power	...	Lynette Peterson
Deborah Baxter	...	Receptionist
Jack MacKenzie	...	Norman
Christine Moore	...	Little Girl's Mother
Danielle Green	...	Little Girl
Roger Brierley	...	Reverend
Detlef Bothe	...	Scouser
Antony Carrick	...	Thomas Biden
Liam Hess	...	Sammy Plummer
Laura Cox	...	Red Haired Woman
Imogen Bain	...	Bargirl
Louise Rolfe	...	Girl in Bar
Steven Osborne	...	Irishman
Lisa Martin	...	Girl on Playground
Alisa Bosschaert	...	Girl's Mother
Julian Sims	...	Doctor
Veronica Roberts	...	Nurse
Cordelia Bugeja	...	Young Nurse
John Key	...	Midget
Heidi Monsen	...	Stewardess

Directed by
Richard Caesar

Writing credits (WGA)
John Rice		(written by) &
Rudy Gaines		(written by)

Produced by
Andy Birmingham	....	line producer
Matthias Deyle	....	executive producer
Bernd Eichinger	....	producer
Yvo Junkers	....	executive producer
Elizabeth Wang Lee	....	associate producer
Martin Moszkowicz	....	producer
Norbert Preuss	....	producer

Original Music by
Christopher Franke

Cinematography by
Joachim Berc

Film Editing by
Alexander Berner

Casting by
Beth Charkham

Production Design by
Bernd Lepel

Art Direction by
Simon Bowles

Set Decoration by
Sonja Klaus

Makeup Department
Faye De Bremaeker	....	assistant makeup artist
Neill Gorton	....	special makeup effects supervisor
Marilyn MacDonald	....	makeup designer
Ian Morse	....	special makeup effects artist

Production Management
Philip Evenkamp	....	production manager
Michael Murray	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Toby Hosking	....	second assistant director
Kevin Westley	....	first assistant director
Oliver Zenglein	....	second unit director

Art Department
Sally Black	....	assistant art director
Lisa Deuxberry	....	art department assistant
John Greaves	....	storyboard artist

Sound Department
Rudi Buckle	....	sound recordist
Friedrich M. Dosch	....	supervising sound editor
Lisa Geffcken-Reinhard	....	foley editor
Magda Habernickel	....	sound editor
Christian Joyce	....	boom operator
Pierre Peters-Arnolds	....	dubbing director
Max Rammler-Rogall	....	sound mixer
Philipp Sellier	....	foley recordist
Christoph von Schönburg	....	sound effects editor

Special Effects by
Doug McCarthy	....	special effects senior technician
Chris Watson	....	special effects technician

Visual Effects by
Florian Martin	....	digital compositor
Jürgen Schopper	....	visual effects supervisor
Klaus Wuchta	....	digital compositor
Christian Zeh	....	digital compositor
Christopher Dusendschon	....	optical compositor: THDX (uncredited)

Stunts
Andy Barrett	....	stunt double
Robert Corke	....	stunt double
Kelly Dent	....	stunts
Sy Hollands	....	stunts (as Sy Holland)
Glenn Marks	....	stunt coordinator
Lindsay Patterson	....	stunt double
Tony Van Silva	....	stunts

Camera and Electrical Department
Rawdon Hayne	....	focus puller: re-shoot
Tobias Klauke	....	camera trainee
Robert Patzelt	....	assistant camera
Marco Zwitter	....	gaffer

Casting Department
Deborah Maxwell Dion	....	casting associate: Los Angeles

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Tim Aslam	....	assistant costume designer
Georgina Gunner	....	wardrobe assistant

Music Department
Jonathan "Big Jon" Platt	....	music supervisor
Edgar Rothermich	....	composer: additional music
Edgar Rothermich	....	music producer
Edgar Rothermich	....	music recordist

Other crew
Diana Dill	....	script supervisor
Oliver Zenglein	....	assistant to director

Production Companies

• Constantin Film Produktion
• IMF Internationale Medien und Film GmbH & Co. Produktions KG

Distributors

• Constantin Film (2000-2001) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Filmcoopi Zürich (2001) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Imagem Filmes (200?) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Imagem Filmes (200?) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Odeon Video (Greece) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures Benelux (2003) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• VCL Communications GmbH (2001) (Germany) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2004) (Switzerland) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2004) (Germany) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Elements Special Effects

Other Companies

• Shepperton Studios  movie studio
• Summit Entertainment  international sales

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Netherlands:16 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Peru:14

Filming Locations:

Cornwall, England, UK

Company:

Constantin Film Produktion

Goofs:

Boom mic visible: When Kristie St. Clair carries her son into the church the mike moves along the top of the screen.

Movie Connections:

References Rosemary's Baby (1968)

He's Baaaaaack! And this time it's Personal!

***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.