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The Calling (2000)

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24 comments in total

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Decidedly unremarkable and bland, 16 January 2003

Author: Johan Leupen from Amsterdam

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.

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Spent $1.98 and want my money back!, 21 December 2001

Author: RoboSlater from Los Angeles

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.

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Low Budget & Story is Dumb, 5 October 2005

Author: HK Erickson from United States

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.

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
He's Baaaaaack! And this time it's Personal!, 8 October 2006

Author: sol from Brooklyn NY USA

***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.

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Goes for the jugular...and misses, 28 January 2002

Author: ColeSear

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.

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5 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Not all that bad., 29 July 2002

Author: helge_iversen from Bergen, Norway

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

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* out of 4, 19 January 2008
Author: Classics_And_Horror from Review Land

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Recovering in a Church hospital, Kristie St. Clair, (Laura Harris) reveals how her romance with journalist Marc, (David Lintern) soon transferred into marriage. When son Dylan, (Alex Roe) is born, both are extremely happy about becoming parents. When he gets into late childhood, he suddenly starts acting weird, while her husband backs up his every move. Constantly being told that she has a connection with the birth of the Jesus, she ignores them even though the weird events surrounding her start to tell her otherwise. When she is finally confronted with the news that her child has been taken in by a demonic cult which hopes to use him for the birthing of the Antichrist, she races to find a way to get him away from the followers of the cult.

Not a whole lot of time spent on the horror and too many flaws makes this one a really dull experience. Really only see this one if looking to complete a night of a similarly-theme viewing, but there's far better ones out there in this genre to make this one seem special or important in any way.

Rated R for Extreme Violence, Profanity and Sexual Situations.

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if you like bad horror movies, you'll still hate this., 5 December 2007

Author: travistragic from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

**Potential spoiler although I didn't make it a half hour into this movie**

A quick peek at my movie selection, with such classics as Drainiac! and The Dead Hate the Living, shows how much I accept and appreciate a cheap-o horror movie. In fact, I bought this movie for $0.99 at Movie Stop because it had a pentagram on the DVD (it came in a regular clear DVD case). Had there been an actual box with it that said "a remake of the Omen starring that naked alien from The Faculty and the Borg Queen" I wouldn't have spent a nickel on it.

I watched the first twenty minutes or so before realizing that the movie made absolutely no attempt to differentiate itself from "The Omen" and turned it off.

If you've ever watched The Omen save the dollar you can purchase this movie with and buy a refreshing Coke instead. If you haven't watched the Omen, then I suppose you could watch this, it's not really that different, except it appears from the beginning to maybe have a happier ending. Again, I didn't finish it.

I give it a 3 because it has a little better acting and special effects than a Shock-O-Rama flick, but then again, it's less original and has absolutely no nudity, let alone any lesbian sex (from what I can gather from the first twenty minutes which had several great opportunities for nudity).

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Disappointing, dull and almost unwatchable, 13 October 2007
Author: slayrrr666 (slayrrr666@yahoo.com) from Los Angeles, Ca

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

"The Calling" is a really dull and lifeless horror film.

**SPOILERS**

Recovering in a Church hospital, Kristie St. Clair, (Laura Harris) reveals how her romance with journalist Marc, (David Lintern) soon transferred into marriage. When son Dylan, (Alex Roe) is born, both are extremely happy about becoming parents. When he gets into late childhood, he suddenly starts acting weird, while her husband backs up his every move. Constantly being told that she has a connection with the birth of the Jesus, she ignores them even though the weird events surrounding her start to tell her otherwise. When she is finally confronted with the news that her child has been taken in by a demonic cult which hopes to use him for the birthing of the Antichrist, she races to find a way to get him away from the followers of the cult.

The Good News: This here wasn't all that terrific, but did have a few good moments. This is almost solely relegated to individual scenes to make it interesting. Only a handful are really good, mostly because they are the ones where something happens. The biggest involves the method of dealing with the child at the beach. This is quite a fun scene as it gets interesting and gives a few really nice moments. There's others spread out through the film, including the conversation in the car and the birthday party celebration that get quite entertaining, but only the funeral scene comes close to the beach moment. This is one of the best scenes in the film, and ends the film on a great note since it's just as action-packed and chilling as anything that came before. This here really makes the film watchable.

The Bad News: This here has a couple of really big flaws. One of the big ones is the film doesn't do anything. There are large portions of the film where nothing happens and it gets old and dull quite easily. Watching those kinds of scenes doesn't inspire fear at all, since all it does is just stand around with each other talking about the situation. That doesn't bode well for generating excitement or suspense, which is another problem. This here doesn't have much of any suspense in it, and this is due to two key things. Part of it is due to the fact that it's only attempts to do something interesting are explained rather than shown. The dog attack should've been one, but as done in the film, it's explained afterward. This happens far too often in the film, and that makes for some really dull viewing amidst the missed opportunities. Another part is that the film hardly ever goes for horror on-screen. The real moments where it tries to get to be a horror film are beset by the fact that it will cut away before anything can happen, and in turn not even being granted much in the way of aftermath violence makes it feel like a really weak horror film. The last flaw is the sheer predictability of the film. This one plays out just about every trick in the book and hits them out to the letter. This makes the film feel like every other horror film like this since it does nothing new, and that can really hurt a film. These here all really lower the film.

The Final Verdict: Not a whole lot of time spent on the horror and too many flaws makes this one a really dull experience. Really only see this one if looking to complete a night of a similarly-theme viewing, but there's far better ones out there in this genre to make this one seem special or important in any way.

Rated R: Violence, Language, mild animal torture and a mild, non-explicit sex scene

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2 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Not that bad ! Worth to watch !, 30 April 2002

Author: yachtsman

Despite of all the other negative comments, I personally found this movie worth to watch. I was not planning to watch this movie intentionally. When I dropped by the cinema, this was the only movie available. Thus, I bought a ticket in an attempt to "kill" my time. To my surprise, it came out to be a "not-bad" movie. Especially the ending, it was totally beyond my prediction !

Overally speaking, this movie is not that bad ! Some scenes are very scary ! The ending is unexpected !

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