The Call

Tags

2010's, Abigail Breslin, Brad Anderson, Halle Berry, Michael Eklund, Michael Imperioli, Morris Chestnut, The Call, Thriller

The Call may not be original and while predictable, it’s a tense, high concept thriller from the get go. For a nail-biting time that incorporates action and a game cast, The Call is just the ticket.

Jordan Turner( Halle Berry) is a seasoned 9-1-1 operator working for the Los Angeles Police Department. She’s very good at her job, until she is left shaken by one particular night. A terrified young girl by the name of Leah calls telling Jordan that there is someone breaking into her house. Jordan advises the girl to hide from the intruder but keep the phone on so she can help. Unfortunately, interference causes the call to end. Scared of what might have happened, Jordan calls back the number. By calling back, the madman is alerted to Leah’s whereabouts. He snatches the girl and her body is found a day later. Jordan is left suffering nightmares of immense guilt as she tries to cope with feelings of culpability and a sense of responsibility that won’t let her rest.  Months later and Jordan no longer works an an operator following the botched operation, instead she trains those going into the job. She is still traumatised by what happened but is going to be brought back into the fold once more. Teenager Casey Welson( Abigail Breslin) is kidnapped while in the parking lot of a mall. She manages to contact emergency services which puts her onto Jordan. The problem is that Casey is using a disposable phone that belongs to a friend who left it when they were out shopping. With it being very difficult to decipher the whereabouts of Casey, Jordan has to keep her on the line and hopefully alive long enough for help to get to her. The man who snatched Casey has dark motives for doing so and as we see throughout, is not above committing more murder to cover up his plans. We discover his name is Michael Foster(Michael Eklund) and that he’s been kidnapping blonde girls in particular to murder over the past few months. With this knowledge, Jordan summons all of her wits to help Casey as best she can. The question is can Jordan save from an almost certain death against the odds and finally have some closure?

Brad Anderson, who I know from directing the much underrated and sinister Session 9, is on fine fettle with his efficient touches to this fast moving thriller. It ratchets up the suspense early on and doesn’t really let up, thanks to Anderson’s exciting and crisp direction which mainly takes place in claustrophobic spaces. Most effective are the scenes of Jordan guiding Casey through attempts of escaping the car she’s been locked in the boot of. The final half is somewhat flawed and isn’t quite in keeping with the rest of the film, but The Call by that point has generated a lot in the way of suspense and action that it’s foibles can be forgiven. proves to be quite a nail-biting film. While it’s hardly reaching for anything deep, The Call does what it says on the tin and thrills. Fast cuts, intense close us and occasional freeze frames heighten a adrenaline induced atmosphere. This is most effective in the opening of tracking shots and overlapping voices displaying the tough work done by operators on a daily basis and later as Jordan keeps a trapped Casey talking  in what escalates into a nerve wracking game of potential discovery and terror. It’s a predictable film but one that still has you on edge with unease and tension. A pulsing score is a good little element that accretes this movie as atmosphere increases as the search goes on.

The reasonably small cast is something that lifts The Call higher than it would be otherwise. Halle Berry heads things with a good mix of grit and vulnerability that makes her sympathetic to the audience. We feel for her and it’s a good showcase for Berry, who has been in some bad movies and who I’d love to see get more roles to show off her skills. Thankfully, The Call provides her with a good role and she more than rises to the occasion with a strong performance that adds a certain weight to proceedings. Abigail Breslin does very well too, even if her main function is too panic and look terrified as the kidnapping victim. What makes her stand out is her rapport with Berry, even though they aren’t actually together for a lot of the film. Her resilience begins to build and Breslin really shows that. Both ladies compliment the other and it proves mutually beneficial in the long run. As the main antagonist, Michael Eklund really stands out by making the part so eerily creepy and repellant. He has this intense state going and the kind of look that sets your nerves on edge, crafting a palpable sense of menace that goes a long way. In short, Eklund was perfect casting for the role of serial killer with a deeply twisted modus operandi. Morris Chestnut appears as Jordan’s boyfriend and cop, though he’s not really given much material to work with. Standing out in a supporting turn as a rather unlucky passer by who attempts to help Casey and soon gets into an ill-fated situation, Michael Imperioli makes his mark here.  

So it has its flaws and is not going to be seen as some masterwork of the thriller genre, The Call has its great moments that make it a sinister and effective movie. Add in skilled direction and Halle Berry once more showing off her talent and The Call is definitely entertaining viewing for an audience looking for a tense time. 

Session 9

Tags

2000's, Brad Anderson, Brendan Sexton III, David Caruso, Horror, Josh Lucas, Peter Mullan, Psychological Horror, Session 9, Stephen Gevedon

A very unnerving and underrated psychological horror film, Session 9 knows how to chill the audience and craft a compelling story populated by flawed yet fascinating characters.

Gordon Fleming( Peter Mullan) is the owner of an asbestos removal company who is having a rough time of things. He’s recently become a father but doesn’t seem entirely thrilled at this and his relationship with his wife seems more than a little strained. In a desperate need for money to support himself as he starts to become a bit unglued in life, he takes on the job of cleaning out a now uninhabited former mental asylum. Gordon, who is known for his cool efficiency, promises to complete the vast job in just a week. This is despite the fact that the job is actually one that should take a number of weeks. He brings along good friend and resident intense bossy boots Phil,( David Caruso), nasty mouthed and greedy Hank, knowledgable law school drop out Mike (Stephen Gevedon) and Gordon’s green nephew Jeff( Brendan Sexton III) , who has a fear of the dark. Each of them is wrestling with something( a big bone of contention is the fact that Phil’s ex girlfriend is now with the cocky Hank) but decide to just get the job done as quickly as possibly. Unfortunately, that isn’t going to happen as something sinister takes over the asylum As the week goes on, tensions begin to rise between the men as the former asylum begins to take a dangerous hold over them. Gordon in particular comes under immense anguish as his already tenuous situation and anxieties manifest, along with the rest of the crew. In parallel, Mike discovers an old room in the vast building that house cassette tapes of psychiatric evaluations with a former patient named Mary Hobbes. We hear that she has multiple personalities and that something horrifying happened years ago. Mike becomes obsessed with listening to the nine tapes that slowly peel back the horror of the asylum. As we witness the fraying of relationships, darkness and all manner of horror descend on the feuding group and puts them in grave danger, in particular a close to breaking point Gordon.

Brad Anderson is fantastic in the directors chair; he clearly knows how to unsettle without being too in your face and his focus on character development is to be admired. His skills in forming a mystery that takes you along with it while scaring you in sophisticated ways is to be praised too. The running discovery of psychiatric session tapes that bleed into the present and often accompany shots of the crew are mesmerising and keep you glued. Session 9 is a horror movie that has only a couple of grisly moments; Anderson instead discovers fear and shock through the unexplained and mystery surrounding events in true psychological horror style. As I’ve often said in regards to effective horror, you don’t need gallons of blood to scare an audience, just an eerie idea executed to a great level of suspense can do it. And Session 9 more than does that with its chills getting more intense as things progress. 

It’s in the characters, atmosphere and script that Session 9 derives it’s scares with its delving into psychological animosity between the men and how they unravel my a gradually more terrifying series of events. The seething anger, resentments and bruised egos all come through as these men struggle to accept their vulnerable state by using bravado but failing to fully comprehend the horror ahead. An intriguing comparison can be made between the toxic nature of their job in cleaning asbestos and the toxic masculinity that they each exhibit in one form or another. The use of titles to signify the week going along  And one can’t speak of Session 9 without mentioning its location which is in actual fact a real life mental asylum by the name of Danvers State Mental Hospital that is not in use but nonetheless adds to the creepy dimension of the piece. It’s large, looming stature and the effective way that a lot of it is shot in the daytime to further emphasise uneasiness. As the bright light streams through the old windows, it feels very chilling and a reverse of the usual all bad things happen in the dark adage. Granted, scary things do happen in the dark in Session 9( watch as poor Jeff who has a fear of the dark has to run for his life , but the overall consistency of the ambience in daylight really does amazing things for this movie. And it really gets you thinking once you know that the location is in fact a real place where unspeakable things in less enlightened times happened and digs deep under the skin of the viewer. The dissonant, mood-setting score aids the spooky and deeply creepy exercise in terror with the fleeting of a piano and ominous punctuation highlighting the creep actor and raising it considerably.

The relatively small cast is exceptional at displaying the slowly unravelling minds of the characters. Peter Mullan is the big standout with an immensely convincing and harrowing performance as a man on the edge. Mullan possesses a face that speaks volumes about life and experience and that perfectly suits the role of Gordon. You can practically feel his world starting to fall apart and his futile attempts to prove he’s strong shattering as darkness descends on him. It’s a truly excellent piece of acting from the ever dependable Mullan. David Caruso also is memorable as the second in command who bristles with belligerence and a sense of entitled authority. He’s often at odds with the other characters which adds even more to the drama in Session 9. Josh Lucas relishes playing the cocky and sneaky worker who can’t resist rubbing up people the wrong way, while having a get out plan when times get tough. Stephen Gevedon, who is a co-writer along with Brad Anderson, imbues his role with smarts and deep curiosity, while Brendan Sexton III portrays the most inexperienced member of the group with a childlike want to please and be part of something that eventually becomes toxic.

Very spooky and deeply unsettling, with a great emphasis on characters, Session 9 is an underrated psychological horror you simply must watch.