One Missed Call Review

This movie is about people receiving calls on their cell phones before they die. The date/time shown on the phone is the exact moment they are supposed to die in the future - with their cell phone showing "one missed call". The voicemail they receive contains the exact sounds they will make right before they die. A spooky ringtone accompanies each of these phone calls. The basic plot of "One Missed Call" is actually based on a Japanese film from several years ago called "Chakushin Ari".

Most people classified this as a horror movie, but I believe it is more of a suspense movie. The movie contains hardly any blood or gore or any of the other familiar trappings of the horror genre. Instead, it focuses more on developing a cohesive story. Most of the "scary scenes" take place out of the blue after long periods of silence - essentially relying more on startling the viewer than on shocking the viewer with scenes of violence.

The two main actors in the movie are Shannyn Sossamon who plays Beth, a college student, and Edward Burns who plays Jack, a detective. They both play their parts extremely well - with none of the events in the movie coming across as being too cheesy or scripted. All of the scenes that took place in the fire damaged hospital kept me on the edge of my seat - it was all very creepy and contained a very interesting "surprise twist" that I won't mention here so you can experience it for yourself.

This "twist" is really what saved the movie for me. The plot up until this point was fairly generic (with the exception of the phone calls - the movie was really about people being randomly killed). I also liked the way the movie tied up all of the loose ends at the conclusion of the movie. My only problem was with the ending - it really left me with a lot of unanswered questions. Maybe the sequels will help me understand everything better when I get around to seeing them. This movie really wants to make you not ever answer your cell phone again :). Overall, even though it is not one of the best suspense movies out there I would definitely recommend checking it out.