The Calling



Small town detective Hazel Micallef usually only has to deal with minor complaints in her town, like cross-country skiers trespassing through someone’s farmland during the winter. Or at least she does until a string of grisly murders in town and the surrounding area catches her attention. Not only is the killer cutting people up, but they’re sticking around long enough to make their victim’s mouths form phonetic syllables in a way that is clearly meant to be some macabre message. Micallef is certain they’ve got a serial killer on their hands, but faced with skepticism and no help from the higher-ups, she’s forced to try to decipher the killer’s horrific  intentions with little more than a skeleton crew. But as more and more deaths are discovered throughout the country it becomes clear that the killer is driven by some very specific motives that have nothing to do with the act of killing itself.


^{Okay, say “Aaaaaaaaaah!”}

Considering the last couple of movies I’ve watched featured some rather cheesy acting (to put it kindly), I decided I needed a palette cleanser and figured The Calling would fit the bill. I hadn’t heard of this horror/thriller before, (and it really is more of a thriller than a horror movie, but if Silence of the Lambs can be considered horror than this little film can too), but it stars Susan Sarandon, Ellen Burstyn and Donald Sutherland (and Topher Grace is in here too if you care, I guess), and barring some kind of horrible directorial catastrophe on a profoundly epic scale the acting that those three produce is about as steady as the Rock of Gibraltar. So I figured even if the movie completely stunk to high hell, at least I wouldn’t have to deal with (too much) crappy acting. Luckily though the movie does not, in fact, suck. But I do now know why it flew under my radar, so to speak.



To be clear, for the most part the movie is actually pretty damn good. Which is commendable, because it was a rather low-budget, independent Canadian film that was (at least initially) released via On Demand platforms, which usually isn’t traditionally all that good a sign when it comes to quality. And though I can’t tell how successful it might have been (because I can’t find any kind of budget), I can vouch that at the very least the movie looks and sounds very good. So things like framing, lighting, direction, and cinematography are all stellar, so I don’t think there should be any complaints there. They even had enough to include at least a couple rather nasty looking death scenes in there too, so even the gorehounds have a little something-something to look at. There’s not a lot, mind you, because that isn’t the focus of the movie, but it’s enough to make you go “ick” and highlight the killer’s brutality, which is enough.



And yes, the acting is indeed very good. But like I said, I fully expected that considering all the key players. But it’s doubly appreciated because this is not the type of film that could at all be considered “fast paced.” This is a very slow moving, slow buildup type of movie. The type that’s filled with a lot more people sitting around talking and putting the pieces of the mystery together than action filled car chases, and is thus very easy to lose focus on, especially if done poorly. But thankfully the movie never actually feels slow despite the slower pace. In part due to the decent direction, yes, but it’s also in huge thanks to the cast who manage to keep characters and the events going on around them engaging enough so that the viewer never feels too bored. Considering all the cheesy movies I watch it’s nice to see how well a highly competent cast can help elevate what could very easily have been a rather hum-drum movie into something better for a change.



The one problem though, is that the movie ends up being rather predictable in a lot of ways. It starts off very strong with the mystery and the suspense, and even manages to carry all of that through for 2/3rds of the film. But those parts also end up being filled with a lot of familiar tropes too. You’ve got the rookie cop trying too hard to prove himself after he just moved into town (look, two tropes!), supervisors who doubt there’s a problem despite growing evidence, and of course Sarandon’s character who is essentially the lead cop in a small town, so of course she has a drinking and/or drug problem. And dear god do they really try to shove that last point down your throat. Because all small town sheriff or sheriff stand-ins have to have some sort of addiction issue, right? We barely get more than 10 minutes in and she’s already popped some pills right after she wakes up, stole some pills from a victim, and topped off her morning coffee with some good ole’ Jim Beam as soon as she got to work in the morning (she did have breakfast first though, very important), cause I guess the prospect of writing up reports of trespassing cross-country skiers is really that stressful. They basically did everything short of having her buy-out half a liquor store before 10am to drive the point home. Like, goodness movie, I get it. She’s got a problem. Lighten the hell up.


^{For once I really would like to see a movie where the small town sheriff isn’t a quirky alcoholic.}

Then you get to the last third of the movie, after the killer is identified and their motives are finally revealed, and THAT’S when the suspense drops off, because that’s when the story starts to become annoyingly predictable. The movie does try to throw a couple of twists in there to subvert expectations, and a couple of those twists are pretty good but…. Look, once you’ve seen one or two movies like this you know what’s going to happen. That one character from earlier is gonna be involved somehow, the higher-ups are going to take over after everyone else has done all the work, the small-townies are going to get pushed out of the investigation, and Sarandon’s character is going to have one final confrontation with the bad guy right before the end. So basically after all that good build-up the movie reverts to the standard crime thriller script and it sort of sucks the fun out of everything from earlier. I mean, it’s still decently done but…meh, what a letdown.



Overall though, The Calling is still pretty solid. It’s technically sound and the acting is excellent. It’s just a shame that the story fails to really excite by the end, because it ends up falling into predictable patterns. But even considering that, it’s still pretty good though. Plus it’s one of those dark, grim, contemplative types of horror movies that you don’t necessarily see a lot of outside of Europe. Except it’s not nearly as bitter or dark as it could be, so it doesn’t end up plunging you into a pit of depression. The ending is kind of hopeful actually, which is rather nice. Well, except maybe for that last expected “dun dun dun” moment at the end that every horror movie damn near insists on having these days. But it’s still a pretty good movie. So if you like horror/thrillers, this one is a good bet. Just don’t expert the ending to feel all that unique.

The Calling is available on a variety of streaming services.

The Calling is also available on DVD.

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