The Caller DVD Movie Review
The Caller DVD Movie Review
Directed by Matthew Parkhill, starring Rachelle Lefevre, Stephen Moyer, Luiz Guzman and Lorna Raver.
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The disembodied voice on the other end of the telephone has ever been a fertile source of mystery and scares in cinema. From the old noirs to Dial M For Murder, to When a Stranger Calls, to Scream. There's even Phone Booth, Cellular, plus a slew of others also called The Caller. There's the multitude on Asian ones like The Ring, One Missed Call, Phone, and so on. We as diehard suspense fans know them all, and we usually answer the call.
In The Caller, rattled, formerly battered divorcee Mary (Rachel Leferve) starts getting to know her friends and neighbors shortly after moving into a new apartment. Well, it's not exactly new. It's a rundown shack, fully furnished shabby-chic style, complete with a vintage corded telephone. The first person to welcome Mary to the neighborhood is caller Rose (Lorna Raver, who played the deranged gypsy in Drag Me to Hell), who, at first seems to have the wrong number. But it's the right number alright, and pretty soon Mary realizes Rose is ker-razy! Best way to deal with crazy? Get crazier. As the two women, who may or may not be existing in the same time-space 1-bed 1-bath apartment, go head to head, things spiral even further out there, leading to some genuine surprises and good twists and turns as we try and figure who's past and who's present.
It's not just Leferve tethered to a cordless phone and Raver's calculating vocal-chord cruelty; there are a few side players in the murderous mystery. Luis Guzman is the apartment manager who has been "the caretaker forever" (hello, Jack Torrance wannabe!), Stephen Moyer is the hopeful lover of the titian haired tenant (bland "the boyfriend" role, but I like him anyway), and Ed Quinn (what a jerk!) is the 1-D meanie ex-husband who can't let go.
While The Caller doesn't really cover a lot of territory (it's got nothing on the T-Mobile network), it dials in nicely on its admirable acting (Raver rocks, and we never even see her. Bold choice, because the actress also has a striking look about her) as well as some fancy-shmancy camera moves and angles which add to the gothic-suspense feel. Yeah, budget's obviously low, but director Matthew Parkhill clearly cared about making the most of what he had in limited resources. (I'm not saying it's the next Insidious or anything like that, but for those who are sick of the "found footage" shaky cam trend or "tied to a chair with duct tape" torture fare, The Caller is indeed off the hook when it comes to those sins).
Extras include an interview with Parkhill that's extremely informative (whether or not you like The Caller, his stories about creative filmmaking are quite interesting — and he's got a few zingers, such as revealing the fact the late Brittany Murphy was slated to play the Mary character and how Leferve literally flew in and started shooting within a day). What's more the editing style is dynamic and original in its visual presentation. Rather than using just one stationary tri-podded camera to film the director's recollections square in frame from the shoulders up, at least three cameras were used. And without getting all edit-happy, the otherwise static talking head scene is changed up using several angles to enhance the unbroken recollections about everything from his hire to the film's finish, and then some.
Perhaps I've gushed a bit much. I've just been so desperate to see something that doesn't suck, lately. I liked The Caller and for the most part it held my attention throughout (a rarity this fall, with an avalanche of truly horrid direc-to-disk dumpage). It's worth a watch, once (and for fans of the exceptional Raver, maybe a listen twice).
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson