The Lincoln Log

An unknown ring tone, one missed call, and somebody’s voice screaming their demise – somebody’s going to die. Unexpected? Not at all.

Like most Japanese renditions, Warner Brother’s “One Missed Call” misses the mark after a few cheap scares. A moment causing the audience to jump occurs within two minutes of the movie, while suspenseful music played eerily in the background, helping to heighten the fear factor of the movie.

Beth Raymond (Shannyn Sossamon) was not convincing at all, giving an overall poor performance as a fearful college student. She seemed pale and ghostly rather than troubled and frightened. Yet if one focused on the creepy images of supernatural beings, Sossamon’s weak performance was not too noticeable.

Beth’s friends start dying off one by one, and Beth herself finds herself receiving the deathly phone call. Teaming up with policeman Jack Andrews (Edward Burns), Beth goes about the city looking for explanations. Time soon becomes an issue for Beth, as her imminent death begins to near.

However, it was then that the story began to become a bit flat. The middle was made up of searching and exploring, and it probably wouldn’t have mattered if the viewer left the theater to go get a drink – it was just that boring.

Again, there are those stereotypically idiotic moments that make viewers want to slap the main character for being so stupid. It was another movie that lacked common sense, as they are answering evil phone calls and whatnot. The sounds might have been scarier than the actually movie. The suspenseful music grew loud and quiet at the right moments, and the screaming was spot on. Alas, the acting was poor and not convincing, and a few special effects were rather humorous. For example, an obviously fake green baby cooing inside a crib, and a ghostly pedestrian with a toothy smile.

If you like cheap thrills and have an hour or so to waste, this movie might be worth watching. Otherwise, I wouldn’t pick up this phone call.

Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5