After his wife commits suicide her husband Edward Cranston invites a group of 4 friends to his house under mysterious circumstances. Edward explains to the 4 friends that his wife has included them in her will and they will receive a $100,000 (which puzzles the friends as his wife hated them). The catch? They have to stay on the phone for 1 minute... A seemingly straight-forward task, but what's really going on here?

It's rare that I'm shocked by a film's rating (if anything I tend to find that I am overly critical and will usually rate films lower than their IMDB rating),but here I am rating a film with a current average IMDB rating of 4.2 with a 9 out of 10 and this is coming from someone who has reviewed just over 900 films and rated over 1300 films at the time of writing this review. Am I insane? Have I genuinely watched the film I here you ask? Well the answer is No and Yes respectively and I will try to explain my rating...

The Call was pretty much everything I both want and expect from a horror film; it was creepy, suspenseful, intriguing and at times pretty damn chilling. Despite what others have said this film does have a story to it and it's a fairly good one (not mind-blowing, but engaging enough). The 4 friends are not the most likeable of people initially, but later when they are developed further we can see painful events from their past proving that a lot of what we were witnessing earlier was mere bravado.

Director Timothy Woodward Jr does a good job overall in his handling of the material; true what you see here is nothing you haven't seen before, but the scares that he put in front of me did come across as quite genuine rather than silly (again this seems to be a bone of contention with many reviewers).

The film contains well-known faces such as Lin Shaye and Tobin Bell who, despite not having as much screen time do put in the best performances; then again the younger cast members lack experience, but all have varying degrees of potential.

I concede that the abrupt way the film ended did come as a bit of a shock, but at the same time The Call's various knots had been tied together meaning it did reach a natural conclusion (albeit an abrupt one).

Perhaps the film caught me in the right mood or maybe the wind tonight in the north west of England is blowing in the right direction, but whatever the reason I liked this film and still cannot quite believe its low rating.

No offense to the rest of the cast, but without Lin Shaye and Tobin Bell ... this movie probably would not have faired as good (with me and others I'm sure). Having said that, it doesn't mean everything else is bad. The story may be quite by the numbers (with a decent twist, even if you can guess that from miles away),but I've seen worse.

Talking about seeing: cinematography is also really good. So a neat little movie overall, that has almost all the horror movie cliches you can imagine ... just be aware of what you are to watch ... and if that is worth your time.

Initially when I sat down to watch the 2020 movie titled "The Call", I must admit that I was sort of having some hopes for the movie, as it had two horror icons on the cast list.

Well, as it turned out then the storyline in "The Call" was definitely interesting enough, if it wasn't actually being original. However, the movie's writer, Patrick Stibbs, just didn't really manage to deliver where it mattered for a horror movie. Sure, I mean, the movie was watchable and sort of entertaining enough, but it just was way too bland and generic for my liking.

And yeah, it was because of Tobin Bell and Lin Shaye, two iconic names, faces and voices in the horror genre, that I initially sat down to watch it. And I will say that they both definitely did spruce up the overall enjoyment of the movie.

The acting was good for a movie such as this. It wasn't outstanding, but it was adequate enough. Perhaps it was because of the limitations of the script and the directorial hand of Timothy Woodward Jr. that sort of restrained the performers to fully give what they had.

Visually, for a horror movie, then "The Call" just didn't deliver. I mean, the atmosphere in the house was interesting and lots of nice details to the house, but the otherworldly sequences were just too flaccid, and didn't really feel like being scenes of personal hell and anguish enough.

"The Call" is the type of horror movie that came and went without as much as leaving a dent in the horror genre. I mean, I didn't even know about the movie before I had the chance to actually sit down and watch it. And having watched it now, I can honestly say that I highly doubt that I will ever be sitting down to watch "The Call" a second time.

Perhaps if you are a newcomer to the horror genre, then you will find some proper entertainment in "The Call", or even some spooky stuff and scenes. But for a seasoned horror veteran such as myself, this was but a stroll in the park.

My rating of "The Call" lands on a very mediocre five out of ten stars.