[Hellphone]
Plot:A supernatural cellphone helps a young man get the prettiest girl at his high school. But soon the phone becomes the root of all evil.

Cast:Jean-Baptiste Maunier, Jennifer Decker, Benjamin Jungers, Vladimir Consigny, Edouard Collin, Baptiste Caillaud, Anaïs Demoustier, Judith Chemla, Quentin Grosset, Géraldine Martineau, Gilles Gaston-Dreyfus, Christian Hecq, Clotilde Mollet, Bruno Salomone, Gilles Privat.

My Thoughts:Ring, ring, don't answer the phone!

Review:When it comes to the horror genre, and the telephone...it's a very complicated relationship. "Scream" first made it the object of terror, and the root of all evil for a new generation. Then along came two sequels to that film, and more films that had the phone as it's main instrument of terror. "Black Christmas", and "When A Stranger Calls" were the originators of the horror-phone however. Both films used it exceptionally well in their overall formulas. Now along comes the French horror/comedy "Hellphone". The movie takes the cellphone, and makes it the root of all evil...literally. When a young man has run into numerous roadblocks in getting the hottest girl at his high school, he begins to look for help from other areas with his love life. Enter a mysterious phone, which has some pretty nifty visual fx, as well as a personality of it's own.

Upon being given the phone, his life begins to take a turn for the better...and he even lands a date with the hot girl at school. However, he begins to get a bit suspicious of the phones power and eventually tries to get rid of it. There's just one problem with that though...the phone has other ideas. This film can be compared to another movie, a film called "Wishcraft", where a teen gets his hands on a mystical object and uses it to get the things he'd never have without it. "Hellphone" falls into the cursed object subgenre.

A subgenre where a person purchases or is given some weird object, and it begins wreaking havoc in their life immediately, or it grants their every desire at first to hook them, and then starts showing it's true colors. "Hellphone" really works this genre very well, and the director and writer really seemed to know the ins and outs of this particular sub-genre. Which is why this film works so well. The phone itself is an interesting speciment to watch on screen, and basically it's power lies in it's evil call. It has the power to ring anyones cellphone, and once they answer, it speaks to them and then makes them commit malevolent acts upon themselves or others.

At first, the acts are comical and embarassing in nature, but as the film goes on, they become alot darker and deadlier. This of course presents a major dilemma for the films main character, who is caught between giving up the phone and along with it, his new girlfriend, or keeping it and allowing it to keep hurting people. It's one of those moral delemmas really, and the movie moves pretty much by the numbers, with the phone acting as a nice tool of wish granting for the lead guy at first, and then once it's true nature is discovered...taking great offense to the lead guy wanting to get rid of it, and doing "anything" to keep itself from being destroyed.

The phone itself is also pretty cool looking, being a cross between a red-devil and having a mouth part similar to a small talking robot where it spouts sounds and noises from time to time. The characters in the movie are also pretty likeable, which is really a hard thing to say for me because so many horror films have one-dimensional teens that annoy me to no end. But this particular movie had some very likeable characters, and they were all very diverse as well which also helped the movie out on many levels.

The films climax is a very awesome, exciting, and comedic one, keeping the even flow and great balance between comedy and supernatural horror in tact all the way up until the end. "Hellphone" is a great horror/comedy and a film that most horror fans should enjoy. The film follows the age old question of "Would you give up a positive force in your life even if it was causing great harm to innocent people?" This has been covered in plenty of other horror films, "Christine" being another one of them...but "Hellphone" puts a very likeable and unique spin on this age old moral dilemma.

Positives:Likeable characters, an awesome antagonist in the hellphone, a fresh and interesting plot, and a very cool ending.

Negatives:Nothing major.

Overall:Great horror-com from the land of French Toast.





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