[One Missed Call]
Plot:People mysteriously start receiving voicemail messages from their future selves, in the form of the sound of them reacting to their own violent deaths.
Review:While many other horror films have beaten to death the idea of using the phone as an instrument of terror, destruction, and murder once it's in the hands of a psycho...Takashi Miike's "One Missed Call" goes an extra mile is using the phone as a weapon of death. By implementing the worst "what if" situation imaginable. What if a curse entered peoples cellphones, and after delivering a message to the owner of their impending death 72 hours later, then actually killed the owner, and went through their entire directory doing the same thing to all of said persons friends?
Indeed, leave it up to Japanese directors to come up with a whole new way to use the A-typical curse, or angry sprit in a horror film. "One Missed Call" follows a group of friends who face this challenge. The challenge of stopping a vengeful spirit which doesn't attack you while you're sleeping, or while you're alone, but rather informs you of your death with a direct quote made by you moments before your demise, and then follows through with that killing 72 hours later. Surprisingly enough, the creepiest thing about this picture is the cellphone ringtone itself. It's quite a memorable theme, yet very haunting as well.
Takashi Miike does an excellent job of turning the simple little gadget into something to be feared and afraid of. Miike really sets up the scenes where the dreaded ringtone alerts another person of their impending demise nicely, as they sometimes come out of nowhere, and other times occur when there's complete silence in the room. Miike really manages to keep the viewer on their toes with this picture. The great acting by the actors and actresses in the film, make their reaction to the cursed ringtone very believeable, and the viewer feel pity for their deadly situation.
Miike also does wonders for his films villain, which is the vengeful spirit using the phone as it's weapon of choice, by not revealing too much about them early on. We never really find out much about the curse or it's origins until the films final act. Although throughout, we're given bits and pieces of the backstory surrounding the spirit. Miike makes the film work most of all though because he seems to know what every scene needs to make it work to it's best level of excitement.
One of the films most standout scenes takes place in a television studio where a reality show based around the celphone curse is being filmed, with the next victim of the curse in front of a national tv audience, awaiting her possible fate. It's not only one in my opinion one of the films best scenes, but also it's most effective. And it really sends a message to the viewer of what forces these kids are dealing with, as well as solidifies the challenge they're up against.
"One Missed Call" per usual with Japanese horror, uses the power of illusion to draw the viewer in to one side of the story and then turning it on it's head in the very intense final act to reveal a whole new set of circumstances, which adds alot of cleverness to the films already sparkling resume. While not as gruesome as some of his ealrier films, "One Missed Call" is still in my opinion...Takashi Miike's best film to date in my opinion. I can only hope that the remake lives up to the brilliance of the original.
Positives:Great acting, great directing, very intense and creepy scenes. Sceneries which added to the films dark mood, and a clever ending.
