The Call

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Year:	2013
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	Brad Anderson
Genre:	Exploitation thriller
Starring:	Halle Berry, Abigail Breslin, Michael Eklund, Morris Chestnut
Rating:	4/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1911644/
Tagline:	There are 188 million 911 calls a year. This one made it personal.
Favourite line:	"It's already done!"

Sometimes, when Hollywood looks backwards, it actually makes progress

The plot:
Barely Harry plays a 911 operator of several years service who, one day, receives a call from a young girl whose house is being broken into. Instructing the girl to hide, the call is suddenly cut off, and Barely makes the mistake of calling the girl back. The 'phone rings, alerting the attacker to his victim's location and, before you can say 'taken screaming to the desert to be killed horribly' the youngster is, well, you fill in the rest.
Now, working as an instructor, orienting new recruits to the 911 operator service, Barely just happens to be there as a similar call comes in. This time, a girl kidnapped from a shopping mall is in the boot of a maniac's car, and Barely takes it on herself to take over the call, to see if she can save the young one whilst, at the same time, salve her own soul from the guilt that has so blackened it since that dreadful day.

Sounds like a right load of old B-movie nonsense, right?
And that's exactly what it is.
It's Larry Cohen (Q: The Winged Serpent, It's Alive!, Phone Booth) for the new millennium and, though the auteur of B-movie madness has nought to do with this, his presence can be felt keenly throughout.
A splicing of genres, here, we have the nail-biting tension of a thriller such as Speed, intercut with the gruesome delights of, say, Demme's Silence of the Lambs, all laced with the odd spot of emoto-bullshit that would make a Rom-Com writer proud.
Barely Harry, whose choice of roles has been odd to say the least since winning her damned Oscar (Really? Barely won an Oscar?) this is something of a return to form, the emotionally battered, vulnerable yet strong characteristics necessary all clear, present and correct.
Good on you, Barely, didn't think you still had it in you.
Only two slight gripes, here.
Firstly, Abigail Breslin, playing Casey, the girl in the trunk, is on the shrill side, and occasionally pierces the ear drums, but it's forgivable; she is being kidnapped, after all, and thinks that she is about to be buried. We might all be a little shrieky in such a circumstance.
Secondly. the film does go a little off the rails towards the end, as Barely gets all renegade, leaves the damned phone and starts wandering around blindly in the dark, quite literally. Bit silly but, as the film had already established that realism was not high on the agenda, again we give it a pass.
Not an exploitation classic, then, but certainly an exploitation movie, and there simply aren't enough of those being made anymore.
Liked it, despite the critical mauling.
So stick that in your trunk and murder it.