One Missed Call (2008 film)

One Missed Call is a 2008 supernatural horror film directed by Eric Valette and written by Andrew Klavan. An international co-production between the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany, it is a remake of the 2003 Japanese film of the same name directed by Takashi Miike, which itself was based on the Yasushi Akimoto novel "Chakushin Ari". The film stars Shannyn Sossamon, Edward Burns, Ana Claudia Talancón, Ray Wise and Azura Skye.
The film was released in North America on January 4, 2008. Despite being a moderate box office success, the film was panned by film critics, with many regarding it as the worst J-horror remake to be released. It became the worst-reviewed film of 2008, receiving a 0% rating approval on Rotten Tomatoes, and winning a Mouldy Tomato Award.
Plot.
After a young girl is rescued from a burning hospital, a firefighter asks her if her mother is still inside, to which she remains speechless.
Meanwhile, while sitting outside near her koi pond in her Japanese-styled home, college student Shelley Baum hears her cat making strange noises. Bewildered by the situation, she suddenly hears strange murmuring and out of nowhere, a hand emerges and drags Shelley into the pond, drowning her. A red candy then appears on the surface and the same hand proceeds to drag the cat and drowns it as well.
Many weeks later, college student Beth Raymond is talking with her friend, Leann Cole, who attended Shelley's funeral. Leann's cellphone rings with a lullaby-like ringtone, with a call from Shelley. Leann listens to the voicemail of herself screaming, dated three days in the future. Leann begins to experience hallucinations that make her increasingly anxious. While walking home (minutes before the time on the voicemail), she calls Beth. Beth runs to get Leann, but unfortunately, she arrives just as Leann accidentally falls off from an overpass and lands on top of a speeding train, killing her. A red candy pops out of her mouth and Leann's severed hand dials an unknown number on her phone.
At Leann's funeral, Beth's roommate, Taylor Anthony, discusses Shelley receiving a strange voicemail before her death, just like Leann had. Brian Sousa, Leann's ex-boyfriend, begins to see disturbing apparitions, and leaves the funeral in a rush. Beth catches Brian outside a coffee shop and Brian shows her a voicemail he received the night Leann died, from Leann's phone. Beth realizes the voicemail is dated mere seconds away. An explosion at a nearby construction site sends a rebar through Brian's torso, killing him. Similar to Leann, Brian coughs out a red hard candy and collapses in front of a horrified Beth.
Beth arrives home to find a distraught Taylor waiting for her. Taylor says she knows she's next, even though she hasn't received a voicemail. Assuring her that it won't happen, Beth takes the batteries out of both their cellphones to ensure they can't receive calls. Later that night, Beth and Taylor are awakened by the lullaby ringtone coming from Taylor's battery-less cellphone. Despite having no power source, Taylor's phone screen displays a video message of her death, dated two days in the future.
The next morning, police detective Jack Andrews visits Beth, saying his sister was the one who called Shelley, despite being dead at the time of the call. He also says he traced the voicemail left on his sister's phone and was going to find out more about the person who sent it, Marie Layton. Andrews goes through the local autopsy reports, and finds a report for Ellie Layton, Marie's eldest daughter, who died of an asthma attack. They find records for hospital visits for Ellie and her younger sister Laurel, who was injured often, which leads Beth to suspect abuse from her mother.
Meanwhile, Taylor is contacted by a TV producer who heard about the deaths and mysterious phone calls, and who plans to film an exorcism being performed on Taylor and her phone at the time of Taylor's foretold death. Beth races to Taylor while the exorcism is being filmed and arrives in time to see an unseen force choke her to death, after which a red hard candy falls out of her mouth. Suddenly, Beth's phone begins to ring and she finds a voicemail dated for tomorrow. In an effort to save herself, Beth decides to find out more about the hospital fire alone.
Afterwards, while visiting Laurel, Andrews finds a compact-disc in her teddy bear. The disc contains a video from a camera Marie hid to monitor Laurel and Ellie, revealing that Ellie had cut Laurel's arm with a butcher knife while performing an occult blood ritual. Marie entered and realized that the abuse she had been blamed for was Ellie's fault all along. She then took Laurel to the hospital, leaving Ellie locked in the bedroom. Ellie suffered an asthma attack and died while dialing her mother's cell, thus initiating the curse and making Marie its first victim as she then died in the hospital fire. Back in present time, Laurel tells Andrews that though Ellie hurt her, she always gave her red hard candies, the same ones found in the mouths of all the victims.
At the abandoned hospital and with less than 30 minutes left, Beth is frightened by various apparitions. She runs into Andrews, and the two try to escape the hospital. They are later separated and Beth finds a crawlspace, where she discovers Marie's charred corpse clutching a cell phone. At the time of Beth's foretold death, Marie's corpse assaults Beth while weeping. It is later revealed that Marie's ghost was actually protecting Beth, not trying to hurt her. Amazingly, Beth survives her predicted death.
After his cellphone begins to ring with a voicemail dated for thirty minutes in the future, Andrews realizes that the force behind the murders is Ellie, and races to Beth. After he arrives at her house, the two hear a knock on the door. As Andrews looks through the peephole, a knife stabs through it and kills him. Ellie's spirit appears and reaches out to kill Beth, but Marie's spirit appears and grabs Ellie, saving Beth. A red candy spills out of Andrews' mouth and his cell begins to dial a number on its own, revealing that Ellie's ghost is still out there, and more people will die.
Production.
"One Missed Call" was announced in 2005, before being officially greenlit by Warner Bros. in early 2006, with Eric Valette signing as the film's director. The film began production in June 2006 in Atlanta, Georgia with Edward Burns, Margaret Cho, and Shannyn Sossamon signing on. On August 3, 2006, Ed Harris and Gabriel Byrne both signed on to appear in the film; however, both withdrew due to unknown circumstances.
Sound designers used the voice of Skid Row front man Sebastian Bach in the hospital basement scene. The exact clip comes from Bach's scream at the beginning of "Midnight Tornado", a song from the band's 1989 debut album, "Skid Row".
Distribution.
Release.
The film was intended for release on August 24, 2007, but was later pushed back to January 4, 2008. On August 30, 2007, the film's trailer premiered on Yahoo! Movies and late September/October 2007 the film's poster was released along with other numerous promotional images. The song "" by was used in television advertisements for the film.
Marketing.
In December 2007, the official website was launched as well as numerous websites running competitions to promote the film with the first prize being an Apple iPhone.
Home media.
The DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray were released on April 22, 2008 none of which contain any special features. The film was also released on iTunes and on the Xbox Live Marketplace.
Reception.
Critical reception.
The film was not screened for critics. , the film holds a 0% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 80 reviews with an average rating of 2.5/10, also earning the site's Mouldy Tomato Award for the worst-reviewed film of 2008. The site's consensus states "One of the weakest entries in the J-horror remake sweepstakes, "One Missed Call" is undone by bland performances and shopworn shocks." It is rated the second worst film of the 2000s decade behind "". Metacritic reported that the film had an aggregate score of 24 out of 100, based on 14 reviews.
Despite being a remake of "Chakushin ari", the film was strongly criticized for borrowing plot elements from and being similar to "Scream" (1996), "Final Destination" (2000), "The Ring" (2002), "The Grudge" (2004), "Dark Water" (2005), and "Pulse" (2006).
Relationship with "One Missed Call" (2003).
"One Missed Call" includes most of the scenes and characters that were in the original 2003 film. These include the exorcism scene, where one of the characters is killed while filming the show "American Miracles". The characters of Beth, Leann, Taylor, Jack, Brian, and Shelley are respectively based on the original characters Yumi, Yoko, Natsumi, Yamashita, Kenji, and Rina. Another reference is contained within the theatrical trailer; while Leann is walking down the street, a piece of the original ringtone from "One Missed Call" (2003) plays in the background until she falls from the overpass.