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Japanese horror films are a different beast, relying heavily on psychological dread, vengeful spirits, ultraviolence, and/or an eerie atmosphere to generate fear, as opposed to its Hollywood kin, which is more apt to rely on jump scares and gory-but-not-as-gory visuals. One film that didn't quite nail it is 2003's One Missed Call, criticized largely for simply being unoriginal, contributing to its dismal 46% Rotten Tomatoes score. Yet that's 46 percent better than the 2008 American remake, directed by Eric Valette, which has a perfect 0%.
If You Missed 'One Missed Call,' You Didn't Miss Much
Released at the tail end of America's obsession with remaking Japanese horror flicks — the era that brought (significantly better) remakes of The Ring and The Grudge — One Missed Call is centered around the premise of cell phones being used to spread a supernatural curse. More specifically, victims receive a call with an unrecognizable ringtone, from the phone of the previous victim. The call typically goes to voicemail (hence One Missed Call), and as the victims play the message back, which is dated for a specific date and time in the near future, they're horrified to hear their own voice screaming out their final words. Sure enough, when the date and time arrive, they die, with a red candy in their mouth, and the cycle begins again. Now it's up to college student Beth Raymond (Shannyn Sossamon) and Detective Jack Andrews (Edward Burns) to stop the madness before they, too, arrive at their pre-scheduled death.
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There is more to the story, of course, but the truth is you've seen it all before, with the film borrowing, or outright stealing, elements from other, better films, like The Ring, Final Destination, and Insidious: The Last Key. There's no consistency with the curse: victims die via supernatural ghost attacks, and at other times a-la Final Destination-ish accidents; and the curse is supposed to take the life of the victim who gets the call, but one victim's cat is killed off, too, and the last time anyone checked, cats don't use cell phones. The CGI is terrible, an exorcism scene is rife with even worse dialogue than what litters the rest of the film (but does have Ray Wise), and scenes where red candies fall out of victims' mouths are more funny than creepy (as is a scene where the severed hand of a victim dials the number of the next). And the "twist" ending makes little sense, especially knowing that it could have happened far earlier in the film and saved us the horror of watching it.
Critics Hilariously Savage 'One Missed Call'
The acting, the cheap effects, the unscary jump scares... you name the quality of a bad, bad film, and One Missed Call doesn't miss it. Needless to say, critics savaged it, hilariously. Bill Stamets of the Chicago Sun-Times says, "If you missed the first One Missed Call, made in Japan in 2004, you now can miss the American remake." Austin Kennedy of Sin Magazine adds, "Oooooh, a cell phone that kills! Really? Wow! Some people might find that creepy, but it's just silly isn't it?" Todd Gilchrist of IGN Movies has this to say: "Borrowing from this bottomless well, perhaps it's best to say that you should hang up, turn off your phone or even cancel your service should this film attempt to reach out and touch you." And that's not even the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
The original may not be great, but it earned its 46% on the strength of its atmosphere, legitimately creepy scares, character backstories, gratuitous violence, and director Takashi Miike's strengths in utilizing sound and effective visuals to build suspense. All the things that make J-horror such a rush for horror fans. Had the remake used any of these elements, it might have hit double digits. Instead, the 2008 iteration lacks atmosphere, presages its jump scares, and takes the "care" out of characters with ones we simply don't care enough about. Even then, it could have scored some points with creative, gory kills, but no. Besides being incredibly uninspired, they've been neutered to get its PG-13 rating.
What's frustrating is that American remakes of Japanese horror films can be done well. A film like The Ring is good because its changes, like moving the focus from a broader examination of Japanese anxieties to a tighter mother/son family unit, don't take away from the unsettling atmosphere that permeates both versions. One Missed Call keeps the original concept, and little else. Even scenes copied directly from the original, like the exorcism, are fumbled so badly that they cease being effective. It did do one thing right, however: unlike the original, which spawned two sequels and a ten-episode television drama, One Missed Call, American style, is a one-and-done.
One Missed Call is available to rent or buy on VOD services.
Release Date January 4, 2008
Runtime 87 minutes
Director Eric Valette
Writers Andrew Klavan
Producers Andreas Thiesmeyer, Andrew A. Kosove, Broderick Johnson, Jennie Lew Tugend, Lauren Weissman, Scott Kroopf, Shinya Egawa, Timothy M. Bourne, Josef Lautenschlager
English (US) ·