Isn't movie watching a funny business? What one person thinks is a good watch another thinks is crap. Well yet again I have struck this and it is funny that it is within two nights and involves two horrors. For you that have read my review on Toolbox Murders you will no doubt have read my disdain for it. In a word it was garbage. It is in my humble opinion as poor a horror as you wouldn't wish to see! And yet the horror blogs I visit all say it was alright! So hey, the classic line ' horses for courses' is certainly true here isn't it.
I bring this up because earlier tonight I watched on late night television One Missed call. It is like The Ring and The Grudge as being an American re-make of a Japanese horror. To all terms and purposes this movie has been absolutely panned and trashed by horror fans universally. Ok, so I'm not a genuine horror fanatic but I do know a decent horror when I see one and when I don't. I heartily dispute that you have to be 'into' a specific genre of movie to 'get' them. I've seen enough movies in my life to know crap from what isn't.
For me with all the negative reviews on One Missed Call I myself found it a decent horror. It is far superior to Toolbox Murders, but then again that isn't too difficult to achieve! Unlike Toolbox which didn't have any frights Call did and I jumped a number of times which is rare for me when watching a horror on the small screen. So that is a tick in the positive box. I also found it really creepy and found my neck hairs tingling. So tick number two! It was tense and built up to the frights really well and didn't signal them as about to happen, here they come, are you ready, here it is, in the bad horror movie tradition. This one is genuinely spooky! So tick number three.
Their isn't alot of blood and guts as it is more a scare movie than a slasher/gore one. There are some deaths but they aren't overly grusome. But there are some scenes with some hideous looking ghosts and deities that are scary to look at. Tick another box!
The plot and premise isn't bad over all and in many respects is your typical horror movie fare. I find horror a somewhat limited field in which to create a decent plot so this can't be rubbished too much as it is no better or worse than the myriad of other horrors out there. This one has the bad evil child premise which has been done before, but to reiterate, this a is horror and a hard genre to be original in. After having watched this I scratched my head in wonderment , why is it disliked so much? I found it reasonably scary and it wasn't a bad watch. The acting isn't great but no worse than most other horrors lets be honest.
If this is considerd rubbish within the horror fraternity and Toolbox Murders good then whose eye is bad? I suppose each has there own opinions and is entitled to them. For me One Missed Call is quite a reasonable horror and alot better than some of the garbage I've watched recently masquerading as horror, ie the abysmal Friday the Thirteenth re-make.....not to mention Toolbox Murders.... but I may have already mentioned that!
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And here for the official site:
I've seen the Japanese original, and thought it to be quite a good horror film. Have not seen the US remake, but my sister has, and she'd said it was horrible compared to the original.
ReplyDeleteYes anyone who has seen The Ring and Grudge originals say the American versions don't compare also. The first Ring movie was good but the other one and the 3 Grudge movies weren't particularly anything special. I thought One Missed Call better than them.
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