Netflix Movie Review: ‘The Call’
Director Lee Chung-Hyeon directed a thriller and suspenseful story called “The Call.” A suspenseful thriller where the past is somehow connected to the future through an old telephone.
The synopsis that Netflix gives for this movie is “connected by phone in the same home, but 20 years apart, a serial killer puts another woman’s past-and life- on the line to change her own fate.”
With the performances of Park Shin-Hye and Jeon Jong-Seo, in this suspenseful thriller, Seo-Yeon (played by Park Shin-Hye) lives in this house that has an old phone with no wire.
This eerie phone seems only to be connected to the house Seo-Yeon is living in. When the phone rings, Seo-Yeon is surprised to hear the person asking for help claims to live in the same house.
At the beginning of the movie, Seo-Yeon’s mother is ill, and her father has long passed, and she continues receiving a phone call from a young lady asking drastically for help. She passes it off as a prank or someone who has the wrong number until weird things start to happen.
One night as she’s asleep, See-Yeon hears a thump and goes to investigate it. She noticed a family portrait has fallen and tries to hang it back up.
In doing so, she discovers a hidden room, an attic to be exact. Seo-Yeon goes in to see what’s down there and discovers a box of items that belongs to Young-Sook (played by Jeon Jong-Seo).
Seo-Yeon goes around town to get more information about this mysterious girl, but everyone dismisses her. Suspiciously, no one not wants to talk about Young-Sook for some odd reason.
When she returns home, Seo-Yeon hears the ring again, and when she answers it, Young-Sook is crying for help, saying her mother will burn her. As she says this, the flames leave their mark on the house, and Seo-Yeon finally realizes what’s going on.
Unsuspectedly, Seo-Yeon starts to form a friendship with Young-Sook. They call every day and talk about the two same but very different worlds they live in.
They share the same life, it seems, as they both lost someone who they cared about too early in their lives. The film takes a shocking turn when Young-Sook finds a way to change the fate of Seo-Yeon’s father.
The moment Young-Sook helps save the life of Seo-Yeon’s father, she starts to neglect her friend that brought him back to her.
Once Seo-Yeon finally answers the phone, Young-Sook gets taken away by her mother and is told never to call there again. Seo-Yeon does some research and finds the next day, Young-Sook will die.
She waits eagerly for Young-Sook to call her, and when the phone finally rings, she is relieved to hear Young-Sook is alive. Seo-Yeon warns her about the event that will occur, and they await the night to see what her mother does.
Young-Sook hides to see if her mother will actually kill her, and once she sees the truth, she takes matters into her own hands, which is when a new serial killer is born.
“I feel like I’ve been reborn. It feels like my birthday today,“ says Young-Sook in the film as she awakens this new part of her. These were the exact words she told Seo-Yeon after taking the life of her mother.
Seo-Yeon never knew she killed her mother because she told her they only had a misunderstanding and hides this information from her.
Eventually, Seo-Yeon becomes suspicious when Seong-Ho (played by Oh Jung-Se) comes over to drop off strawberries, but as the phone rings, she answers and hears a man begging for help.
In desperation to figure out what is happening, Seo-Yeon goes to the police station and finds out the truth about her friend. Young-Sook was, in fact, a murder with many personality disorders.
What made Young-Sook take this path? Did she like the feeling of murder? Or was it to protect herself?
If you like movies with a plot twist or films that will have you sitting at the edge of your seat, wondering what will happen next, watch “The Call.”
This Korean film will leave you speechless and in shock. Unlike most thriller films where you might have a sense of prediction on what will happen next, you will not with this film. It will shock you.
Grab some popcorn, your favorite drink, go to Netflix and get ready to watch a thrilling film that will have you saying “no way” throughout. The real thriller and suspenseful movie, “The Call.”
Trisha is a journalist major, and this will be her 3rd year at College of the Desert. She is the copy editor this semester and is excited to start this...