The Call

***
Release Date: September 20th 2013

When a veteran 911 operator takes a life-altering call from a teenage girl who has just been abducted, she realizes that she must confront a killer from her past in order to save the girl's life.

Director: Brad Anderson (Vanishing on 7th Street, The Machinist)

Starring: Halle Berry, Abigail Breslin, Morris Chestnut, Michael Eklund

In The Call, Halle Berry is a 911 phone operator that has a bad day with a call from a girl who is involved in a home invasion and believes she going to be abducted. As she tries her best to help the girl, everything goes out of control, leaving the girl dead, and Berry, emotionally scarred.

Jump forward 6 months, and she's training a bunch of rookies who have no idea what they're in for. Whilst taking the trainees into 'the hive' a call goes bad for a work colleague, forcing Berry back in to action.... and guess what? It's none other than the same killer. Although she's unsure of her abilities, her supervisor supports her saying 'you can do this'.

As soon as she's back on board, Berry leads us through some spectacular acting and a roller-coaster of tension. It's followed by Abigail Breslin, the girl who's been abducted by the unknown assailant. She may start with the cliched screaming, irrational 'I'm going to die, and there's nothing I can do about it' way of thinking, but Berry manages to keep her calm, and use her initiative to escape. However, the audience and Berry are always left a step behind the attacker (Eklund), as a couple of passer's by get caught up in the situation.

The killer may be a bagful of cliches, but one thing remains certain, his intentions are clear and his motives are understandable (in a sense that it makes sense why he is like he is).  

The Call has suffered from a few stars setback due to its finale, which is a complete shambles and utterly unbelievable. Lets just say that Berry's character throws her warmhearted nature to do the right thing straight in to the water, leaving us with none other than loss of believability. It also falls under the stereotypical moves that make up a thriller/horror. Girl investigates alone, drops phone, has no signal to contact others, so decides to deal with the situation herself.

Overview: A great start and suspenseful middle, majorly let down by the end.