User reviews

I had very little expectations from this film. It didn't look like it had much of a budget and no actors that I'd heard of (okay, so I sort of recognised the main woman from Twilight, but that was about it). However, in this case, less is slightly more (or at least slightly more than the average dross that infests modern horror films).

I wouldn't call The Caller a horror, more of a supernatural thriller. It's about a single woman (aren't they all?) who gets some mysterious phone calls. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but it presents a pretty creepy premise which finds her trapped in a spiralling cycle of torture and paranoia from a very nasty supernatural adversary.

The Caller is a 'slow burner.' This is why it's probably not for everyone. Nothing too out of the ordinary happens in the first half and I can see a lot of people giving up before it really gets going. However, the second act cranks it up a gear and the torment really begins. There are no major scares or gore to speak of; it's more a case of inescapable mental torture.

If you can put up with your films a little slower than normal and without any action, effects or gore then give it a go - all performances better than your average horror/supernatural flick and a slightly different premise which really works.

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i went to see this movie without thinking i was going to be completely engrossed in the film and its complex characters. The story starts with a young woman that is currently in divorce proceedings from her estranged husband, moving into a new apartment. Everything starts off OK except that during her settling in to her new apartment she answers the phone where a older woman on the other line asks for a man that doesn't live there. from there on a phone relationship builds with this seemingly unstable elderly woman and a lonely young woman going through a difficult divorce. in time, strange things begin to happen and the movie takes a scary turn, it becomes extremely suspenseful and scary even though there is a lack of blood and graphic violence. i found the movie very entertaining and with its numerous twists, a movie that made you have discussions afterward in the theater with your friends about who was who, what does it really mean and what was real or a dream. a must see movie!

The premise of this movie is actually somewhat interesting, even though it's pretty clearly "borrowed" from Frequency. I'm sure it was pitched as "Frequency meets 100 Feet (the Eric Red movie from 2008)". It's not the worst idea I've heard, though it's definitely derivative. The problem is that they never really got any further than that, and it plays out rather stereotypically, with heavy-handed direction, bland characters, trite plotting, and weak dialogue. What really saved the movie, however, was Lorna Raver, who played the crazy gypsy woman in Drag Me To Hell. Man, that woman is creepy! Just hearing her voice on the phone was enough to creep me out. Without her, this movie would only be a 4/10. I'm tempted to give this movie a 6/10, just because of her, but she was the only good thing in it, really.

There are a few times when you're left scratching your head, wondering why the characters are so dumb, but these kinds of thrillers absolutely depend on stupid characters doing things that defy all common sense. If that kind of thing annoys you, I'd avoid this movie. Otherwise, if you're not expecting much and lower your expectations, you might find this an enjoyable waste of time. It's nothing special, but it's not offensively bad, either. If you liked this movie, I'd suggest checking out 100 Feet, a supernatural thriller featuring an abused wife trying to convince people that she's being haunted by her dead, abusive husband. It wasn't amazing, but it was significantly better than this movie. Obviously, there's also Frequency, but that was played much more straight, without the B movie vibe of 100 Feet or The Caller.

"People come together for a reason Mary, doesn't matter how." After starting divorce proceedings against her husband Mary (Leferve) starts a new life in a new apartment. After a series of phone calls from a woman they begin to talk about their situations. When the woman acts on an off-handed remark by Mary she begins to rethink the friendship. When people she knows start to disappear she doesn't know how to make it stop. 90% of the way you feel about a movie, I think, has to do with your expectations going in. Movies like "Bridesmaids" with all the hype can really let you down after it's talked up as much as it was. This one is the total opposite. Never hearing of this the trailer seemed interesting so I watched it. I was blown away. A very neat (although not original) idea. Think a suspense version of the "Lake House". I don't want to give anymore away so I will end this, but this is a surprisingly good must see. I really liked this movie. Overall, a very tense and exciting suspense that deserves more of an audience that I'm sure it will get. Watch this! I give it an A-.

Would I watch again? - I think I might *Also try - Forget Me Not & Lake House

When I watched this movie almost 9 years ago, I loved it and I remember the plot and helplessness of the main protagonist, and how well it was made, every now and then. Watching the Korean remake (how to turn tables...), I think this one is weaker but still such a nice and well made little movie. It works well as a thriller and drama. I suggest you to watch the Korean one first, and then this one, both are well worth of your time.

The Caller is by no means the greatest horror film, nor is it particularly original but it is quite enjoyable, mainly thanks to the wonderful Rachelle Lefevre, she has graduated to leading lady very well in The Caller, let's hope she gets more leading roles more often, she has a great screen presence and is very nice to watch.

The Caller has an interesting premise, newly separated Mary moves into a new apartment to escape the clutches of her douchebag husband, only to be harassed with menacing phone calls from a woman who says she is living in the past, the year 1977 to be exact, this is when the supernatural element pops up and starts to get you thinking.

Parts of this movie are really scary, other parts are slightly awkward, but for most of the film I was genuinely interested in the character of Mary and her quest to uncover the truth about the person who is causing the horror in her life, is it her husband? Is it her new love interest? Is it a monster in the closet? This movie keeps you guessing right up until the conclusion, something a lot of other films are missing, it's not very original, but it's still a surprise I suppose. I just wished the ending lived up to the rest of the movie, which was quite a cut above the usual horror fodder we see of late.

Luis Guzman and Stephen Moyer give solid supporting performances too, it's nice not to see old Bill Compton all broody and serious, and Luiz is just awesome no matter what.

Impressive enough that I'd watch it again I just wish the ending was different. Hopefully on the DVD there are some alternate endings.

I vote for more Rachelle Lefevre in movies. Hooray!

***SPOILERS*** A lot like the 2000 time traveling movie "Fequency" in the "The Caller" there's this young woman Mary Kee, Rachelle Lefevre, who somehow gets in touch with her past in 1979 through a number of mysterious phone calls from this woman who calls herself Rose,Lorna Raver, who claims that she stole her boyfriend Bobby away from her. You see right away that something isn't right with the phone that's in Mary's shabby 1st floor apartment being an rotary phone that's been out of production-you can't even find it in a novelty shop-by the phone companies for at least 15 years! Mary also has trouble here in the present-2011-with her abusive husband Steven, Ed Quinn, who despite an order of protection by the courts, to stay 500 feet away from his estranged wife Mary,is constantly showing up at her door and threatening Mary with bodily harm or even worse if she doesn't take the bum back. A a bum he is looking for every excuse to get into Mary's apartment to raid the refrigerator for free food & beer which he's too cheap to buy for himself.

It's later in the movie that Mary finally realized that this Rosa is holding her hostage as a little girl back in 1979 or 32 years in the past and planning to kill her to keep Mary stealing her just back from the Vietnam War, with serious mental problems, boyfriend Bobby when she grows up! With Steven planning to murder her in the present and Rosa to do Mary in back in 1979 it's no wonder that she's on the brink of a nervous breakdown and about to be committed!

***SPOILERS**** Mary in checking out old newspaper microfilm in the public library sees that a major fire took place in her neighborhood bowling alley around the time-September 1979-that Rosa is calling her and tries to get her to go there to see her with the excuse of boyfriend Bobby being there so she'll end up being one of the fires many victims. Wise to what Mary is up to Rosa now goes full blast to do in the young Mary that in effect would make the Mary of 2011 no longer around and living! Like in the movie "Frenquency" this film about changing the past as well as future is a bit too confusing as well as hard to follow. With the Mary of 2011 being attacked by the Rosa of 1979 as at the very same time trying to save herself as a little girl from Rosa back in 1979! It in fact does have a somewhat happy ending with both Rosa in the past and Steven in the present getting their comeuppances which is about the only good thing you can say about the film!

The star of "The Caller" is a beguiling, personable young actress named Rachelle Lefevre and her unpretentious acting is one of several things that catapult this little glossed-over gem from the catacombs of third-rate horror. It is a much more imagination - and yes, creepy - supernatural flick than a lot of the junk we've gotten lately ("The Last Exorcism," "Needle," to name a few). It's not immensely scary, but it's playfully off-putting and very fun to look at.

The movie was promisingly directed by a man named Matthew Parkhill, who appears to have a cinematic fetish for trick focus. There is hardly a shot in "The Caller" (or maybe none at all!) where both the foreground and background are focused and defined. There are even fewer where it tricks back and forth. Parkhill likes to have either the background in focus, or the foreground. But not both. It's an unusual rhythm, but not an ostentatiously lofty one either. And it is effectively used, particularly in his dolly shots, where we see little objects like phone cords or coffee mugs sharp and clear while the petrified protagonist quarrels with her unseen stalker.

The said creep is a mysterious old lady who is only present via untraceable phone calls. Rachelle Lefevre plays her on-the-bum character with an easygoing dryness as a recent divorcée moving into a ramshackle apartment. She is hounded by the titular "caller" who insists that her lover still lives there. The plot needs a whole lot more complicated from here, but not ridiculously so. It's not being complicated for the sake of being complicated. Rather, it's being complicated just to be interesting. Movies with that sort of attitude are rare these days; most of them just want to brow-beat the audience with plot twists until you need a notepad to follow everything.

"The Caller" is not a hair-raiser; it's not intensely scary. Granted, it does have a few good shock moments and some even better suspense. But those who favor biting their nails and running from the screen are liable to be disappointed. But the primary reason why it comes across so effectively, and director Parkhill and screenwriter Sergio Casci are owed big credit for this, is that it aims just for being creepy. Lefevre's personable performance allows the audience to get into the shoes of the victim being tormented, as opposed to the killer, and when things start turning for the bizarre, we are allowed to sympathize with her.

The picture is not flawless. The ending is lopsided and not as ambiguous and it would like to be and there is an utterly pointless sex scene that interrupts an otherwise fascinating romantic subplot. But as a totality, "The Caller" is a joyfully enjoyable little horror flick.

Mary (Rachelle Lefevre) moves in to an apartment complex in Puerto Rico to escape her abusive ex who is none too happy about the divorce or the restraining order placed against him. Soon after, she's plagued by a barrage of phone calls from someone who identifies herself only as Rose. Slowly, their casual conversations veer toward an ominous direction, and one by one, people around her start dying or disappearing after she tries to cut off contact with the deranged caller.

If you have the patience to wait out the first 20 minutes, The Caller is a decent, straightforward mystery and suspense type thriller with reasonable acting and the welcomed absence of any CGI. Most of the scenes are shot at night or in Mary's dimly lit apartment, adding to the overall gloomy and grim tone. The movie is meant to inject you with fear, not with a quick jab to the jugular but, via a slow and steady stream. The borrowed time alteration theme from Frequency has its pitfalls - don't over-analyze and you won't be bothered by the plot holes.

A refreshingly unpretentious flick that relies on old school horror techniques (no gore or guts, no obtrusive soundtrack, no deafening sound effects) but, sadly, easily forgettable.

After having seen thousands of films, most of them horror, one tends to get a little jaded. Especially with the turn the genre took to torture porn ( with saw on the very end of the positive side of the spectrum and films like hostel on the very negative part) i got a bit tired of the whole circus.

And then, just when you officially are ready to give up and kill the odd hours with rubber sharks or other pests brought to you by SciFi a movie like the caller comes along.

I never gave a 10 rating to any film,but this one does it right, to tell anything about the plot and developments within is a crime. This movie has to be seen and experienced. The basic plot rundown is giving away in other reviews so I wont comment on that. Enough to say this is one scary flick, its smartly written..chills and thrills.

Go see it now, if you need a fix of spine tingling instead of blood pouring out of your TV set and body parts flying around.

See it, now!

After hearing some decent buzz about this little indie thriller I decided to put in on my netflix que. And as most of you who have netflix know. Life is busy and it just sat there and wasted my monthly membership lol. And to be honest I didn't think it was going to be very good. Well I'm happy to say I was wrong. The film is a completely original horror esque thriller thats solidly executed. It stars Rachael Lefvre of the Twilight films as a young woman who moves into an apartment after an abusive marriage. She's constantly stalked by her creepy ex and is always on the edge. She than begins to receive strange phone calls looking for someone who doesn't live here. As the crazed calls proceed she questionably finds out that the woman who is speaking to her lived in her apartment in the 70's and is actually calling from the 70's. it's all very twilight zone esque. but here's the big kicker. She's brutally psychotic and as the young woman tries to ignore the phone calls things and people begin to change in Lefvre's life because the crazed woman is murdering them in the past. Now I don't want to give away any twists but the film has got some really shockingly creepy moments. And it somehow makes the simplicity of the house phone menacing again. The cool thing about this movie is that it keeps you going and going and even ends with an unexpected nice bang. Also Lefvre's lead performance is really quite surprising she's strong, vulnerable and comes across as a very capable actress. But the film does have a few weaknesses such as the film quality. It feels very cloudy and cheap like something off the lifetime network, something thats sure to distract you a bit from the films quality in the beginning. And there is a cheesy little romance with a surprisingly sexy Stephen Moyer of True Blood fame. Accompanied by a forced little sex scene. Nonetheless, It's a neat little movie thats worth seeking out and watching. It offers more quality thrills and solid storytelling than most of the films plaguing the multiplexes right now.

I came across this flick due the name Stephen Moyer. I adore True Blood so I wanted to see if he could do anything else outside True Blood. The main lead I was afraid of, Rachelle Lefevre coming out of one of the worst features, Twilight. God, I can't say it enough how bad that saga is. But I was surprised of her doings. She really was believable in this suspense thriller with a bit of horror here and there. This is the second feature that I've seen with Stephen and he act well but still it remind me of True Blood.

So the actors are okay as did the directing by Matthew Parkhill. From the first minute you want to know what's going on with the telephone. And you kept watching until the end and you have to watch closely (suspense) to get it figured out. It isn't all that bloody or so but the supernatural effect makes it a bit of horror. The editing was okay because you have flash backs and those kind of things to explain it all.

The weakness is maybe that you can see it coming from the first meeting between the main leads that they are going to fall in love. One scene do show them making love were Rachell goes full naked but filmed in a way that it isn't gratuitous. Luckily there's a twist between them so we don't have the love affair being the main lead.

Ed Quinn (also from True Blood) gives the story something to look forward to (thriller). To end, it's a nice flick but all those twists and genres some will leave it as it is but I guess due Twilight and True Blood it will have it's viewers. Not bloody at all and without many effects.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 1/5 Story 3/5 Effects 1/5 Comedy 0/5

This was an interesting movie and well worth a glass of wine and a box of chocolates next to a warm fire.

Saying that it was one of those movies that tried to be clever but the twist did not quite work. You are left thinking to yourself, 'I see what the producer is trying to do but it flops a little. Too many gaps.' It would have been better if there was a clearer explanation as to the connection with the past and the present and how the two interrelated.

However this is not rubbish by any means and its worth a bag of popcorn and an evening in.

Thought this was going to be another 'the call is coming from inside the house' film. But this was completely different. Although I wouldn't say this is a horror film, it does have it's moments, especially near the end, which was brilliant.

At first I wasn't sure where the film was going, so a woman from the past \ mad is calling you... change your number, but then you realize how if you annoy someone in the past, they can affect you, but there's nothing you can do to get to them,

I think the ending comes together nicely, it didn't explain everything, but gives you enough to make your own conclusions.

nice concept and different to the normal 'stranger calls female alone in the house' films

So it's official, I either don't understand this site, or I don't understand the way people who vote/rate here think. The Caller just might be the most underrated Horror film of 2011, or even ever! So please let me start by recommending that you don't let yourself miss out on it, as you could easily find one million films that would be less fun to watch.

The plot is realistic and relatable, slightly feminist but not in an annoying criticizing way (I hate seeing socio-political agendas and messages in fiction films, regardless of what they are). Mary has recently left her abusive husband and is now living alone in a new apartment. Great acting by Rachelle Lefevre, who is very different than your usual "blond with blue eyes" in Horror films.

As for the story - one of the best most original ideas I've ever seen in a Horror film. Perhaps the idea has been done before, but it's been a first time for me. Many Horror films attempt to make the audience scared and uncomfortable by relating to the terror and despair that are felt by the characters. The Caller does that in a remarkable way that is both original (even if not ground breaking) and immensely effective! That's the way to connect cross-time from Sc-Fi to victim control in Horror!

The cinematography is slightly disappointing, and some of the shots simply appeared a little amateur, as if done by someone not very comfortable with a camera. However, the profound audio effects really make up for it, I really liked them! And to top it all - not one of the annoying overused cheats appear! No visible silicone breasts, no death on account of car not starting, not even an inability to communicate due to a cellphone having no signal! Not to mention there's no use of the corny "sudden loud music to make you jump". There are a few scenes with quiet, close-up and then sudden noise, but delicately and gently done.

All in all - I don't like rating films too high, nor too low. I always look for shortcomings on account of being a pretty easy grader. The Caller, in my opinion, deserves a heck of a lot more recognition and compliments than it's been given. I loved every second of it, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a truly well made Horror film.

This one gave me a surprise... glad I watched it. It is scary at times - it's a Thriller but seems to be splashed with a bit of Horror. Suspenseful!!

She moves into a new apartment during her divorce from an abusive husband and begins to get strange calls from an elderly woman. This is when the scares begin.

This film is not graphic in any form - minor violence shown that gets it point across loud and clear.

7/10