The Calling (2000)

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

**Potential spoiler although I didn't make it a half hour into this movie** A quick peek at my movie selection, with such classics as Drainiac! and The Dead Hate the Living, shows how much I accept and appreciate a cheap-o horror movie. In fact, I bought this movie for $0.99 at Movie Stop because it had a pentagram on the DVD (it came in a regular clear DVD case). Had there been an actual box with it that said "a remake of the Omen starring that naked alien from The Faculty and the Borg Queen" I wouldn't have spent a nickel on it.I watched the first twenty minutes or so before realizing that the movie made absolutely no attempt to differentiate itself from "The Omen" and turned it off.If you've ever watched The Omen save the dollar you can purchase this movie with and buy a refreshing Coke instead. If you haven't watched the Omen, then I suppose you could watch this, it's not really that different, except it appears from the beginning to maybe have a happier ending. Again, I didn't finish it.I give it a 3 because it has a little better acting and special effects than a Shock-O-Rama flick, but then again, it's less original and has absolutely no nudity, let alone any lesbian sex (from what I can gather from the first twenty minutes which had several great opportunities for nudity).

This was definitely not as bad as I thought it would be. The acting was a little dry, I guess, but the kid who played Dylan was definitely creepy. There was a lot of symbolism, or maybe I was just making some up to make the movie seem more profound, but the raven part was pretty cool, and plus, the raven is also a Carrie thing... Heh, so all in all, this wasn't so bad, and it reminded me of Rosemary's Baby, what with the devil's child and all. I gave it 4/10.

Of course, it certainly doesn't come close to the best of this type of film, but it's an entertaining little time-waster. The performances weren't that bad, and it did have a few creepy moments. It reminded me a bit of The Prophecy, which I enjoyed. The heroine is incredibly stupid, of course, but unfortunately that's to be expected in films of this type. I do have to admire her tenacity in trying to save her son from the forces of darkness, especially considering the abuse she takes from him (and everyone else) in the process. I would have told hubby and devil boy to screw pretty quickly. Whoever the child actor was who played Dylan did alright (why be hard on child actors?). He had the cold and creepy part down pretty well, but he failed in the charm department. The Antichrist is supposed to be charismatic enough to seduce the entire world, and that certainly doesn't shine through in the kid's performance. *SPOILER* At the end when Dylan's mother drowns him, there is a reporter on TV talking about how people all over the world were attending Dylan's funeral because he'd touched their lives so deeply (although we only see a handful of mourners). WHAT? All he did was appear on his "father's" news show and speak backwards. That's a neat (if disturbing) trick, but I don't see how it would "touch" anyone's life. Did I miss something? They should have had him performing healings, or something of that nature. It would have made more sense, but ah well. *END SPOILER*The constant voice-overs were a little annoying, but I can live with that. The photography is above average and there's an interesting little character called Cormack who provides a decent surprise towards the closing of the film, which leaves us with the possibility of a sequel. If it comes out, I'll see it. I'd like to see the end showdown between God and Satan portrayed (with Satan getting his butt kicked, of course), hopefully in a film with a bit higher budget. So, overall, this is a decent little low budget flick with no frills, but a few chills. It's definitely not original, but then this is an old (but fascinating) story that's been told many times. There's only so many new places for it to go while still remaining true to the story. Watch it if you like this kind of thing.I do have to say that ultra-religious or easily offended people might want to skip this one. It does contain Satanic imagery, a bit of blasphemy, and gruesome deaths, so if you're looking for another Left Behind, this isn't it.

I can normally talk about stuff until even i am bored but this film was so dire that i want to talk about it to warn others to not waste their time with it yet i still don't want to waste anymore of my life on this waste of time film.Laura Harris is a pretty good actress and always seems wasted in most of her roles, she could be doing something so much more worth while. She's very pretty and always seems to be very good in her roles but even she seems like she can't be bothered to try too hard in this film. Even the "male" in me didn't kick in during the film, it was more like "well she is very, very attractive but this film sucks too much to even keep watching for the good looking actress". I mean the kid kills all of his pets and the mother (Harris) doesn't really see this as a sign of anything even slightly wrong at all, its like "well i did that at his age, so boys will be boys".I advise anyone who enjoys a film like this to just watch The Omen or Rosemarys Baby instead, believe me you'll thank me later.At best i'd give this this film 4/10Rotten Addict