DVD Review: 'The Calling' (2000; 85 min.) 3 Stars of 4
Greetings to all my fellow peeps. This is John, webmaster of the
Laura Harris Gallery, here with a review of 'The Calling' DVD,
starring everybody's favorite actress and goddess, Laura Harris.
Back in late July, I discovered a German website where you can order a
DVD of the 2000 film 'The Calling'. I, being the huge Laura Harris fan
that I am, naturally placed an order. Amazon.de is the only site
you could order this movie at the time. Now you can find VHS copies
for cheap at Ebay. It is now November 3rd. I received the DVD today
in the mail, finally. It took just over three months to get it. Word
of advice gang, boycott Amazon.de. Such lousy service. Get your copy
at Ebay.
Was the three month wait worth it? I must admit it was. 'The Calling'
is a good movie. It's better than most movies I've seen in a while.
The British locations are simply gorgeous. A great eerie atmosphere
set against a seaside backdrop. A good story, good characters, and
great acting all around. Laura gives one of her finest performances.
An incredible talent. An incredible beauty. Princess Laura has come
a long, long way from her role in Nickelodean's teen soap opera
'FIFTEEN'. She is developing some really fine acting chops. I hope
to see her nominated for an Academy Award in the near future. She is
truly marvelous.
However, I cannot call this DVD transfer marvelous. Overall, the
image quality is good, but during moments of bright flashing light
(lightning flashes toward the start of the film, and during the storm
at the end), digital artifacting is plentiful. I've never seen so
much artifacting on a DVD before. Obviously, foreign manufacturers
don't spend the same amount of time producing a DVD as American
manufacturers do. Quite a shame, I say. Of course, I've only viewed
the disc on my laptop. DVD-ROMs tend to produce glitches from time to
time, such as frames freezing and skipping. I'll try it on my
multiregional player to verify this problem.
As for the disc's audio, the movie is presented in Dolby Digital,
Deutsch or English 2.0 and 5.0. I still have to try the disc out
using my stereo receiver and woofer. But really, I don't really give
a shit about audio. As long as I can hear the dialogue loud and
clear, all else is forgiven.
As for the story, very good. When I first read a summary about a year
ago, I thought it was pretty ludicrous. A woman must save the world
from the apocalypse. That sounds kind of extreme. The story really
isn't that bad. The quality of the acting makes the scenario work
quite well.
The movie begins with Kristie St. Claire (Harris) and a mysterious
bible-booking taxi driver standing in the ocean. All of a sudden, St.
Claire is shot in the arm. We don't know why until later. She awakes
in a hospital bed and begins telling her harrowing story to a church
Reverend.
Kristie St. Claire is an American who meets a British television news
anchor and falls in love. The two marry and move to Great Britain.
Kristie soon becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son. Several years
pass, truncated by home video footage of the married couple raising
their son.
As the film resumes years later, Kristie accepts a job as a business
marketing executive, requiring her to travel frequently, which allows
for some important plot points to take place in her absence.
Kristie begins to learn her young son has some special powers, some
evil. Strange things begin to happen. A young girl is nearly
killed when a swing she's riding breaks loose, nearly impaling her on
a fence post. Kristie's dog is found hanging from its leash, almost
strangling itself. A young boy has gone missing and is later found
brutally murdered. Kristie's girlfriend is found strangled and bloody
inside a plastic bag. A priest is murdered by members of a satanic
cult. And Kristie's son acquires injuries to his hands (similar to
the wounds Christ received during his crucifixion).
Kristie is aided by a mysterious taxi driver, who informs her about
the impending apocalypse - the calling. Kristie learns her husband
isn't the father of her son. The father is the devil. The son is the
anti-christ. And now, Kristie must save her son before the
apocalypse. She kidnaps her son and brings him to a church to have
him baptised by the local Reverend. Before she can succeed, Kristie's
husband arrives with his satanic crew to retrieve the boy.
Kristie tries one last time to save her son. Donning a disguise, she
infiltrates the birthday masquerade party (a really cool sequence) of
her son. Following the murder of a man in a hot tub, Kristie again
kidnaps her son and carries him to the ocean where she proceeds to
save his soul by drowning him. Kristie is shot and hospitalized.
The church Reverend arrives at the hospital to save Kristie from being
murdered herself. Meanwhile, the taxi driver infiltrates the boy's
funeral to witness his resurrection. The apocalypse begins. The
planet grows dark, and the storm begins. As it turns out, the taxi driver is the devil, and at the end of the movie, you see
him holding Kristie's son, who is the anti-christ.
In the end, Krisite and the Reverend flee in the
Reverend's car. The Reverend throws away his white neck band. The
story is left open for a sequel as a satanic skinhead follows them on
his motorcycle.
The End.
The movie might not be for everybody. But if you're a true fan of
Laura's you will probably like it as much as I do.
Until next time America....