g404c The Calling is an interesting thriller in the vein of The Omen. Lush landscapes and a fantastic soundtrack compensate for a slow, plodding pace, and a murky, hodge-podge plot. Laura Harris is convincing enough as the mother of the Antichrist (nice performance by Alex Roe), and Richard Lintern plays the part of the smarmy husband very well. The revelation of the true purpose of the character, Carmac (Francis Magee), was a huge surprise. While certainly worth seeing, the pace does detract from the overall film. Still, I liked it enough to stick with it and I would view it again. The party scene near the end is the most lively part of the whole movie, and a very good part. The Calling fits well for a movie made in 2000, as it seems entertainment at the start of a new decade is usually sort of experimental, in what appears to be attempts at finding answers to an uncertain future. Premiered on Lifetime tonight.

José Luis Rivera Mendoza (jluis1984) A young American woman gets married with a famous British newscaster, and apparently lives a perfect life in the Isle of Man until she discovers that his husband is part of a satanic cult trying to start the Antichritst's reign over Earth.Sounds familiar? This movie gives more than a nod to horror classics "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Omen"; as its plot is like a mixture of both story lines with not even a quarter of the magnificence of those movies.Richard Caesar's debut is a low-budget movie that puts Laura Harris in Mia Farrow's role as Kristie, the woman trapped in a blasphemous conspiracy by her husband Marc St. Claire (Richard Lintern). Betrayed by everyone, it is up to her to save the soul of her son Dylan (Alex Roe) who plays the role of hateful evil kid perfectly.The movie's main problem is the lack of originality and poor development of the script, nothing really outstanding happens and it is quite formulaic; the characters' actions are unrealistic, and the dialogs are uninspired. However, the ending is particularly good, and it is a shame that one has to endure more than 70 boring and tedious minutes to arrive to the only good part of the movie.The acting is nothing special and while Laura Harris makes a good lead, her character has some of the worst lines in the movie. It is a shame to see her waste her talent like that. On the other hand, Francis Magee has the best part in the movie as the mysterious taxi driver Carmac, and he easily steals every scene he is in.The movie has a nice photography considering the low-budget, and the Isle of Man serves as a beautiful and different location. Caesar's direction is quite typical for modern day suspense thrillers but it works and the movie flows at good pace.It is definitely not a bad movie, as even with its flaws it still manages to entertain and has a few good things to offer (specially the ending); however, there are similar movies that are far superior than "The Calling" as it stays in a mediocre level. 5/10

HK Erickson This film was extremely low budget. At one point we noticed the boom (microphone) dip down onto the screen during a scene in the church. Laura Harris has proved herself a good actress in other films, but this one does not do her justice. Also, the story becomes sketchy at the end and is slightly underdeveloped. There were several moments in the movie where I found myself asking, why are they doing this? And thats not such a bad thing, if they're explained. But they never are. See it if you're into religious, cult type movies, but even then you really might not enjoy it much. As far as the editing and special effects go, this movie is also very lacking. But to be honest, I have seen worse low-budget films. So if you're into this type of movie, go ahead and give it a try. But consider yourself warned.

johanleupen This typical straight-to-video release (complete with washed up actors that used to belong to the C-list) goes where countless films have gone before: a young mother gives birth to a child that seems to be uncommonly fascinated by morbidity, torture, death, or generally speaking all things evil. Naturally people around the once happy couple start dying left and right and our young female protagonist, estranged from her surroundings, starts to wonder whether or not this is related to her son's need to impale his pet guinea pig. People, it has all been done before in a much more satisfying fashion, see Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, The Exorcist, Poltergeist, or even The Devil's Advocate, Eyes Wide Shut or The Ninth Gate for all I care but don't waste precious time that could be spend delving into the many great works that cinema has to offer.