Miraculously, the plan works and Seo-yeon’s father reappears in her life as if nothing ever happened. But her new-found happiness distracts her away from Young-sook, and the latter’s festering jealousy morphs into murderous intent that wreaks havoc on the space-time continuum.
Jun Jong-seo in a scene from The Call. Photo: Netflix
Putting logic and realism firmly on hold, The Call spins its audacious premise into a hugely effective and entertaining game of time-displaced cat and mouse. A remake of The Caller, a British/Puerto Rican thriller from 2011, it takes all the established rules of time travel movies and turns them on their head, as Young-sook repeatedly intervenes with Seo-yeon’s past to irrevocably damage her future.
Jun cements her position as Korean cinema’s unhinged ingénue du jour, following her star-making turn in Lee Chang-dong’s Burning, with a brilliantly psychotic performance that reveals Young-sook to be just as dangerous as she is fragile and damaged. Meanwhile, Park plays the heroine perfectly, conveying innocence and fear without becoming helpless or incapable of fending for herself.
Wisely steering clear of anything resembling an explanation, Lee’s preposterous plot weaves a dizzying web of “what if?” scenarios that escalate at a frenetic pace right up until the final, stupefying twist. The Call is high-concept hokum dialled up to eleven, and one all horror fans should answer.
The Call is streaming on Netflix.
