The Calling (2000)

ATTENTION! If you feel OFFENDED by Movies like Omen & co. Don't read this review because I m gonna add some "Anti-Christ" Quotes from the Movie.I really liked the Movie. It might not be Omen but its worth Watching and a lot better then Rosemary's ABaby. I think it is very under rated. Its not a Horror Movie, more a Mystery. However the first 20 Minutes are lame. When she kills her Son and it happens to be that the "Satanist" wanted her to, I lost the Thread but then I was okay. I think the Movie deserves attention from Mystery Fans. It has a Creepy moments, but I began to enjoy the Movie when the Taxi Driver appears. What he says is really interesting. Unforgettable Scene.I decided not to add the Quotes from the Movie.

***SPOILERS*** Another "Omen" clone with the Antichrist coming back to earth to usher in the year 2000. At the beginning of the movie "The Calling" we see Kristie St. Clair, Laura Harris, being chased into the sea by a group of black-clad Satanist and then shot. In the hospital Kristie under intensive care is attended by her priest Father Mullin, Peter Waddington, whom she tell her story, as we go into flashback, about the string of events that ended up almost costing her life.Being married to top Isle of Man TV news commentator Marc St. Clair, Richard Lintern,Kristie's life could never be more happier until she gave birth to her son Dylan, Alex Roe. On the very day that Dylan was born Marc's station's manager Jack Plummer, John Standing, and his wife's Elizabeth (Alice Krige)seven year old son Sammy, Liam Hess, disappeared. Found some time later Sammy had his heart cut out in some kind of gruesome Satanic ritual but the story was kept from the public by news-reporter Marc; it was reported that Sammy was strangled.It becomes obvious that young Dylan is some how connected with Sammy's murder in that the dead boy's parents Jack & Elizabeth become his surrogate parents. It's as if they in some way traded in Sammy for him! Growing up Dylan get's influenced by both the Plummers and his father Marc in the black arts which includes the unchristian rites of Satanism like reading backwards as they do with passages of the Bible in some of their secret rituals.Kristie's friend Lynette, Camilla Puner, about the only person in the movie, besides Kristie, who isn't a Satanist later interrupts an ungodly act preformed on young Dylan by his father Marc and Elizabeth which later cost Lynette her life. Dylan in a mocking of the crucifixion was himself crucified by Marc & Elizabeth , but lived to tell about it, upside down!"The Calling" get's very confusing with it's attempt to show how powerful the grip of Satan is on the people of the Isle of White by over doing a number of wild crazy and ungodly scenes. There's a drunken sex orgy, where this dirty old man get's electrocuted in a Jacuzzi, that Kristie secretly attends. Earlier a woman, for what seemed like no reason at all, jumps from a tower and lands on top of Kristie's car almost killing her and Dylan who was with her at the time. There's also the weirdo cab driver Carmac, Francis McGee, who's some kind of religious nut popping up in scene after scene and giving Kristie, and the audience, the straight dope to what's really happening on the screen. You sense right away that this Carmac knows a lot more then what he's saying and as the movie moves to it's predictable conclusion you start to realize that he does a lot more then drive a taxi for a living in fact he drives almost the entire cast of the movie into a wild and hysterical frenzy in the films end-of-the-world-like final scene.Even though nowhere near as effective as "The Omen" the film "The Calling" has the same eerie and disturbing look to it, in fact it's one of the most shocking and unnerving TV movies that I've ever seen. The ending of the movie like in "The Omen" leaves you with a bad feeling in your heart and mind in that there's no way in stopping Satan, or the Devil, from doing his evil deeds on earth. Even the priest Father Mullin get's so disturbed by what he sees that he just rips off his collar and throws it away.The movie ends almost crying for a sequel, like in The Omen, but now some six years later that sequel has yet came to pass; maybe it's because the movie was such a flop in the box office that it wasn't worth, for it's financiers, in making one.

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.

Laura Harris plays a mother with the perfect child. Damian...err Dylan speaks backward, spikes pet rodents, kicks dogs, makes people to kill themselves,spends his spare time hanging upsidedown nailed to crosses and woofs at the most interesting times.Not too shabby for a baby devil. The plot has definately been seen elsewhere and as the Antichrist horror movies go I really liked this one.This particular subgenre is always gonna be bogged down by the same old plot devices. Unless new scriptures and divine writings are found I don't think this will change. However I enjoyed pretty much every aspect of the film and even play the devil's advocate by saying that I would like to see another one. My opinion is that this is a decent timewaster and if you keep your expectations to a minimum you might enjoy yourself. 8/10