A Dead Calling (2006)

In New York, the journalist Rachel Beckwith (Alexandra Holden) is attacked by a burglar and her fiancé Brian (Shawn Hoffman) is murdered trying to defend her. Rachel returns to her hometown Fillmore to recover in the house of her parents. Six months later, she is hired by Stephen Javitz (John Burke) to work in the local television and her first assignment is to cover the architecture of the mansions in Fillmore. Rachel is attracted to the abandoned house of Dr. Frank Sullivan (Tim Oman) and when she breaks in the house, she sees the murder of Mrs. Sullivan (Caia Coley) by Dr. Frank. She returns to the house later and also sees the murder of the journalist of the Fillmore Union Tribune Arnold "Arnie" Howard (Mike Korich). When she calls the police, she learns that Arnie died many years ago. Soon Rachel is contacted by the ghost of Mrs. Sullivan that asks her to help her family and her to find peace. Rachel decides to investigate her connection with the Sullivan's family and their house. "A Dead Calling" is an awful combination of a lame story with bad acting. It is unbelievable how a writer can create such poor and incoherent story. The way Rachel treats her parents when the ghost of Mrs. Sullivan talks to her is unpleasant and absurd. Rachel does not grieve George, who is simply forgotten in the happy end. The exterior of the haunted house is a beautiful white mansion. The snoopy neighbor is capable to see Rachel snooping around in the house, but does not hear shots in the end. The actor that performs Deputy Murken is terrible. Dr. Sullivan kills a deputy, a man on the road and the police do not chase him. Do not waste your time watching this garbage. My vote is two.Title (Brazil): "O Chamado da Morte" ("The Dead Calling")

You know those movies on Lifetime that they play around Halloween? If this didn't have the Lionsgate film company attached to it, I'd assume it was one of those cheesy made-for-television movies.The plot was just as contrived and convoluted as a Lifetime movie, complete with talking ghosts. Is there anything good to say about this movie? Sure. There's a small handful of competent actors. The scenery and props are good. Costumes are good. Music is good. There's even several parts that made me jump and cringe. But is it enough to redeem this hour and a half of life I wasted on it? No. The story, although unique, just wasn't written well enough to pull me in. Same goes for the characters. The mother and father acted like they dropped too much acid in the seventies. Then when she found out they weren't her biological parents, she immediately goes into spoiled princess mode and accuses them of making her live a lie; then comes out with some bizarre statement like "What if I have some genetic disease!?" Uh... what? You can find something like that out at any time in your life, adopted or otherwise. I'm surprised this even got an R rating considering the idea of talking helpful ghosts comes straight out of young adult novel for middle schoolers. Yeah. Talking ghosts that ask for help, give you true to life real secrets, and nod in support to encourage you? Last time I was entertained by something like that, I think I was twelve.Anyway, I ignored the other reviews and I won't get that hour and a half of my life back. You can save an hour and a half of your own life by learning from our mistakes. Or not. If you like bad Lifetime movies, this just might be the flick for you.

I was looking for something dark, and I got it. It plays like a Japanese horror film, and there is a slasher in it, but there was little else to hold my interest.Except for Sid Haig, of course. I just watched him the other night in his clown makeup, and he really was funny as a regular father in this film. He was "Father Knows Best" with an affinity for guns. He really made me keep watching until the end. His wife was Leslie Easterbrook. This was their third movie together after Halloween and The Devil's Rejects. Of course, many remember her from the Police Academy films.Also from Halloween, The Devil's Rejects, and Grindhouse was Bill Moseley as the sheriff.This must have been the fourth or fifth Michael Feifer film I have seen. He does a lot of serial killers. His films are usually worth watching, but nothing to write home about.If you like the genre check it out on cable sometime.

OK, I just saw the movie and I didn't think that it was THAT bad. The other reviewer is correct the acting sucks, big time, but if you actually give it a chance and try to get into the character then it's not so bad. I would not recommend buying or renting it but if you're stuck somewhere out in the middle of nowhere with cable and the movie just so happens to come on, it might be OK. Yes the escaped convict plot is alright, way too played out. There are actually kind of two "twists". The first is pretty obvious from the get-go. The other surprised me a little but it did not improve the movie what-so-ever. I think that the characters the were in The Devil's Rejects, should stay there. There is "supposed" to be a tender moment between the parents and the daughter and I could only laugh. Now if "tender" meant "awkward" then I could understand. All in all this was a pretty bad movie. Don't waste ANY money on this or you'll be sorry.