The Call
A phone linking two women in the same house across twenty years turns a bid to rewrite family tragedy into a vicious psychological time paradox.
Overview
A chilling exploration of fate and consequence unfolds across time and space.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Brisk
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Graphic
- tense
- disturbing
- paranoid
- late night thriller viewing
- korean cinema marathon
What critics said
Critics broadly found the cross-time premise gripping and visually accomplished, with especially strong performances, while noting substantial time-travel logic problems.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Seo-yeon and Young-sook speak through one phone while occupying the same house twenty years apart, producing immediate changes in history.
Seo-yeon's mother's countryside house, hidden basement, and fixed telephone connection become the enclosed center of the danger.
Seo-yeon's hope of saving her deceased father allows Young-sook's influence to reshape both past and present.
The film uses strong visual execution to render sudden changes in the house, its inhabitants, and the surrounding reality.
Films like The Call, and why
The Caller
cross-time communication, shifting realities, psychological suspense, and escalating consequences
Frequency
time paradoxes, altered personal history, and tense science-fiction mystery
Deja Vu
psychological thriller tension, unstable identity, and reality shaped by nonlinear causality
The Silence of the Lambs
serial-killer suspense, female protagonists, and dark genre atmosphere
Movie Details
- Director
- Lee Chung-hyun
- Release Date
- 2020-11-23
- Runtime
- 112 min
- Rating
- 7.5 / 10 (1034)
Cast
- Park Shin-hye
- Jeon Jong-seo
- Kim Sung-ryung
- EL
- Park Ho-san
- Oh Jung-se
- Lee Dong-hwi
- Um Chae-young
- Jo Kyung-sook
- Kim Min-ha
Where to watch in United States
- Streaming
- Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is The Call about?
- A phone linking two women in the same house across twenty years turns a bid to rewrite family tragedy into a vicious psychological time paradox.
- What is The Call like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of The Call as brisk, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is The Call violent?
- Yes. Ember rates the violence in The Call as graphic.
- What did critics think of The Call?
- Critics broadly found the cross-time premise gripping and visually accomplished, with especially strong performances, while noting substantial time-travel logic problems.
- Which films are like The Call?
- Films with a similar feel include The Caller, Frequency, Deja Vu, and The Silence of the Lambs.
- How long is The Call?
- The Call runs 112 minutes.
- Where can I watch The Call?
- In United States, The Call streams on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads.
