One Missed Call (2003)

I’ve seen a few Takashi Miike films now – Audition, Ichi the Killer, Gozu – but One Missed Call is the first horror I’ve watched. I always get the impression he’s got too many ideas in his head for one man to deal with in ten lifetimes, let alone one underfunded one, and therefore probably never quite achieves what he sets out to do. This film is no exception, but don’t let that put anyone off.

Rare these days for a film with almost nil special effects to be able to scare the pants off someone, but this film manages it on several occasions. This is a surprisingly slick psychological horror based on the premise of ‘death-messaging’. Victims receive calls on their cellphones in which they get to hear themselves on the end of the line, moments before their future self is murdered.

I thought initially there was going to be an examination of digital media as virus, networking, text and technology, blah blah, but he manages to work in a family story of Munchausen’s Syndrome by proxy, gobstoppers, live televised death, and some creepy as hell set pieces. One is in an abandoned hospital, and put the shits up me. Nooo, don’t leave the heroine behind while you set off after a ghost with a fire-axe. And all to a soundtrack of a children’s jingle played on cellphones.

In true Miike fashion, the ending was bizarre and a bit lazy, after which I had no idea what it was really all about. I do know that Kazue Fukiishi is gorgeous, Takashi Miike might be a Japanese cinematic genius, and this is a damn good horror. Can’t wait for the next one.