The Calling

Plot synopsis:
The movies opens with an American girl, Kristie [Laura Harris] being shot at the ocean shore and falling into the surf. She awakens in the hospital and Father Mulin [Peter Waddington] is with her. He asks if she wishes to be forgiven; initially unable to speak, she squeezes his hand. She then tells the story in flashback. After a fairy tale romance and wedding, she marries dashing Englishman Marc St. Clair [Richard Lintern]. The wedding occurs on a full moon, which he tells her is perfect for fertility and is no chance; it was the result of years of planning. He takes her to a dark and windy outcropping of rock. She is frightened and wants to go back, but he begins kissing her and she becomes faint. As she passes out, her wedding dress is pushed up and a man is making love to her; she sees his bare chest, which covered with scars. Kristie becomes pregnant and gives birth to a beautiful dark haired son, Dylan [Alec Roe-Brown]. Coincidental with Dylan's delivery, the 6 year old son of the TV station owner is shown being led into a dark place, where he touches a Bible embossed with an inverted cross; he is later found murdered. There are flashes of the same runes that Kristie saw on the stones. After a difficult delivery, Dylan is born healthy and his idyllic childhood is shown in glimpses of home videos, where they live on the Isle of Man. In a bathtub scene, young Dylan is seen wearing a crucifix, which is giving him a red rash; Marc removes it. In another scene, Dylan quits playing card game concentration because it is too easy.Later, Kristie becomes concerned about Dylan's increasingly violent behavior, which includes the impaling of his pet guinea pig on a stake and his annoyance at her saving a friend of his from an impending accident on the playground. Kristie cannot understand how her son, who she had focused so much energy and love on since he was born, could have turned out to be so heartless.Meanwhile, Elizabeth Plummer [Alice Krige], the wife of the TV station owner and whose son as murdered the night Dylan was born, is trying to replace Kristie and keep her away from Marc and Dylan as often as possible. She sabotages Kristie's trip home on Christmas and strands Kristie at an airport so she can come and spend Christmas with Marc (whom she kisses) and Dylan. Elizabeth and Marc take Dylan to the room with a large inverted wooden cross. After looking at the cross, Dylan says, "Youre not my father," and Marc says, "No, Im not."On the road to the house from the airport, a strange cab driver (who we later learn is named Carmac) begins telling Kristie that 2,000 years after the birth of Jesus Christ, suppose the devil wants to have a turn and he also needs a virgin, but that, like God, he doesn't tell the woman in advance. He then calls Kristie by name, telling her it has already happened and only Kristie can stop him. Surprised that he cab driver knows her name, Kristie demands to be let out of the cab.Kristie arrives at home to be told that the family dog has bitten Dylan; Marc demands it be put down, or he will do it himself. Kristie takes the dog, purporting to have it put down, but plans to avoid this fate. She takes the dog to the home of a friend, Lynnette, only to find Lynnette murdered, bleeding and hung in a plastic bag. Returning home, Kristie finds Dylan is completely apathetic. Kristie then receives a phone call from the veterinarian, saying the dog had been to sleep (at Marcs instructions).Carmac [Francis Magee] then appears unexpectedly when Kristie is at a cemetery. He introduces himself and reminds her about he told her about the Virgin Mary; No one ever told her. "Its time someone told you," he says. Carmac then departs and Kristie finds he has left her a business card and a rock (Amber) with Celtic writing on parchment in it, wrapped in a distinctive cloth. She meets with a university professor who explains some of the words and who offers to take a closer look. Kristie looks up at the TV to see that Marc had brought Dylan as a guest on his TV show. Dylan demonstrates that he can talk backwards. Kristie abruptly leaves the pub and a man stares at the screen while Dylan talks backwards. Kristie confronts Marc, Elizabeth and Dylan at his office. They all claim Kristie knew he would be on the show, while Kristie denies even knowing that Dylan could talk backwards.The movies cuts to the professor's lab where says he has made a discovery. He tries to telephone Kristie but the phone goes dead and his office lights go out. He walks into a classroom to find a woman spray painting on a blackboard; the man from the pub also appears behind the professor and says, "We heard the calling."After dinner with Marc at a restaurant, Kristie is awakened by knocking at the door. She goes downstairs and looks through the peep hole to see the professor. She opens the door and the man from the pub (and later, the professor's office) is standing there, holding the professor's decapitated head. Kristie faints and the man steps back, holding the head up to Dylan's window; Dylan gestures to the man to be silent.In the next scene, Kristie is in a parked car with Dylan. She asks if the dog really bit Dylan; he is silent. She asks if Dylan's father did anything to hurt him; Dylan replies that she doesn't know his father. Just then, the woman who had been spray-painting in the university classroom commits suicide by falling from a water tower, where she lands on the windshield of Kristies car. Dylan takes from her dead hand the amber with the Celtic parchment, wrapped in the cloth as Carmac had left it for Kristie at the cemetery.Kristie then calls on Carmac to get more answers. She gives him the amber and asks him what it means. She asks how she can save her son. He hands her a Bible and tells her there is another book, of which the parchment is a fragment; and that she "got pregnant on your wedding night, and certainly not by your husband." Carmac tells her that on the day Dylan was born, Marc killed his first born son (Sammy Plummer, the station owner's son) and that Dylan is not Marc's son. At night, Kristie goes to the TV station to review the tapes of Marc's reporting of Sammy's death, here she learns that Sammy's heart was cut out (contrary to what Marc had told her earlier). Marc unexpectedly comes to the station and discovers Kristie reviewing the tape of his report. He denies her accusation that Sammy was his son; Kristie accuses him of lying and flees the station with Dylan in the car. Dylan tries to stop Kristie and the car crashes. Kristie brings the unconscious Dylan to a church and asks the reverend [Roger Brierly] to baptize him. The reverend goes to call the police. While he is gone, Dylan awakens. Sunlight begins to shine through the church's stained glass windows and on the statues. Dylan screams in pain, just as the police arrive with Marc, who takes Dylan away.The movie cuts to Kristie in her hospital bed. She tells Father Mulin that the false prophet, who is the mouthpiece of the Antichrist, is television, with its reporting of news. The movie returns to the flashback, where Kristie says that everyone on the island believes she is "mad." Kristie tries to make amends with Marc, but Dylan starts throwing stones at her and Marc tells her to leave. Kristie recounts that Marc filed for sole custody of Dylan. Despondent and feeling that everything seemed to be her fault, Kristie packs and decides to return to the states when, on her way out, she sees Lynette's earring on the ground of her property. Another flashback shows Lynette discovering Marc and Elizabeth nailing a willing Dylan upside down to the large cross previously shown in an earlier scene. Lynnette tries to flee but is caught and killed by Marc. Kristie tries to convince the police to investigate to no avail.She decides to go to the masked ball birthday party for Dylan being hosted by Elizabeth Plummer and her husband. She finds it is a black mass orgy. Dylan stares as a chain holding a fluorescent light over a hot tub; at the stroke of midnight, the chain breaks and the light falls into the hot tub, electrocuting a man in the hot tub, who had previously been fondling two bare-breasted women. Everyone applauds Dylan's accomplishment. It is later revealed the man is Elizabeth's husband, Jack Plummer.Kristie flees and is met by Carmac, who drives her to the beach. He tells Kristie she has to drown Dylan because they have inverted the sacraments. Armed with a rifle, Carmac and Kristie enter the Plummer mansion. They find everyone asleep, including Marc, with Elizabeth lying in his arms. They take Dylan to the shore, where Carmac tells Kristie that she alone must drown Dylan. She starts to carry him into the water and tries to drown him in the surf, reciting the Hail Mary. She wavers and Carmac enters the water and helps her. Kristie stands up in the water and faces the beach, where the coven members are assembled, with Elizabeth standing by Marc's side. Marc points a shotgun at Kristie and fires.The movie resumes with the priest in Kristie's hospital room, asking why the coven waited until Kristie had finished and why they wanted the Antichrist dead. The priest asks for Kristie's confession, and she says she has nothing to confess. The priest tells her she is asking too much and leaves the hospital.The movie cuts to a live newscast of Dylan's funeral procession, which Kristie watches on TV from her hospital bed. It turns out to be Easter Sunday. The priest officiating at the funeral discusses Christ's resurrection. The camera pans the mourners and Kristie sees Carmac. Carmac's voice-over mentions "the rules of the game." During the ceremony a dark storm occurs and a raven sits on a tombstone. The earth shakes and people seek shelter, except for Carmac, who tears open his shirt and stretches out his arms to the storm. Kristie sees the same scars on Carmac's chest that she remembers from having sex on her wedding night, and Carmac is revealed to be Dylan's father. It is further revealed that the coven members were all gathered around Kristie and Carmac for the occasion. The storm subsides and Dylan is found to be alive in his coffin, pounding on the inside for release, despite being pronounced dead three days ago. On TV, Dylan says to his mother that he is not mad at her any more and he needs her. She says "go to hell" to the TV and Dylan apparently hears her, because he looks at one of the mourners, who then goes to the hospital intending to shoot Kristie. However, she has fled in a car driven by Father Mullin. Meanwhile, the TV talks of the event as being a "resurrection" and that the Vatican is getting involved.As they drive away, Father Mullin removes his collar, kisses it, and throws it out the window of the moving car. It is picked up by a man on a motorcycle who is following them--the same man that came to Kristie's door with the professor's head. It is unclear whether Father Mullin discarded his collar because, as Kristie says to him, it is a "new time," or whether he did so to aid the man in following them.

Tags: murder

Review:
A young American woman gets married with a famous British newscaster, and apparently lives a perfect life in the Isle of Man until she discovers that his husband is part of a satanic cult trying to start the Antichritst's reign over Earth.Sounds familiar?
This movie gives more than a nod to horror classics "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Omen"; as its plot is like a mixture of both story lines with not even a quarter of the magnificence of those movies.Richard Caesar's debut is a low-budget movie that puts Laura Harris in Mia Farrow's role as Kristie, the woman trapped in a blasphemous conspiracy by her husband Marc St. Claire (Richard Lintern).
Betrayed by everyone, it is up to her to save the soul of her son Dylan (Alex Roe) who plays the role of hateful evil kid perfectly.The movie's main problem is the lack of originality and poor development of the script, nothing really outstanding happens and it is quite formulaic; the characters' actions are unrealistic, and the dialogs are uninspired.
However, the ending is particularly good, and it is a shame that one has to endure more than 70 boring and tedious minutes to arrive to the only good part of the movie.The acting is nothing special and while Laura Harris makes a good lead, her character has some of the worst lines in the movie.
On the other hand, Francis Magee has the best part in the movie as the mysterious taxi driver Carmac, and he easily steals every scene he is in.The movie has a nice photography considering the low-budget, and the Isle of Man serves as a beautiful and different location.
Caesar's direction is quite typical for modern day suspense thrillers but it works and the movie flows at good pace.It is definitely not a bad movie, as even with its flaws it still manages to entertain and has a few good things to offer (specially the ending); however, there are similar movies that are far superior than "The Calling" as it stays in a mediocre level.
Let there be no mistake: The Calling is not a very good movie.
Off hand I can only think of a few...The Omen, The Exorcist (the best of them all), The Shining, Poltergeist, The Blair Witch Project and The Changeling amongst a few others perhaps (I also liked The Ninth Gate).
As for The Calling I think it is an OK movie for the genre, and well worth seeing for those who enjoy this type of movie.
This typical straight-to-video release (complete with washed up actors that used to belong to the C-list) goes where countless films have gone before: a young mother gives birth to a child that seems to be uncommonly fascinated by morbidity, torture, death, or generally speaking all things evil.
People, it has all been done before in a much more satisfying fashion, see Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, The Exorcist, Poltergeist, or even The Devil's Advocate, Eyes Wide Shut or The Ninth Gate for all I care but don't waste precious time that could be spend delving into the many great works that cinema has to offer..
Someone should tell the director and writer that there is a huge difference between a heroine who is naively innocent and one who is criminally negligent in ignoring the obvious goings-on and behavior problems of her little boy (the kid kills his guinea pig on a stake and then hangs his dog alive and this mother accepts a "boys will be boys" explanation!?
The unintended real horror of the movie is the writing).Luckily, I spent only $1.98 for this flick where plot, continuity, and creativity were kept to a minimum; and overwrought ham acting ruled the day.
If you like cult movies like Army of Darkness, Starship Troopers, The omen or End of Day, anything that has to do with the world ending or the world ending with a religious theme then you might like this.
The movie is good but not worth ten lines, so you can submit it or not.
The acting was a little dry, I guess, but the kid who played Dylan was definitely creepy.
There was a lot of symbolism, or maybe I was just making some up to make the movie seem more profound, but the raven part was pretty cool, and plus, the raven is also a Carrie thing...
Heh, so all in all, this wasn't so bad, and it reminded me of Rosemary's Baby, what with the devil's child and all.
While it certainly trudges along like "The Omen" it misses the impact of "Rosemary's Baby." Another huge problem is that the acting is terrible.
Laura Harris looks as if she was plucked from the cast of "Beverly Hills 90210" and acts like it.
Although there's been MANY films where I left the cinema early as I didn't like them this is truly the one which has been UNBEARABLE to watch!
Surely, you all know the situation when you watch a film the umpteenth time and can mouth along the dialogue?!
Well, I watched this film once (not even actually) and after 10 minutes a friend and I started "predicing" what was going to be said next and hey we were right - word by word by word.
The actors are bad (and by that I don't mean the characters they are supposed to impersonate) and the story is weak - it's been done too many times before.
If you have a gripping story and use flashbacks to build up the tension that's fine, but as everything is o too predictable in this film they only fill the time till a long awaited and long anticipated end.
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.
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.
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.
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..
Despite of all the other negative comments, I personally found this movie worth to watch.
To my surprise, it came out to be a "not-bad" movie.
Especially the ending, it was totally beyond my prediction !Overally speaking, this movie is not that bad !
Laura Harris has proved herself a good actress in other films, but this one does not do her justice.
See it if you're into religious, cult type movies, but even then you really might not enjoy it much.
I can normally talk about stuff until even i am bored but this film was so dire that i want to talk about it to warn others to not waste their time with it yet i still don't want to waste anymore of my life on this waste of time film.Laura Harris is a pretty good actress and always seems wasted in most of her roles, she could be doing something so much more worth while.
She's very pretty and always seems to be very good in her roles but even she seems like she can't be bothered to try too hard in this film.
Even the "male" in me didn't kick in during the film, it was more like "well she is very, very attractive but this film sucks too much to even keep watching for the good looking actress".
I mean the kid kills all of his pets and the mother (Harris) doesn't really see this as a sign of anything even slightly wrong at all, its like "well i did that at his age, so boys will be boys".I advise anyone who enjoys a film like this to just watch The Omen or Rosemarys Baby instead, believe me you'll thank me later.At best i'd give this this film 4/10Rotten Addict.
In this film there is a very young pretty gal who gets married to a handsome guy who has the large home and everything to go with a prosperous person.
If you like this type of film and especially,"Rosemary's Baby", you will enjoy this film..
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.
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.
No, seriously, i saw lots of films talking about Antichrist but this one is a load of crap, actors seem boring, script is filled up with pouncing patterns (blood, upside down crosses, number 666, Christ stigmas...).
Finally it really looks like a painful "Rosemary's baby" remake, made for those who like gory movies.
If you made a B-Movie that was deritive of The Omen and Rosemary's Baby then this would be that movie.
Do not see this movie, see The Omen and Rosemary's Baby instead, their way better.
Now there are worse horror movies, but this is pretty crappy.
And that one scene where the kids parents are giving him a bath and videotaping it - he's like 12 years old!
I was never scared watching it, you can see the killings done by Dylan, the devil's child, coming from take one.
But what takes the movie down is the way they made it, a complete rip off of The Omen.
Yes there was the birth of a child but you know, even Rosemary's Baby had that which came long before the Omen movies.
They did some things I haven't seen prior in a movie pertaining to this topic.
I liked it and would watch it a second time..
It kept my interest throughout, was filmed wonderfully, using the Isle of Man locale effectively (at times the sky and landscape looked like out of a fantasy) and overall the plot held up.
This film was truly chilling from the sacrificial murder of the first born child, the other murders that follow, the hedonistic masked birthday party for the Devil's spawn, the Satanic crucifiction, up to the emotional matricide and the astounding prophetic climax.
Of course, it certainly doesn't come close to the best of this type of film, but it's an entertaining little time-waster.
*SPOILER* At the end when Dylan's mother drowns him, there is a reporter on TV talking about how people all over the world were attending Dylan's funeral because he'd touched their lives so deeply (although we only see a handful of mourners).
The photography is above average and there's an interesting little character called Cormack who provides a decent surprise towards the closing of the film, which leaves us with the possibility of a sequel.
I'd like to see the end showdown between God and Satan portrayed (with Satan getting his butt kicked, of course), hopefully in a film with a bit higher budget.
Watch it if you like this kind of thing.I do have to say that ultra-religious or easily offended people might want to skip this one.
If you feel OFFENDED by Movies like Omen & co.
It might not be Omen but its worth Watching and a lot better then Rosemary's ABaby.
It has a Creepy moments, but I began to enjoy the Movie when the Taxi Driver appears.
if you like bad horror movies, you'll still hate this..
If you haven't watched the Omen, then I suppose you could watch this, it's not really that different, except it appears from the beginning to maybe have a happier ending.
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 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.
I turned the film off when the child kicked his dog - and I'm glad, after reading another review which says that he then goes on to hang his dog.
But other than what I've pointed out, the acting is terrible, the film didn't explain itself very well - I didn't know what was going on.
What I did get from this film is that it was trying and terribly failing to be The Omen.
This movie appears to be low budget and did admirably.
She comes to realize what is happening but doesn't see that all through this she is being manipulated until almost the end of the film.
The film at one stage is her telling a priest what has happened and he doesn't believe her of course until something happens he can't ignore.I liked the fact that they chose to parallel things that happened to Jesus but in the reverse in certain cases.
If you like religious horror movies, I think you will like this one.
It really isn't that bad a movie.
If you saw the omen films and enjoyed them, then you can safely give this one a miss.
I wanted to like this film, but it rambled too much only to arrive at...
"The Calling" is a really dull and lifeless horror film.**SPOILERS**Recovering in a Church hospital, Kristie St. Clair, (Laura Harris) reveals how her romance with journalist Marc, (David Lintern) soon transferred into marriage.
There's others spread out through the film, including the conversation in the car and the birthday party celebration that get quite entertaining, but only the funeral scene comes close to the beach moment.
This is one of the best scenes in the film, and ends the film on a great note since it's just as action-packed and chilling as anything that came before.
This here really makes the film watchable.The Bad News: This here has a couple of really big flaws.
There are large portions of the film where nothing happens and it gets old and dull quite easily.
This happens far too often in the film, and that makes for some really dull viewing amidst the missed opportunities.
Another part is that the film hardly ever goes for horror on-screen.
The real moments where it tries to get to be a horror film are beset by the fact that it will cut away before anything can happen, and in turn not even being granted much in the way of aftermath violence makes it feel like a really weak horror film.
These here all really lower the film.The Final Verdict: Not a whole lot of time spent on the horror and too many flaws makes this one a really dull experience.