With films like One Missed Call, Pon (Phone), When A Stranger Calls and of course the mega horror phone movie Scream, its no wonder that a slew of independent horror films will pop up with a theme involving the likes of a phone or in this case a cell phone. Have you ever seen the film Wishmaster? When Evil Calls uses the same concept as Wishmaster does, instead however the Djinn in this film is not housed in a ruby but rather all the cell phones of students of a certain High School.
In a nutshell, When Evil Calls follow the concept explained above, that’s pretty much what the film entails. The plot is for the most part the telling of each murder though the eyes of a man that seems to be the school janitor. Or at least that’s what we’re lead to believe as his identity is not revealed throughout the film, but rather just as a story teller of sorts. Each story revolves around a certain student and their demise. You have the fat kid who wants to be thin, the thin girl who thinks she’s too fat, the horney jock who wishes his girlfriend had bigger tits, the nerdy girl who wants to be popular and the list goes on. With so many kids dying on school grounds, the school board is forced to let detectives into the school to investigate the bizarre acts and discover the source behind the mystery.
The script for this film, although not that original in story does present us with the classifications of a true teenage horror film. It has some great comical elements, plenty of gore filled original deaths and of course plenty of nudity. I mean a lot of nude girls running around playing basketball, making out with one another, big lesbian make out sessions and so on. Pretty much it’s the perfect script to market to the horny fanboy and teenage audience. But the script did have it’s ups. I found the story line to be rather easy to follow and although the script lacked in character development the dialogue is actually not half bad from a comical stand point. The script had a lot of funny moments, where I did in fact laugh out loud a few times.
The acting in this film is alright, nothing good and nothing bad, just ok. There are no stand out performances of any kind and I’ll leave it at that. The production value is nothing great, but it does what it needs to do. The whole script for the most part takes place in a school and there is really not much in terms of sets and locations that are really needed to help make the set design of this film look even better. The make-up effects are alright, nothing great but they do the job. Some of the stuff looks fake and you can pretty much point out what works and what doesn’t; but forget about the CGI in the film. It looks really fake, just as fake as it does on those bad Sci-fi channel movies.
Overall, When Evil Calls does have it’s up and downs but is very entertaining. It’s not by any means a great horror film, and the production value is nothing great, but what it does have is plenty of gore, nudity and violence, but it does not display itself as a great horror film. It’s more of a comedy with gore elements and has some great moments. It’s well worth the rent if you want to have a good time with a low budget horror comedy and well worth buying if you enjoy the sub genre of horror comedy. I had a good time watching this film despite it’s flaws and lack of production value. It’s one of those films that you can’t take too seriously or you’ll lose interest in it fast.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
