Thursday, March 31, 2011

Dangerous Calling Movie Review 173





Dangerous Calling is a Christian horror/thriller from 2008. It is directed and written by Jeremiah Daws and his brother Josh Daws. It stars Stephen Caudill and Brandon O' Dell.

The movie begins with a Pastor from a town called Willit Springs getting killed. He had just argued with a local woman called Miss Pat(Jackie Prucha) and her son Elijah(Brandon O' Dell) was hanging around too. A new Pastor called Evan Burke  (Stephen Caudill) and his wife Nora(Carrie L. Walrond) arrive in Willit Springs to take over from the missing Pastor . The couple are staying with Miss Pat and her son. Nora thinks that they are a little strange. Elijah is under his mother's thumb and he mopes around while Miss Pat is a domineering woman who is hellbent on getting her own way. Miss Pat is not too fond of Nora as she thinks that she is too casual about her dress and her ways.


Meanwhile, Evan is finding out that Miss Pat is the real boss of the church and she is telling him what to do. They disagree on things and Evan tries to get her to see his point of view. Nora tries to help around the house and Elijah lets her, but when Miss Pat finds out, she is not happy. She tells her son not to talk to Nora. She tells Nora not to corrupt her son. Miss Pat and Evan disagree when Miss Pat tells him to fire someone and he won't.Elijah puts a snake in Nora's laundry basket and it bites her. Nora tells Evan that she remembers seeing Elijah before she passed out. Nora talks to her friend about Elijah and finds out that when he was a child, he was suspected of killing a classmate. Elijah is following Nora, but Nora finds out that Evan asked him to because he is worried about her.Miss Pat is annoyed when she hears that Nora thinks Elijah is evil and Nora looks foolish when she finds out that Evan sent him after her.


The next day, Evan goes to a retreat, leaving Nora alone with Miss Pat and creepy son. Miss Pat tells her that she is going to kill her and she traps her in the house. Some kids are coming to help Miss Pat on the farm and they don't see Nora. Evan finds out that the previous pastor disagreed with Miss Pat and disappeared and he finally figures out that Miss Pat is not what she seems. He asks a friend of his to check that Nora is okay. His pal goes to Miss Pat's and hears Nora cry but he is killed before he can do anything. Miss Pat takes Nora out on the lake and tells her that she ordered her son to kill the previous pastor and more people besides. She throws Nora into the lake. Evan arrives back and sees what is happening. He saves Nora and they are confronted by Elijah and Miss Pat. Miss Pat shoots her own son by mistake.  The movie ends with Evan leading the church his own way....

This movie was entertaining in its own way. It was not bad for a low budget thriller and I enjoyed it..  Don't be put off because it is a Christian movie. It is worth a look. I give it a 5/10.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Amanda's Horror Years- 2005

I am back with another horror year. This time I am delving into 2005. Not a great year for horror, but there were a couple of good movies released this year.


Let me begin with my favourites. There was one movie which I loved from this year and that was the Australian horror/thriller Wolf Creek which I reviewed here.I think that this was a great movie and I have watched it many times. It seems to get better each time I watch it. I like that it is Australian too. Another movie I liked was White Noise starring Michael Keaton. This was a good, interesting take on EVP(Electronic Voice Phenomena). The Exorcism of Emily Rose was a decent horror movie and I liked it a lot. A lesser known movie called Hide and Seek was released in 2005 and this starred Robert De Niro and  Dakota Fanning. I hadn't heard anything about that movie but when I watched it, I liked it. Dark Water starred Jennifer Connelly and it was about a woman who moves into an apartment with her daughter. They hear ghostly sounds and something is oozing from the ceiling. It wasn't a bad movie. The Skeleton Key was a thriller/horror starring Kate Hudson and was about voodoo. It was entertaining enough. The Descent was a surprise hit in this year and it is about a group of women who get trapped in a cave. They are not alone, though.....One of my favourite movies from this year was Hostel. This movie was the inspiration for loads of torture-porn movies but I liked the original best. I thought that some of the Hostel -type movies that followed were not as good as this one.


Now, onto the not so good movies from 2005. Let me start with the shockingly bad remake of John Carpenter's The Fog. The Fog(2005) was so bad that I laughed out loud. There was no comparison between the original and that piece of rubbish, in my opinion. Next, the awful remake of The Amityville Horror. Ryan Reynolds as the lead???? That didn't sit right with me. I just didn't like it at all.Another crappy remake was House of Wax. If it was supposed to be a remake of the Vincent Price movie, then it was totally wrong. There was nothing about this film that I liked. Paris Hilton in a horror movie? Give me a break. The only thing that people talked about was her getting killed in it....Dominion was a prequel to the classic The Exorcist and it wasn't really that good. Boogeyman starred Barry Watson and is about a young man who is haunted by something not from this world. It wasn't much good. Wes Craven brought us Cursed starring Christina Ricci and Joshua Jackson. I hate to say it, but it wasn't great. Cry Wolf was another horror/thriller and it wasn't good either.....


There were some decent sequels this year such as Saw 2 which was a great movie!!!!The Ring 2 was not bad also. The Devil's Rejects was a sequel to House of 1000 Corpses directed by Rob Zombie. It was entertaining. I am not a huge fan of Rob Zombie and I was not crazy about his remake of Halloween. The Devil's Rejects is worth a watch though. George A Romero gave us another zombie movie, Land of the Dead. This was a decent movie and it starred Simon Baker and Asia Argento.

That is my 2005 round up. I could have omitted some movies, so if you don't see your favourite here, let me know.....