Director: Colton Tran
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Working as a call-center operator, a woman who had escaped a vicious serial killer who had raped his targets and then stalked them until childbirth finds that he has returned to target her for the upcoming birth of the child he conceived with her and must try to stop his deadly intentions.
Review:
Overall, this was a rather solid genre effort. Among the main factors here is a generally impressive setup that brings about an intriguing sense of folklore for the main villain. The whole idea of utilizing the ploy of the crying baby phenomenon with women involving them being forced to come to its aide being the kind of perfect setup to get them on their own and attack when they’re at this point comes off incredibly well here. It’s a perfectly intriguing and original concept that’s given a lot to like here in terms of bringing up a creepy point of origin for who ends up targeting her when it's brought up that there’s a connection between him and her while she’s trying to go about her life in the aftermath. As we get quite a lot of work with her job involving the series of calls from those who are calling in on the helpline she works for other people, that ties in really nicely with the different storylines being woven together.
This serves well enough as a base to start ramping up the tension with the calls coming into her work. Already well aware of the setup with the crying baby and its significance to the particular killer stalking her, this starts to build up an impressive psychological battle where the trauma of the situation that initially brought her into this sphere holds a generally likable scenario here for the remaining parts of the film to deal with the resolution that she might be right. The constant belief that this is the case offers the kind of genuine thrills that the payoff promised as the escalating visions point to the killer’s return which starts in on series of chases and confrontations that take place where his escalating tactics are a ploy to meet the unborn baby she’s carrying that’s about to be born that’s immensely thrilling and enjoyable. This sets up the idea of the twist coming into play rather nicely where it’s all believably and logical to happen as it carries out where it’s all quite shocking and creatively handled to give this one a lot to like.
There are some issues here that hold this one down. The biggest issue here is the biggest drawback in the stalker angle for the first half not being the most interesting to move this along at the beginning stages. Dealing with the initial stages of the legend that’s been utilized here while spending a lot of the time featuring her on the phone with her clients, it takes quite a while before anything happens here with a lot of the film’s running time not doing much to keep it intriguing. It’s only when the killer starts to call her and make his presence known that the pace starts to change but that beginning is still a bit tougher to get through. As well, the focus on keeping her alive with the endgame not being to kill her outright and to wait until the main point has been accomplished which is what makes this fall a bit more into thriller territory than outright slasher. These are the factors that bring it down.
Overview: ****/5
An immensely enjoyable and likable genre effort, there’s quite a lot to like here which does manage to bring this one up over a lot of the few negative factors bringing this down. Those who appreciate this kind of genre effort or are curious about it will want to give this a shot while most others who aren’t into these features should heed caution.
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