Peter Bradshaw 

The Calling review – Sarandon and Sutherland team-up in ridiculous serial killer thriller

Susan Sarandon is preposterously cast, but this snowy whodunnit does have some creepy moments and nice support, writes Peter Bradshaw
  
  

THE CALLING
Canada calling … Susan Sarandon. Photograph: Allstar/Vertical Entertainments Photograph: Sportsphoto/Allstar

Surrounded by Fargoesque snow and wearing a Fargoesque furry hat, Susan Sarandon is rather preposterously cast as a cop on the trail of a serial killer in snowy Canada. She is doing the wide and slightly imperious Sarandon stare, as if she is not used to contact lenses. This movie may be enjoyed by The Simpsons fans who remember the episode in which Lisa goes to see a horror film called The Redeadening, which she nervously tells herself is “only a movie – filmed in Vancouver – with Donald Sutherland as the priest who stopped believing”. This film features Sutherland playing a priest who … well, anyway.

The Guardian Film Show team’s review of The Calling

Sarandon is detective Hazel Micallef, an alcoholic addicted to painkillers and professional screw-up who has a shot at redemption when she realises she can take down a ritualistic murderer whose crimes have a sinister biblical slant. It’s all quite ridiculous but it has some creepy scenes, and nice support from Gil Bellows and Topher Grace as Hazel’s permanently bemused colleagues.

 

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