Once I got over my "damn, could they get any more obvious in their rip-offs?" phase after first glancing at the box for When A Killer Calls (it shares the same basic premise and came out not long after Sony's remake of When A Stranger Calls), I popped it into the player expecting a whole lot of nothing. After it was all said and done, I actually had to admit to myself it wasn't too bad a slasher flick and that it was also one of B-flick company The Asylum's better attempts at straight-ahead horror.

The movie starts with a pretty brutal kick-off as we see, what I assume is, a babysitter being chased through the house by a knife-wielding killer who proceeds to hogtie her on the bed and force a knife into her mouth before slamming on the handle of it and driving it through her head. It was certainly one Hell of an attention getting start, and it was with a darker tone than expected, but the question was whether it could keep it up (any movie that's not afraid to show children dying should get some sort of 'most ruthless' award automatically in my book).

In comes Trish (Rebekah Kochan), an eighteen-year-old girl who's been hired by the Walker family to look after their young daughter when they have an important dinner to go to. Things are pretty normal going at first, as Trish secretly gives the kid some ice cream and makes plans for her boyfriend, Matt (Robert Buckley), to come over. But we know differently, however, when we see the Walkers getting killed at the side of the road by the same psycho from the opening, using what looks like the same knife.

Trish soon starts getting menacing calls and text messages on her cell phone from the killer, and she assumes it's the work of her boyfriend. But she soon learns different when Matt shows-up at the house (with his delinquent friend and her boyfriend in tow, to add to the body count) and the calls continue - which gives us a chance to chuckle as Matt meekly threatens the killer, "I'm going to f--king shoot you".

From there people start to die one-by-one which director Peter Mervis manages to stage pretty decently packing in quite a few stabbings, a couple of throat slits, and a good moment involving a plastic bag. It's too bad though that he also decides to use the same sort of techniques he did in his last film Dead Men Walking by overdoing it on quick cuts, sharp sounds, and unnecessary (and out-of-place) 'jitters' in the picture to try and build up some suspense - it's something that might've worked a lot better if he didn't use it so damn much.

And while the entire thing feels like standard fare, it is done competently enough and makes for an alright timekiller even if Kochan is pretty weak in the lead (this girl has a hard time convincingly showing emotion), there's some bad editing during a moment where the killer takes a tumble down the stairs (and what that banister shake!), and the finale feels like it's trying much too hard for that 'disturbing and unsettling' feel as one scene involving the killer cutting one of the female victims chest feels needlessly barbaric and borderline misogynistic. Plus the entire explanation for the killer is pretty ridiculous with us not getting enough back story for it to make any sort of impact.

When A Killer Calls isn't great, but it is watchable and it's nice to see The Asylum keeping away from poorly done CGI monsters and undead creatures. That's Mervis and regular Asylum director Leigh Scott in bit roles as the cops who show-up at the house. (Chris Hartley, 3/8/06)

Directed By: Peter Mervis.
Written By: Steve Bevilacqua.

Starring: Rebekah Kochan, Robert Buckley, Mark Irvingsen, Sarah Hall.

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: Meh. This is merely a tiny step above VHS quality as the picture here seems a little bit too soft and suffers from quite a bit of fuzziness (especially in darker scenes). It's probably one of the weaker looking transfers from The Asylum.

Extras: Trailer (plus trailers for 4 other Asylum flicks), an okay "Making Of" featurette, 2 brief minutes of outtakes, and a jokey commentary track by Mervis and line producer Brian Garland which is amazing simply because it's not one of Asylum's usual "let's cram as many people into a room as we can and record them!" commentary tracks.