Calls

After Evil Dead and Don't Breathe, Fede Alvarez experiments and creates more or less a new subgenre of horror and for me he succeeded. The mini-series has nice episodes mostly 15 minutes each. It's all done with phones and voices, and you wouldn't believe how uncomfortably stiffing the atmosphere can get at times. Not a single story is downright bad, they all balance between average to above average (the best were 2, 3, 5, and 8). I like that they all have one thing in common and that is a time paradox. Alvarez takes on a looming post-apocalyptic event, cosmic dimensions, time travel between past, present and future, physics and science, and goes about it in a decidedly intelligent and engaging way. The episodes feature a lot of familiar actors, have an interesting story, the atmosphere is nicely mysterious and it's definitely pretty creepy and chilling in places. At the end, everything is nicely explained and a story of apocalyptic proportions is concluded. I enjoyed it, I had fun, but this form doesn't suit everyone, I'm open to new possibilities and originality is to be appreciated. 8/10. (19.03.2021)

A series of short radio plays delivered as a TV show. But every now and again, why not? They are small and simple stories about a mysterious phenomenon that allows people to make phone calls across time, and it’s linked to other, not very pleasant, apocalyptic consequences. A few episodes manage to build pretty tense situations (4*), while in others the interactions between the characters are pretty unconvincing (2* - 3*). But overall, it’s alright. (23.03.2021)