Remember Magic Eye pictures? At first, they look like a mass of meaningless patterns, but if you squint and relax your brain, you may perceive a dolphin or a palm tree or something like that. Similarly The Caller is an illusion – in that if you relax your brain, it’s kind of like you’re watching a horror movie – but it’s also really not the real deal, despite notionally having all the elements.
The premise, sketched in briefly, is legitimate enough: a young woman working from home as a call centre operative is terrorised by a caller (Eric Roberts) with a creepy voice, who eventually shows up at her isolated location, pops on a Purge-style mask and attacks. Unfortunately, it’s clear from minute one that the film-makers had a budget of approximately 10 pence to work with. Of course, the horror genre has a rich history of thriving under such limitations, but there are limits to the less-is-more approach, and The Caller runs into those limits time and time again.
