Editor’s Note: This was originally published for FANGORIA on December 11, 2006, and we’re proud to share it as part of The Gingold Files.
“Making films is not something that’s particularly difficult to do,” says writer/director/producer Michael Feifer in his DVD commentary for A Dead Calling, and though a lot of people who’ve tried it will no doubt disagree, he may be right under certain circumstances. In this case, Feifer got the go-ahead and financial backing from an executive producer looking for a low-cost ghost movie, cast a number of friends and past collaborators in key roles behind and in front of the camera and was able to draw upon many years of experience as an assistant director and line producer on numerous other features. Even the writing of the script was a breeze: Feifer reports that he blazed through it in just two and a half days.
The result, not surprisingly, is smoothly crafted, more than competently acted and possessed of a certain amount of modest atmosphere, but lacking any real spark or inspiration. It’s one more story of a young woman (Rachel, played by DEAD END’s Alexandra Holden) who suffers a violent, traumatic incident, returns to her childhood home to recover and becomes caught up in a series of supernatural events that lead her to a “startling” revelation about her past. Very little happens that you couldn’t predict after reading the DVD’s back-cover synopsis—except you shouldn’t, because a mistake in that text gives away the film’s major plot twist, which is easy to see coming anyway from very early in the story.
The main appeal for genre fans is the casting of three actors from The Devil’s Rejects: Sid Haig and Leslie Easterbrook as the heroine’s mom and dad, and Bill Moseley as an interloping lawman. Moseley’s part is standard-issue, though he attacks it with his usual gusto, and there is some fun to be had watching Haig and Easterbrook as suburban domestics. In particular, seeing Haig playing it straight results in a few amusing moments, simply because of all the baggage the actor brings to the part. When Rachel’s folks prepare her breakfast, and Feifer cuts to a close-up of her father buttering her toast, the combination of the unnecessary emphasis and Haig’s very presence seems to suggest a menace where obviously none is intended, and the result is ironically humorous.
The rush in which Feifer composed the script shows in the too-often on-the-nose dialogue, occasional awkward story construction and a couple of major plot threads left dangling. And the movie is set, for no apparent reason, in New York when the locations—both the big city seen in the opening reel and the suburban streets of the rest—are very California. Die-hard genre fans will especially note this during exterior shots of a house recognizable from The People Under the Stairs, and another that has been seen in countless movies, in and outside the genre.
Feifer duly notes these dwellings’ past “credits” in his commentary, in which he devotes plenty of time to locations, as well as the digital production and postproduction and assorted other nuts and bolts. There’s a smattering of theoretical discussion too, as when the director explicates his “umpire vs. audience” theory of filming conversational scenes to get the most dramatic impact out of them. The talk in general provides a pretty good overview of the making of A Dead Calling, and Feifer expresses his desire from the outset to provide an instructional experience for those who aspire to make movies. Those listeners may well pick up a number of tips along the way, but they should also take note when Feifer admits that his screenplay’s structure is “nothing new.” The 1.78:1 transfer and 5.1 Surround/2.0 stereo soundtracks are slick enough, and reflective of A Dead Calling in general: professional but unremarkable.
