“While trauma, suicide, and Shinto-exorcism all play a role in One Missing Call, the overarching theme of the narrative is abuse in general and child-abuse in particular. One Missed Call may not be a narrative trying to formulate a critique on certain aspect of Japanese society, one can perceive, in the exploration of the familial situation of Mimiko Mizunuma, a subtle critique on the inability of child-care services to intervene in toxic and problematic situations of upbringing.
The most interesting element in One Missed Call concerns the fact that the narrative is structured around two elements of anticipation – anticipation felt by both the characters and the spectators. We have the anticipation of receiving a cursed phone-call as well as the anticipation of death after having received such a phone call. While both are instrumental in creating tension, the latter is, in our view, more important due to the fact it instigates a dynamic between anticipation and non-knowing.” – Psycho Cinematography
“Right from the very first scene the film’s grim and foreboding tone brilliantly establishes what the audience is in store for. It’s creepy and there is a thick sense of hopelessness that seems unavoidable. Miike weaves a masterpiece of horror filled with tension and eerie set-pieces, along with a haunting sound design. The end result is an off kilter piece of horror that, despite treading in familiar ground, finds its own grisly voice.
One Missed Call works because like other J-horror movies, it’s grounded in a certain reality yet always has one foot in the otherworldly. For example, when a television crew find one of the ill-fated girls, they persuade her to go on a live TV show; while the logic of the situation is sound, the entire ordeal feels very surreal. Here, supernatural things occur in a seemingly normal environment. The ill-fated people in Miike’s dark world don’t just die in typical fashion – they suffer horribly before they die, which makes for a more jarring experience overall.” –
The Movie Waffler