The Calling
Vertical Entertainment | Release Date: August 29, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
46
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 11 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
5
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinAug 28, 2014
The Calling is an absorbing, solidly crafted procedural thriller with a terrific lead turn by Susan Sarandon. Read full review
70
Village VoicePete Vonder HaarAug 27, 2014
The Calling breathes new life into a moribund genre by touching oft-ignored themes and offering a bit of introspection to go along with the obligatory slashed throats and biblical portents. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyMelissa MaerzAug 28, 2014
The Calling shares a little too much with atmospheric TV mysteries like "The Killing" and "Broadchurch": the hard-living female detective, the cloudy weather, the small-town existentialism. Read full review
60
EmpireDavid HughesOct 6, 2014
If TV had a Saga Channel, this intriguing, if never quite gripping, serial killer thriller would play on a loop, in between reruns of Matlock and NCIS. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanAug 28, 2014
There’s a potentially fascinating series waiting to be mined here, even if it is buried beneath bland visuals and a pedestrian script on the big-screen. Read full review
50
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergAug 28, 2014
Preposterous as it is, The Calling remains stubbornly suspenseful until near the end. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckAug 28, 2014
Suffering from its forced attempts at pseudo-religious profundity and its familiar depiction of a spiritually lost central character eventually finding salvation, The Calling is ultimately all too resistible. Read full review
40
The DissolveScott TobiasAug 4, 2014
It could generously be referred to as a character study about a detective haunted by her past, and a case that forces her to confront that past in Biblical terms. It could less generously be referred to as a pseudo-spiritual thriller that tries to literalize scriptural mythos in the same bloody terms David Fincher’s Seven used to literalize the Seven Deadly Sins, only far less artfully. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Geoff PevereAug 29, 2014
Port Dundas remains snoozy and depopulated even when throats are cut and stomachs thrown to the sheepdogs, and so does the movie. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineNick PriggeAug 25, 2014
The premise of faith-based assisted suicide as a motivating factor for a madman's killing spree is initially intriguing, but quickly revealed as solemn window dressing. Read full review
25
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoAug 29, 2014
Colorful elements of “Fargo” and “Seven” blend into a bland beige in the mostly straight-to-video The Calling, a piece that almost miraculously finds a way to waste the prodigious talents of Susan Sarandon, Ellen Burstyn, and Donald Sutherland. Read full review
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