The Call is a 2013 American psychological crime thriller film directed by Brad Anderson and written by Richard D'Ovidio.

Filming began in July 2012 and spanned a period of 25 days, with all scenes being shot in California, mainly Burbank and Santa Clarita.

A screening of The Call was held at the Women's International Film Festival hosted at the Regal South Beach theater on February 26, 2013.

Seasoned 9-1-1 operator Jordan Turner receives a call from 15-year-old Leah Templeton, fearing for her life as a man breaks into her home while her parents are away.

As the kidnapper drives, Jordan gets Casey to provide details about the man who abducted her and the color of the car which she describes as a red Camry.

Jordan informs Michael that the police discovered his identity and have enough evidence to charge him for his crimes, advising him to surrender and not hurt Casey.

Additionally, their childhood home is revealed by Michael's wife to have burned down, although a nearby cottage, which police later raid but then find it empty, still remains.

As Michael begins to torture Casey, now restrained to a foldable wheelchair and subjected to nitrous oxide, she manages to spray him in the eyes and escape, but was later recaptured after being horrified by what she saw in front of her.

Screenwriter Richard D'Ovidio was inspired to script the story after his wife heard an NPR segment with a 9-1-1 operator discussing her job.

Finding the center, which has backup generators, bulletproof windows, and a moat surrounding the building, to be "pretty amazing," he decided to shed light on what he viewed as a previously overlooked occupation.

The story was originally conceptualized as a television series titled The Hive (a reference to the constant calls and conversations sounding like bees buzzing), but D'Ovidio decided to redraft it as a film on realizing that "the operators couldn't be the ones kicking in doors and going out into the field" all the time.

As well as collaborating on the story with his wife, Nicole and Jon Bokenkamp, he accepted suggestions from Berry, Breslin and Eklund: "Halle came in with some great notes and Abigail and Michael and it started to flesh things out.

However, the California Film Commission (CFC) called back nine months later and informed them that the waiting list had been largely cleared and that they now qualified for $1.9 million in tax deduction.

Berry was reportedly pleased with the news, wanting to stay in Los Angeles and the CFC helped secure film locations for the project.

Car chase scenes were shot at Long Beach and a Westlake Village office building was modeled as the emergency dispatch center.

[citation needed] Berry told interviewer Kimberly Grant, "The hard part for me was to try to stay connected to Phillips and Welson."

This was because, Grant writes, "she had to spend an entire day reading 21 pages of dialogue, rattling off in quick succession 911-operator jargon, that would be cut and edited to fit the film...

[15] The Women's International Film Festival hosted a screening of The Call at the Regal South Beach theater on February 26, 2013.

[18] DVD extras included a featurette entitled "Emergency Procedure: Making the Film" and commentary from Abigail Breslin, Halle Berry, and other filmmakers.

The Blu-ray version came with more features, including deleted scenes, an alternate ending, Michael Eklund's audition tape, featurettes entitled "A Set Tour of The Hive and The Lair" and "Inside the Stunts", as well as all of the original DVD content.

This indicated good profits, as the film cost about $13 million to produce and Sony paid a much smaller amount to acquire U.S. distribution rights.

[20] Critics were surprised by the movie's box office success because "Berry hadn't had a hit in a number of years" and because the R rating narrowed down the audience.

"[25] Reviewer Dwight Brown wrote, "The script gives Berry a blue-collar character she can make accessible, vulnerable and gutsy...

"[4] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote, "An effectively creepy thriller about a 911 operator and a young miss in peril, The Call is a model of low-budget filmmaking."

"[13] A reviewer for The Hutchinson News, Jake Coyle, commented, "Director Brad Anderson... working from the simple, high-concept screenplay by Richard D'Ovidio, ably cuts between Berry's increasingly emotionally-attached Jordan Turner and Breslin's panicking Casey Welson, contrasting the fraught strategizing of Turner with the frantic police pursuit of the kidnapper."

"[26] Roger Moore of The Seattle Times showed mixed feelings in his review: "Rare is the thriller that goes as completely and utterly wrong as The Call does at almost precisely the one-hour mark.

Moore explained what he saw as the highs and lows: "Brad Anderson turns this...serial-killer hunt...into a real edge-of-your-seat thriller.

Given...a half-decent tale of horror, guilt, problem-solving and redemption, Anderson couldn't go far wrong," but, Moore states, "It's only when our Oscar-winning heroine puts down the phone and sets out to do some sleuthing of her own that The Call disconnects, turning into something far more generic and far less exciting.

It buzzes along for a while, the promising plot innovations inviting suspension of disbelief, before by-the-numbers implausibility, over-the-top valor and unsavory contrivances take over and the line goes dead.

[31] The film surged to #1 on Netflix and on April 13, 2022, both Halle Berry and Michael Eklund addressed its resurgence with fans on social media.