Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘A Dead Calling’

Written by Scott Edwards 

​Sometimes in life, you need to go back to your roots and just let life pass you by a little bit. Needing to clear your mind is nothing out of the ordinary, everyone needs to do it once in a while, it is just trying to find out the best way to do it. Some people go on vacations, some people are able to head off to an isolated place, while others head back home. Everyone has their own way of making this happen, just finding the correct way for you can be the hard thing.

Rachel Beckwith is the top investigative reporter in the field. Being able to uncover the facts of any story that she is assigned to by the station, she is a master of discovering the truth. Being known by thousands upon thousands, the fame does come with a price. Which is something she finds out, when a masked man breaks into her home while she is getting ready for bed. Thinking that it is her fiancé, Rachel encounters the intruder head on and gets knocked to the floor. Coming to her rescue, her fiancé Brian is met with a knife to the midsection, and unfortunately, Rachel cannot stop her love from dying in her arms.

Needing to move away, Rachel gets an open invite to come back home and live with her parents until she gets better. A few months later after witnessing her future husband being murdered, she is ready to get back to work and puts in her application at the local television station. Being amazed that someone of her talents would want to work there, the station manager, Stephen Javitz, hires her on the spot. Wanting to start off with simpler stories to ease his new prized reporter into the job, Stephen gives Rachel the assignment of reporting on the architecture of the mansions around the small town.

Knowing that she can eventually do more with her skill set, Rachel accepts the job and heads to the fenced off house of Doctor Frank Sullivan. Breaking into the house to look around, Rachel is met by a small-time reporter that is setting up ghost hunting equipment all around the abandoned home. Thinking very little of what will happen, Rachel is startled by camera flashes going off above her in the house. Reporting this to the young man, he gets very excited and heads upstairs to investigate, but is killed at the top of the steps and thrown down at Rachel. Calling the police, Rachel finds out that there was no one else in the house, no cameras, no ghost hunting equipment and most of all, no dead body on the floor. Thinking that she is going crazy, Rachel goes home and tries to relax, but the house seems to be calling to her and she is not able to stay away. Hearing and seeing strange things in the house, she is anxious to share her experiences with someone and her boss Stephen is ready to listen, but what they both find out during a drunken walk through of the house will change their lives forever.

I have always been a sucker for a good ghost story and that is what this movie brings to the screen, but with its own little twist. I enjoyed watching as the house seemed to torment poor Rachel and how it would not reveal itself to anyone else when she tries to prove her sanity. But the one part of the story that I cannot keep myself away from is the good Doctor that murdered his family and how he tries to justify his actions. With this being the primary reason for the haunting, I would have liked to have had a little bit more backstory about how and why he did what he did, but even without all of this knowledge, it still played well in the movie. A good movie to check out if you are feeling a little down about your life and want to head back to your parent’s home, even for a weekend to just escape life for a couple days… or maybe not. Stay Scared.

---