The Calling

Jason Stone’s directorial debut is chock-full of killer-thriller tropes. Serial killer with a religious bent; cop with a drink and drugs problem; smalltown investigator butts heads with intransigent chief of police in the big city; a lightbulb moment when a detective looks at the crime pinboard – they’re all here (plus a few more), but it’s no less enjoyable for that.

Stone has gathered a terrific cast in this low-budget movie, with its shades of Fargo and Broadchurch. Susan Sarandon plays Hazel Micallef, sheriff of the sleepy town of Fort Dundas, who lives with her mum (Ellen Burstyn), self-medicates with pills and booze (she even steals meds from a crime scene), and is frequently hungover - hence the ever-present sunglasses.

After  the murder of an elderly woman in her home and another victim in a nearby town that both show evidence of postmortem manipulation of their faces, she and Ray Green (Gil Burrows), her long-suffering but sympathetic deputy with whom she shares some amusingly cranky banter, begin to suspect that a serial killer may be on the loose. He cleverly flits into different jurisdictions to make it less likely someone will link his crimes.

When Micallef asks for extra staff, her chief in Ottawa refuses. She has history with him you see, as she has no respect for the pips on his shoulder and he has scant respect for her, having tried to remove her from her post after she had a breakdown.

Then into the copshop comes fresh-faced detective Ben Wingate (Topher Grace, pictured right), who has transferred from Ottawa. “Whose wife did you screw?” asks Micallef drily. But no, we later learn in a typically understated scene, he has asked for the transfer as his boyfriend had died and it “didn’t go down well with the guys” - and besides, as an ambitious young officer he wants to work on a serial murder case.

They are soon pursuing the killer after retired priest Donald Sutherland has shared his knowledge of early Christian mysticism, which confirms that the killings – by now several in number – have a religious element. Can they find the rather weird Simon (Christopher Heyerdahl) before he reaches the requisite number to fulfil a prophecy?

Stone directs the solidly crafted story (script by Scott Abramovitch from Inger Ash Wolfe's novel) at a steady pace, and David Robert Jones's cinematography lends a suitably brooding air to the wintry Canadian landscape. Considering we (though not Micallef and co) know who the killer is fairly early on, Stone deftly keeps our engagement with enough clever twists and misdirects to ensure we're guessing until the end – which has an amusing nod to anyone of a religious bent.

Overleaf: watch trailer for The Calling