Babycall Review

Babycall
To avoid the attentions of her ex, Anna (Noomi Rapace) moves into a new apartment with her eight year-old son. On the advice of social services she buys a baby monitor to ensure his safety, only the crying noises that come from the room don't belong to him...

by Kim Newman |
Published on
Release Date:

30 Mar 2012

Running Time:

96 minutes

Certificate:

15

Original Title:

Babycall

Anna (Noomi Rapace) and her eight year-old son Anders (name of the year Vetle Qvenild Werring) move into a drab flat to get away from Anders’ abusive father. Paranoid about the lad’s safety, Anna buys a baby monitor but is spooked (perhaps literally) by cries coming from another flat in the building. Directed by Norwegian director-writer Pål Sletaune, of the excellent DVD release Next Door, Babycall evokes Japanese ghost stories (especially Dark Water) but plays subtly different, even more disorientating head games. In an un-Salanderlike role, albeit with two astonishing moments evoking her Dragon Tattoo persona, Noomi Rapace is remarkably fragile and affecting, confirming her status as one of Europe’s best actresses. Too twisty near the end, but it’s a gripping, striking woman-at-the-end-of-her-tether story.

Genuinely creepy, it's another Scandinavian thriller that will nestle uncomfortably in your head. Rapace does great work again, this time back in her native tongue, as she's put through the ringer.
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