YMMV / The Call

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Was Michael Foster originally a decent guy who was pushed off the deep end by his sister's death, even feeling guilty about his impulses, or was he a lunatic from the beginning who only used his sister's death as an excuse for his killings? Furthermore, was his relationship with his sister as perverted and sick as his photos imply, or was there a genuine connection between them that made him a Tragic Villain after her death?
• Designated Hero: One viewer made the case for Casey and Jordan at the end of the film, when they leave Foster to die in his secret bunker with no plans to tell the authorities about it. In doing so, they've effectively taken the law into their own hands and denied the opportunity of closure to the friends and families of girls Foster is shown to have killed in the past. Yet we're supposed to cheer and celebrate that these two achieved their personal vengeance, despite their vendettas seeming petty and frivolous in comparison.
• The Ending Changes Everything: We cheer Jordan's efforts to save Casey throughout the entire runtime and the Catharsis Factor is through the roof when Casey is finally brought to safety. But then right as Jordan is about to dial 911, Casey suddenly gets the idea to leave Foster to rot in his hidden bunker and lie to the cops claiming she escaped while Foster just "disappeared" and Jordan, a law enforcement official, decides to actually go with it. We get that It's Personal for Jordan and we're not undermining that Foster's a monstrous POS who had it coming, but as pointed out in Designated Hero above, this is a highly questionable and, frankly, immoral way to subdue him, and casts both Jordan and Casey in a really bad light.
• Idiot Ball: Grasped by both Casey and Jordan at different points:
  • Casey when Michael is attacking the driver who saw the car and is about to call 9-1-1 - she's in the back of Michael's car, awake and untied, and for some reason she stays there instead of running when she has the chance. (Given that she's shown to be fairly resourceful later on, that really doesn't make sense.)
    • The next scene shows him opening the trunk to move her to the new car, implying she was locked in the trunk during this scene and therefore couldn't escape. However, I don't think they ever actually show Michael shutting it, which would've made it clearer.
    • Even before that, we see that Michael was preparing to chloroform Casey before he was interrupted by the limo driver. After the driver went to his car, he could see Michael messing around in the trunk, presumably knocking Casey out.
  • Jordan when she gets an aural clue to the psycho's location and charges over there by herself instead of calling her boyfriend. Who's a cop. All right, It's Personal and it's also a case of That One Case, but...
  • The two would-be rescuers, the chauffeur and gas station attendant, hold this as well, with Alan the chauffeur dialing 911 right in front of Michael without even bothering to keep an eye on him, and the attendant approaching Michael to try to unlock the door to rescue Casey with a box cutter for defense, which wouldn't be so bad had Michael not been holding the gas pump.
  • Foster, while averting it for the most part (i.e. switching license plates, wiping prints) held it during his initial abduction of Casey. Did he not think to check Casey for cellphones before putting her in the trunk? Ya know, in case she came to? Lampshaded by Paul when he discovers shards of the chloroform bottle Foster carelessly sprinkled after attacking Denado and therefore acquiring his prints.
    • Also, attacking or kidnapping someone in public view is bad enough especially in the age of cameraphones, but to do it in broad daylight? With the first girl, Leah, he at least had the slight advantage of nighttime. This might all be excused by desperation or poor improvisation, but still.

---