The need for content on the part of the platforms has been taken advantage of quite a lot by several film directors to make stories without restraint or control that the studio system refuses to give them. Many occasions fall only in making “long films” and few do bets that really risk and have something to contribute to the environment.
Precisely the arrival of more directors with cinematographic ambitions has helped to give a more “professional” and precious patina to the “Peak TV” series, but not too much risk. Sometimes it goes out something really out of the box and try something that is not necessarily going to be appreciated but certainly stands out from everything that is done. This is the case of Fede Álvarez with ‘Calls’.
when destiny calls you
The director of ‘Don’t breathe’ took the opportunity in this Apple TV+ series to make a daring and distinguishable audiovisual experiment, based on the idea produced by Timothée Hochet on Canal+ France. A project where science fiction and terror come face to face with their past and future to a superb experience that can be devoured in just one afternoon.
‘Calls’ part of the anthology format, at least in principle, with each episode showing us a series of different characters and stories. The peculiarity is that we get into these stories through phone callsand instead of seeing their faces we see an audio transcript that changes and evolves as the story unfolds, starting on a daily basis to become more disturbing and terrifying for its protagonists.
The voices of Pedro Pascal, Aubrey Plaza, Rosario Dawson and many more follow one another in a visual and sound experience like no other right now. Its most ardent detractors will argue that it is not very different from listening to a podcast with Winamp animations on the screen, but the effect that the waveform deformation seeks, although simple, works to go adding to the tension of each situation that is presented to us.
‘Calls’: the audio war
It should be added that the stories, although at first they seem disconnected from each other, they establish a narrative thread that is revealed to us little by little. For this reason, despite its anthological nature, Álvarez creates an ongoing storytelling experience that does not need the tired concept of the “long film”, also achieving a work that pays homage to horror and science fiction classics such as ‘The War of the Worlds’ narrated by Orson Welles.
‘Calls’ is just the risky bet that does not necessarily have a projection in an era of fast consumption, but that shows the well-applied creative freedom that Apple gives to the creators who work with them. Álvarez’s overwhelming account is one of his most special works and well worth the chance if you decide to give it to him.
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