#A Show Told Entirely Through Phone Calls – /Film

Evil Dead and Don’t Breathe director Fede Álvarez has a new series for Apple TV+, and it’s not your typical show. Over the course of nine episodes, the new series Calls will present viewers with a series of phone calls accompanied by “minimal abstract visuals” as creepy, short-form stories unfold. This appears to be more of an old school radio drama than a TV show, and it’ll be interesting to see how viewers react. To help draw folks in, Calls has assembled a big cast that includes Aubrey Plaza, Pedro Pascal, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, Judy Greer, and more. Watch (or I guess I should say listen to) the Calls trailer below.

Calls Trailer

Based on the French series of the same name created by Timothée Hochet, the new Apple TV+ series Calls is an audio drama with some trippy visuals, telling a series of creepy stories. It looks (and sounds) intriguing, and features a killer cast: Nicholas Braun (Succession), Clancy Brown (The Shawshank Redemption), Lily Collins (Emily in Paris), Rosario Dawson (Jane the Virgin), Mark Duplass (The Morning Show), Karen Gillan (Avengers: Endgame), Judy Greer (Halloween), Paul Walter Hauser (Cobra Kai), Danny Huston (Children of Men), Nick Jonas (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle), Riley Keough (The Girlfriend Experience), Joey King (The Act), Stephen Lang (Avatar), Jaeden Martell (Defending Jacob), Paola Nuñez (Bad Boys for Life), Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Edi Patterson (The Righteous Gemstones), Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation), Danny Pudi (Mythic Quest), Ben Schwartz (House of Lies), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Tenet) and Jennifer Tilly (Bride of Chucky).

Here’s a synopsis:

Calls is a groundbreaking, immersive television experience based on the buzzy French series of the same name, masterfully using audio and minimal abstract visuals to tell nine bone-chilling, short-form stories. Directed by Fede Álvarez (Don’t Breathe), each episode follows a darkly dramatic mystery that unfolds through a series of seemingly average, unconnected phone conversations that quickly become surreal as the characters lives are thrown into growing disarray. Calls proves that the real terror lies in one’s interpretation of what they cannot see on the screen and the unsettling places one’s imagination can take them.

I’m intrigued! I also appreciate that while this is going to lean heavily on audio and not bother with visuals. I’m sure someone, somewhere, suggested doing this as a series of Zoom or Skype calls, complete with folks looking directly into a camera. There’s an abundance of that sort of thing right now, and by not going down that path, Calls has distinguished itself. Plus, as someone who dreads talking on the phone (please don’t ever call me), I can relate to a show about the horrors of phone conversations.

Calls arrives on March 19, 2021.

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