review for Phone on AllMovie

Viewers familiar with any of the superior Asian horror films such as Ringu, The Eye, or Ju-on, are not likely to find much fresh material in South Korean director Ahn Byeong-ju's Phone. The film, while having many good scares all to its own, relies far too heavily on visual frights that have been executed many times in the past. After a wonderfully tense opening scare sequence set in an out-of-control elevator, the film falls into a lame story involving a possessed spooky little girl and a cursed cell phone number. It's obvious that Phone is trying to do for cell phones what Ringu did for weird videotapes, but the simple fact that our main character could easily avoid the cursed cell phone by either not answering it or getting rid of it weighs down the scares. The entire concept of the dark and gloomy child who may hold a wicked secret has become a tired horror cliché, and its use here adds nothing to that genre trope. Also hurting the film is a dull subplot involving a complex relationship that tries to be interesting but never goes anywhere of interest. As Phone attempts to roll out its obvious twist ending, it is likely most viewers will not care.