Ever since The Ring hit it big back in 2002, Hollywood has been continually searching for the next Japanese import to repeat its success. It was tasted, if only for a moment with 2004's The Grudge. However, most of the attempts have fallen flat, failing to ignite the box office. These movies include Dark Water, Pulse, The Ring 2, The Grudge 2, and even a non-horror attempt with Shall We Dance.

This will most likely continue with the creative misfire, One Missed Call, and next month's The Eye (with Jessica Alba). So, here we are — One Missed Call has arrived on the big screen, and it has proven itself to be an early contender for worst film of the year.

One Missed Call combines elements of two of its brethren, The Ring and Pulse, and attempts to tie the horror more closely to the cell phone junkie culture that has been growing over the past number of years. You know, with all the texting and walkie-talkie, it seems as if no one is without their trusty cell phones. Not only that, but it looks to make the horror a bit more closely connected to its victims. Rather than the dead wanting to cross back over to the living through our technology, or random people watching a random videotape, the evil of One Missed Call spreads itself through the phone's contact list, meaning that everyone will be connected through an unbroken line of friends and acquaintances.

So far so good. Dependence on technology is always a good concept to base a movie on; unfortunately, successfully digging into the idea has proven tricky at best. In the case of One Missed Call, they fail to get into it at all. For that matter, besides skipping on theme, they neglected characters and development too. Quite frankly, there is no reason to like or see this movie. It is simply there in an attempt to catch a few bucks in the early stages of the year.

The story of One Missed Call has a malevolent spirit randomly dialing someone from among the last victim's cell phone contacts and then repeating the process. On the receiving end, the victim receives a call from the last victim. The new person does not answer it, but does listen to the voice mail left. The message contains their final words and the time stamp marks the time at which they are set to expire. Beyond that we learn who is behind it, not that it is any big secret (just think about what you have seen in other J-horror movies and their Hollywood remakes), the rest just fails to make any sense. Well actually, none of it makes any sense.

If you want to make any actual sense of what goes on over the course of One Missed Call, I am afraid you are going to have to write it yourself. It seems that the only thing screenwriter Andrew Klavan was doing was getting the characters from one scene to the next. It does not appear that he had any grasp of what the story was or any desire to give it any life. Seriously, with some of the things that go on in this movie, no one takes the time to actually talk about what is going on. Everyone just sleepwalks through their roles, spouting dialogue that has nothing to do with anything and explains nothing.