When the 2008 remake of One Missed Call was released a few months ago, I posted a review of the original Japanese version directed by the great Takashi Miike. This week the DVD of that remake is being released, and guess what? I'm going to send you back to my previous post, because the Miike film is so cleverly designed and expertly shot, so wise and witty in its portrayal of our deepest fears, it would be an insult to compare it to the tepid American version.

If there were anything to recommend the 2008 rip-off, I'd gladly write about it. But when a remake strays so far from all the things that made the original scary, silly, shocking, good fun--well, I can't do it. I love good horror films too much, and I have too much appreciation for how hard they are to create. A cranked-out imitation is not worth my time, or yours.

Just go check out the Miike film. Laugh. Scream. Laugh again. This is how these films are supposed to turn out, so you can use this one as a standard by which to measure the failure of imagination in Hollywoodland.