The Calling

Inspector Hazel Micallef is introduced as a seasoned police officer in the small Ontario town of Fort Dundas. She responds to a brutal crime scene involving elderly Delia Chandler, who is found nearly decapitated in her home, indicating the start of a series of murders. The scene sets the tone for a town shaken by violence and the investigation that follows.

Police encounter their second and third victims, both grotesquely mutilated with twisted faces, suggesting a serial killer at work. The murders are characterized by a disturbing pattern where the victims' mouths are positioned to spell out the word 'Líbera'. The investigation intensifies as the team works to understand the killer's motives.

Detective Micallef deduces that the killer is manipulating victims' faces into the 12 syllables of a Resurrection Prayer. This insight is gained through forensic analysis and her consultation with Father Price, a priest specializing in Latin. The pattern hints at a ritualistic motive rooted in religious symbolism.

Father Price discusses the meaning of 'Líbera', revealing its association with resurrection and sacrifice in Christian tradition. He explains that Jesus' resurrection involved 12 willing souls, linking it to the killer's method of contorting victims' faces into 12 syllables. This deepens the religious and ritualistic context of the murders.

Ben Wingate uses his mother's frequent flyer points to travel to a trailer in a remote forest based on information from the initial investigation. He finds a suspicious woman delivering packages from 'the disciples' and discovers a body wrapped in formaldehyde, indicating a new victim connected to the killer’s cult-like activities.

At a local coffee shop, a man named Simon, carrying a doctor's bag, engages with the waitress. He offers help for her daughter’s severe seizures, which he later appears to have caused by poisoning her. This introduces Simon as a key suspect and conveys his manipulative and sinister nature.

Micallef learns that all of Simon’s victims were terminally ill, gathered from an online forum for patients. She deduces that he is poisoning these individuals to gather victims for his resurrection ritual, which involves contorting their faces into the 12 syllables of the prayer.

Simon, claiming to seek resurrection, goes to the church where Father Price is present. They have a brief confrontation about Simon’s mission. It becomes evident that Price may be the killer’s next intended victim, as he is also terminally ill and involved in the ritualistic deception.

Micallef discovers that Simon's real name is Peter, and that he and his brother were orphans under Father Price’s care. The body found earlier was Peter’s brother, who had committed suicide, adding a tragic background to the killer’s motives and linking him to the orphanage.

Deeply affected by her personal pain, especially the loss of her baby, Micallef encounters Peter at her house. She is drugged and taken to a farmhouse, where Peter tries to persuade her to participate in his resurrection ritual by offering her a poisoned tea. She nearly succumbs but ultimately refuses.

As Micallef resists drinking the poison, Peter kills himself instead, ending his ritual and plans. The police raid his trailer afterward, discovering it empty, implying that Peter’s mission was left incomplete, with his body and victims lost or hidden.