The Black Phone review: Grab the popcorn

The Black phone is a horror/thriller based on a short story by Joe Hill. It’s directed by Scott Derrickson and written by Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill, who do a decent job. I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t turn out to be a classic horror, which the trailer made it out to be. Instead, we have a movie that, although scary in parts, is more drama than fright.

Some minor spoilers ahead

The movie takes place in 1978 and focuses on Finney, played brilliantly by Mason Thames (this kid is going places!). Finney has a bit of a shit life, to be honest. He’s regularly bullied at school while at home his alcoholic father beats both him and his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw). Madeleine is superb as his sister Gwen. She has sass by the bucket load and is far more confident than her nerd brother, NERD! She also has supernatural powers, useful! Especially when your brother is kidnapped. You see, there is this rather terrible person grabbing young boys, and Finney isn’t the first to go missing.

Ethan Hawk plays The Grabber, a serial killer who has a taste for young boys. You pick up that he may have experienced domestic abuse through some of the things he says and does through the film, and some of the ‘games’ he plays. Which certainly gives him a twisted motivation that fleshes out a rather enigmatic character. I haven’t read the book, but I suspect that childhood trauma is one of the main themes, and that carried over into The Black Phone. And trauma there is.

We see first-hand domestic abuse from alcoholic father, Terrence, played by Jeremy Davies. He thinks he has reasons for his shocking behaviour. We learn that his wife, and the mother to his kids, killed herself. She apparently did so because she ‘saw dead people’. He literally tries to beat these gifts out of Gwen in a violent scene that made me rather uncomfortable. In fact it was the most uncomfortable scene in the film. And the film has dead kids talking…

The horror, the horror

Ethan Hawk’s Grabber is a bit of a strange character for me. At times he’s so laughably over the top, I couldn’t find him scary. Other times, he was truly sinister. I think the use of the mask didn’t work for me. We’re never given a reason for it. I assume it’s something along the lines of ‘I hate who I am and what was done to me’ type thing. It also reflects the mood he is in. It kindda reminded my of Split, when James Mcavoy’s characters would arrive to taunt/speak to their victim. The difference being that Hawk had to act behind a mask. Meaning he has to over act, and some of his laughing is, well, both silly and terrifying. I’ve always liked Hawk and his return to a more mainstream spotlight has delighted me (he was recently the baddie in Moonkight). He has a look that, when matched up to a broken character, almost elicits sympathy.

Grabber lives with his brother. A conspiracy theorist who is also trying to track down the abductor. How the fuck he is unable to realise it’s his own brother, who he is temporarily living with, is beyond me. This whole brother part felt unnecessary because it didn’t add anything to Hawk’s evil character. He was just, there…

The black phone

In the basement that poor, young Finney is being held, is a black phone. Surprise mfs! Sorry, that comes as no surprise. What is a surprise is that it’s disconnected but still rings. You see, the dead victims of Grabber use this phone to call Finney. They do so to help him out. This is where the supernatural elements of the movie come into play. As I said, this isn’t really a horror because the dead boys are trying to HELP Finney. There are one or two jump scares, as the camera pans from Finney talking to who/what he is talking to type thing. But this is no Conjuring or Insidious. It’s a smart thriller, made on a budget with some stand out performances.

We get a bit of a backstory for each of the poor boys. Who they are, when they went missing, and this worked well. They can’t appear to remember their own names though, and apparently this is a thing when you die. So Finney has to do a little detective work to figure out who is helping him. And, like him, these other boys have attempted to escape. Some with more success than others. So Finney is able to build on some of the work his dead friends initiated, which I thought was cool.

The majority of the movie is focused on Finney trying to escape, and his sister trying to convince her father that he needs to listen to her in order to save her brother. It also has two policemen who are close to believing that Gwen is indeed able to see things in her dreams that can help them. I felt these were the weakest as they veered into cliched territory with two bumbling cops.

Verdict

The Black Phone is a solid movie. It’s well directed, has a haunting soundtrack and some stellar performances. It’s not your usual horror movie. It’s definitely more of a thriller with supernatural elements, and that is a good thing.

I give The Black Phone a thrilling…

8/10

PS. So the two 15/16 year olds who sat next to me in the cinema. You were almost as much fun to watch freak out as the movie.