The Black Phone (2022) Universal/Horror RT: 102 minutes Rated R (violence, bloody images, language, some drug use) Director: Scott Derrickson Screenplay: Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill Music: Mark Korven Cinematography: Brett Jutkiewicz Release date: June 24, 2022 (US) Cast: Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, E. Roger Mitchell, Troy Rudeseal, James Ransone, Miguel Cazarez Mora, Rebecca Clarke, J. Gaven Wilde, Spencer Fitzgerald, Jordan Isaiah White, Brady Ryan, Tristan Pravong, Jacob Moran, Brady Hepner, Banks Repeta, Sheila M. O’Rear. Box Office: $90.1M (US)/$161.4M (World)
Rating: ****
Universal made the correct decision moving the Blumhouse horror pic The Black Phone from its original February release date to summer. As we all know, February is a dead zone at the cinema, a month when studios dump crappy movies into multiplexes. The Black Phone is definitely NOT a crappy picture. Quite the opposite, it’s the best movie I’ve seen this summer. It is a truly terrifying thriller about a child killer known as “The Grabber”. He’s played by Ethan Hawke (Training Day) in a positively chilling performance. I guarantee this guy will play the lead role in many a nightmare before the summer’s over.
Directed by Scott Derrickson (Sinister), The Black Phone is based on the short story by Joe Hill, son of horror author Stephen King. It’s set in 1978 which means we don’t have to see things played out on smart phone screens or social media posts. Right away, the film gives us a perfect sense of what it was like to be a kid in the late 70s. Instead of riding keyboards, kids rode their bikes around the neighborhood. Instead of gaming, they played actual games like little league baseball. They cursed each other out and got into physical fights, all with minimal adult supervision. As you can guess, not all is as sunny and bright as it sounds.
The kids in Denver live in fear of “The Grabber”, a boogeyman who snatches young boys off the streets. They’re never heard from again. Missing persons posters are plastered all over walls, fences and telephone poles. The police don’t have a single clue. That is, until they meet Gwen (McGraw, Secrets of Sulphur Springs), a 10YO girl with a special ability. She’s a clairvoyant, a gift she inherited from her late mother. Her dreams reveal clues to the killer’s identity. She knows about the black balloons at the scenes of the abductions, a detail that was never released to the public. The detectives on the case demand to know where she got her information. They think somebody in the department leaked it to her. They can’t or won’t believe it came to her in a dream.
Life at home for Gwen and older brother Finney (Thames, For All Mankind) is far from idyllic. They live with their widowed father (Davies), an abusive drunk who beats and terrorizes them. They’re the ones that look after him. It’s often on Finney to do this as Gwen spends a lot of time at a friend’s house. Finney is one of those timid sorts too afraid to stand up against the bullies that give him a hard time on a daily basis. His only friend, a tough kid named Robin (Mora), sticks up for him while telling him he needs to learn to do it for himself. He too goes missing at the hands of The Grabber.
Then one day while walking home from school alone, Finney gets snatched and thrown in the back of a van by a strange guy in a top hat. It is, of course, The Grabber and he has plans for the boy. The masked creep imprisons him in a soundproof basement room and tells him to wait there. On the wall is a black phone that’s been disconnected for years. This is why it comes as a shock when it starts ringing. Naturally but reluctantly, Finney answers it. He hears voices on the other end of the line. The voices belong to the Grabber’s previous victims. They’re in a place where they can’t remember their own names. However, they are able to provide Finney with useful information about how to overpower his captor and escape. Meanwhile, Gwen continues to have dreams that will hopefully lead her to where her brother is being held.
I saw The Black Phone on a Friday afternoon with a larger-than-usual crowd for a weekday showing. For some reason, there were a lot of kids in attendance. Somebody even brought a baby who babbled through the whole movie. Okay, WTF?! It’s an R-rated horror movie. My parents never would have let me see something like this when I was 12 or 13. My, how times have changed. In any event, the audience was really into The Black Phone. There were audible gasps and a few screams. There were cheers when kids were beating each other up. The climax got a round of applause. Everybody, including me, had fun. That’s precisely the point of the genre. This is what a horror movie is supposed to be! Never mind all that elevated nonsense. Bring on the frights, thrills and bloody violence.
In addition to its period authenticity, The Black Phone is a great scary movie that weaves themes of trauma and the cyclical nature of abuse into its narrative. It has something to say, but doesn’t allow itself to get bogged down by self-importance or heavy-handed symbolism. It’s clever in how it shows Finney overcoming his fear and formulating a plan to escape from the killer. All it takes is a little help from his friends in the Great Beyond (I think). I like how no detail goes overlooked. Every action Finney takes ultimately has a purpose. This is just one of many great things in the intelligent screenplay by Derrickson and Sinister co-writer C. Robert Cargill.
Aesthetically, The Black Phone is right on the money. It has the grainy look and feel of a late 70s horror flick. It’s like looking at a bunch of old photographs featuring young people wearing the fashions of the time. The soundtrack features a few classic rock tunes, making excellent use of Pink Floyd’s “On the Run” in particular. The kids act like real kids rather than idealized versions of kids. You know the kinds of kids I’m talking about. Some of the kids in The Black Phone would be right at home in the OG The Bad News Bears. In any event, I felt like I was watching a horror film from that era as opposed to a new one.
Hawke is great as The Grabber. A mask always covers the lower half of his face, so he has to act with only his eyes and voice. WOW! He is one creepy dude. His speech and mannerisms suggest somebody with a serious age-regression issue. He has a childlike way about him, one that does NOT conceal how dangerous he is. He’s unpredictable and volatile; he could snap at any moment. He’s freaking SCARY! Equally great are Thames and McGraw as the lead kids. They share a strong sibling bond, one of love and necessity given their father’s rotten parenting skills. He only notices them when they make too much noise (he’s always hung over) or beating them for some small offense. The young actors convincingly display a wide range of emotions- e.g. fear, desperation, anger and indignation- without ever coming off as phony or too rehearsed. They’re very naturalistic.
I don’t want to say too much more about The Black Phone. I want you to experience it for yourself. It is a legitimately scary and suspenseful film, one where terror lurks in every dark corner. This is one call you should definitely answer.
