The Black Phone (Mini-Review)

The Black Phone is an adaptation of Joe Hill's short story of the same name. In the year 1978 "The Grabber" is abducting unsuspecting children in a Denver suburb. The Grabber isn't the most pressing problem Finney and Gwen Shaw have to deal with. Finney is a bully magnet and needs the help of his friend to stay safe. Gwen has to deal with prophetic dreams and a father who wants to quell that talent. Both have to deal with an alcoholic abusive father. Everything changes for the worse when Finney is kidnapped by The Grabber and must figure out a way to escape while his sister desperately searches for him. The Black Phone was released in 2022. It was directed by Scott Derrickson. It stars Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, James Ransone, and Ethan Hawke.

I've gotten good at predicting how crowded a theater will be by the movie and how soon after its release I see it. Such as it was no surprise to me that Jurassic World: Dominion had a large crowd. While Men had a small crowd due it being indie and not for everyone. I thought that The Black Phone would have a small to medium audience size due to it not being a big budget movie and I saw it a few days after its release. I knew that with the hype I couldn't judge it as I otherwise would have. So I was extremely surprised when the theater was way more crowded than I had guessed. I'm also happy about that as this is a really good movie.

Whenever a movie is hyped to be the scariest movie ever, I don't expect it to be. Now The Black Phone is an intense film but it isn't the most intense. That isn't to say I was let down by the film. It does a good job at building up suspense by making you feel for the characters. By the time Finney is kidnapped by The Grabber, you truly want him to survive and know how hard that will be for him.

The film focuses mostly on Finney and Gwen. This works well as things are intense on two different fronts. The first is Finney trying to figure out a way to escape The Grabber. Past victims of the serial killer help the boy but it's up to him to make the final moves. The second is Gwen who stumbles through her powers to try and figure out where her brother is hidden. The FBI end up investigating her which provides a hilarious scene at the school but also makes her father more unstable.

One thing I didn't like about this movie is that eventually the alcoholic abusive father is shown to have a kind side. You find out why he beats up Gwen when she has dreams and he is also shown to be deeply worried about Finney. On one hand it's good that he's not a one dimensional character but on the other hand I don't like abusive parents being forgiven in some way or form.

I would highly recommend The Black Phone to horror fans.