The Black Phone

The Black Phone is based on the short story by Joe Hill, which is actually the pen name of the son of Stephen King.  It's obvious that the author has picked up more than a few cues from his famous father, and they are on display here, such as children with psychic abilities, as well as a sense of nostalgia and innocence mixed in with the evil and supernatural trappings.  And while the movie is being marketed to the straight-up horror crowd, an audience expecting blood and gore might be disappointed that this movie is more interested in being subtle and creepy than in all out frights and jump scares.  

The movie also reunites the directing and writing duo of Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill with star, Ethan Hawke, who previously headlined their 2012 paranormal thriller, Sinister.  And while Hawke played the hero there, this time he is a child abductor and murderer known only as The Grabber.  He hides behind a devil mask most of the time, so we seldom see his actual face, but it's a great villain performance, and he throws himself into his deranged character completely.  The movie takes place in 1978, giving the sense of a more innocent time, mixed with the nostalgia that is currently in fashion with a lot of recent horror-related properties like Stranger Things or It.  As the Grabber terrorizes the community, abducting multiple children, a pair of police detectives (E. Roger Mitchell and Troy Rudeseal) are desperately trying to track down clues, yet strangely never seem to issue a curfew for the town, or enact any safety measures in the community during the course of the film.

The Grabber's most recent victim is Finney (Mason Thames), a boy who is the constant victim of bullies at school, and his drunken lout of a father (Jeremy Davies) at home.  Luckily, he has his younger sister Gwen (a scene-stealing Madeleine McGraw) on his side to help guide him through life.  Once he is in the clutches of the child killer, he finds himself in a locked basement room with only a soiled mattress, a few taunting visits from The Grabber, and a black rotary phone on the wall that his abductor says hasn't worked in years.  Oddly, the phone soon starts ringing when he is alone, and when Finney answers, he hears the voices of the former victims of The Grabber speaking to him from beyond the grave, and giving him advice on how to survive.  Meanwhile, Gwen is receiving psychic visions (a gift she inherited from her mother) that may lead to her brother's rescue, if she can convince the police and her father to listen.

The Black Phone has more than a few logic holes that audiences will have to mentally leap over in order to fully enjoy, and yet this is easy enough, thanks to the atmospheric and stylized tone of the film that creates a sense of mounting dread, rather than rapidly building frights or ghoulish visions leaping out of the shadows.  The movie raises more than enough goosebumps from Hawke's effective villain performance, as well as the chilling supernatural phone calls that Finney receives, that it doesn't need all these additional trappings common with the genre.  This is a low key film that is never all that scary and fast-paced, but still manages to get under your skin in much more subtle ways.  It also knows how to effectively add a sense of humor when appropriate, without lessening the inherent tension.

Outside of Hawke's role, there are also two standout child performances here from Thames and McGraw, who expertly sell the tension of the situation, as well as the innocence of these two young children at the center of the story.  The movie is smart to put their loving relationship up front, as it helps run the point home that these two are all they have in the world.  Outside of these stand-out roles, nobody gets to make much of an impression, as their father stays mostly in the background, and the two Detectives on the case disappear for long periods of the film, almost as if a good chunk of their subplot got edited from the final film.  Regardless, the important thing is that this is a highly effective low-key thriller with some strong leads, and an overall sense of dread that permeates throughout.

After previously working in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Doctor Strange (and walking away from the recent sequel over creative differences), The Black Phone feels like a chance for Derrickson and Cargill to get back to their low budget roots.  Even if it's not perfect, it's easily the strongest horror offering we've had this year so far.

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