AS expected, The Black Phone is a slick, intense, and stressful piece of horror that catches the audience’s emotions as swiftly as the film’s antagonist kidnaps children in broad daylight. It is adapted on Joe Hill’s short story of the same name. Ethan Hawke plays The Grabber, a masked kidnapper who terrorises a suburban Colorado neighborhood in the 1970s. He hides under the mask of a bumbling magician, luring children in before obscuring their world with hammer and a swarm of black balloons.
The plot is portrayed through Finney’s (Mason Thames) point of view, giving viewers a look into his family and personal life before becoming the kidnapper’s next victim. When Finney is kidnapped, his sister (Madeline McGraw) frantically searches for him amid horrific dreams she has at night. Finney’s struggles to escape work well enough to create strictly realistic tension, but that’s not all we get. An antique dial phone hangs on the basement wall, and it rings a lot for one with a severed chord beneath it.
Finney begins receiving phone calls from the ghosts of the basement’s past tenants, each with its own piece of advice for the youngster. Clearly, none of them fled, so Finn will have to rely on his own skills as well as Gwen’s as she develops the ability to interact with the spirits of those same victims, which she will use to try to find Finney when the local police run out of actual leads.
The scares and horror components of the film take a bit to surface, but when they do, there are a few genuine jump scares and some genuinely disturbing moments. The otherworldly element adds to the fear, but it’s Finney’s realism and Hawke’s unsettling Grabber that maintain the tension going throughout the movie.
The teenage Mason Thames who plays Finney and does an amazing job, especially when he has little nothing at all to work with, alone in a bare basement. Despite his remarkably stern look, his resolve and path from fear to bravery is brilliantly depicted.
As Gwen, Madeleine McGraw is a lovely blend of mischievousness and naivety, anguish and courage in The Black Phone. The young actress erupts in every scene she’s in. Whether she’s desperately asking for help to Jesus, arguing with him in otherwise nice prayers or arguing with her father, she nails them all effortlessly.
But, it’s the super talented Ethan Hawke who does it for me. Despite spending the majority of the film behind a scary mask that varies depending on his mood, Hawke manages to convey a feeling of twisted evil. In every scenario, his selections are precisely matched. Yes, he overacts and is absurdly dramatic at times, but he also portrays it in a considerably more muscular, sharper way.
Overall, The Black Phone is a solid and an almost perfect horror film. It takes you along on its own ideas, assuming you accept that it’s more of a twisted storyline than a clever thriller. It’s a gripping horror trip and would have no issues finding an audience.
The Black Phone is currently in theatres.
Director: Scott Derrickson
Cast: Mason Thames, Ethan Hawke and Madeleine McGraw
E-VALUE: 9
ACTING: 8
PLOT: 8
