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The first time a film left me shivering in the dark and white-knuckling bedsheets was when I was 13, watching a slideshow of gore and brutality in Scott Derrickson ’s " Sinister ." Even upon rewatch, after 10 years and the addition of countless horror movies to my watch log, it still makes me quiver.

Upon hearing of "The Black Phone," a triple reunion with Derrickson, co-writer Robert Cargill, and star Ethan Hawke , I was filled with excited dread. Derrickson’s victims are tethered by their consequences. Where "Sinister" had them spun in a web inherent to their demise, "The Black Phone" connects its victims with a thread crucial to survival.

Based on the short story of the same name, written by Joe Hill , the son of Stephen King , "The Black Phone" chronicles a suspenseful tale of The Grabber, a child killer who snatches teen boys in broad daylight never to be seen again. When Finney ( Mason Thames ) becomes the next captive, held in a soundproof basement, he begins to receive phone calls from The Grabber’s previous victims through a disconnected landline.

Stylistically, the film is nostalgic, reminiscent of vintage photographs and the era of striped baby tees, flared jeans, and The Ramones. Warm browns and oranges, film grain, and filtered light flood the screen. But this idyllic '70s suburbia is corrupted by Derrickson’s horror.

The only interruption of the otherwise consistent color scheme is the vibrancy of blood and the neon of police lights, making these moments all the more jarring. The weathered concrete of the basement is painted with brushstrokes of rust and blood: an evidential mural of violence unfettered. The upbeat '70s soundtrack is interrupted by a bassy, resonant score that reverberates in your ribs, sinks into your eardrums, and at times sounds like you’re hearing it from underground in the Grabber’s basement. The film’s opening credits flash through nostalgic B-roll of the halcyon everyday occurrences of suburban youth—popsicles, baseball games, and sunny avenues—only to be interlaced with the vision of bloody knees and stacks of missing persons posters.

This juxtaposition of calm and collection being face forward while violence festers underneath is not only stylistic, but thematic. Timid Finney and his spunky sister Gwen ( Madeleine McGraw ), after dealing with belligerent bullies at school, go home to not be raised by their abusive alcoholic father. “I’ll look after Dad,” becomes a pattern of dialogue throughout the film, when Finney is left to return home while his sister stays with a friend. Son looks after father and siblings raise each other, kids protect each other from bullies while school staff is absent during adolescent brawls, Gwen (with her clairvoyant abilities) leads the police investigation, and past victims communicate with Finney while he’s in the clutches of a killer. It’s this commonality of a child-to-child support system in the absence of reliable adults that makes "The Black Phone" more than a simple story.

Derrickson and Cargill craft a nuanced, multi-layered narrative that takes horror elements and supports them with attentive discussion of cycles of abuse, trauma, and the bond of youth. Hawke’s Grabber is characterized by personality reversal. His faux-jolly disposition flaunts animated mannerisms and a high-pitched voice. It’s eerily childlike, hitching itself to a suggestion of trauma-based age regression behavior, and juxtaposing with the adult-like profanity and maturity with which the kids speak. But the zany harlequin act is fleeting, leaving Finney at the mercy of a total change: a husky, deep tone of voice and unforgiving, violent demeanor.

It’s in these moments where Hawke flexes his performance and versatility. His villainy is unpredictable and volatile. He expertly tiptoes a dissonant line of sprightly youthfulness and depravity. Switching on a dime, and with a mask covering the lower half of his face for most of the film, his acting relies on body language and the emotive flickers of his eyes. Though he was hesitant to play a villain , Hawke more than succeeds, and the emotional dramatic acting that’s laid the foundation for his celebrity translates perfectly to an adversarial role.

Though Hawke haunts the screen, it is the performances of the child actors that pack marrow into the bones of "The Black Phone." The finesse with which Thames and McGraw seamlessly balance a wide range of emotions is a feat. Fear, anger, desperation, and indignation drizzle delicately into moments of youthful glee and adolescent comedy. The punchlines in "The Black Phone" are natural with how the film centralizes young teenagers.

Both Thames and McGraw receive moments of spotlight, and use every minute of individual attention to shred any emotional distance afforded by the screen. Yet some of the most poignant scenes occur in their wordless moments together, where they potently portray an airtight sibling bond in the face of abuse and adversity.

"The Black Phone" is a saga of support and resilience disguised as a semi-paranormal serial murderer flick. Underpinned by emotional performances across the board and a commanding atmosphere, "The Black Phone" aces its foundational qualities and allows its nuances to take control. The gore is secondary to the story, with character development taking first string, but by no means does the film neglect to thrill. Rather, it’s your care for Finney and the intensity of the film’s skillfully crafted suspense that draws your knees to your chest and your nails to your teeth.

Available in theaters tomorrow.

Peyton Robinson

Peyton Robinson is a freelance film writer based in Chicago, IL.

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Film credits.

The Black Phone (2022)

Rated R for violence, bloody images, language and some drug use.

102 minutes

Ethan Hawke as The Grabber

Mason Thames as Finney Shaw

Madeleine McGraw as Gwen Shaw

Jeremy Davies as Mr. Shaw

James Ransone as Max

Michael Banks Repeta as Griffin

Spencer Fitzgerald as Buzz

Scott Derrickson

Writer (based on the short story by)

C. Robert Cargill

Cinematographer

Brett Jutkiewicz
Frédéric Thoraval
Mark Korven

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The Black Phone Reviews

Based on Joe Hill’s book of the same name, the creators provide one of the most memorable contemporary horrors, discussing loss, domestic violence, supernatural, and much more.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Apr 10, 2024

It's not groundbreaking, but it's very well done.

Full Review | Jan 18, 2024

Here’s one of those supernatural thrillers that would actually be better off without the supernatural elements.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 14, 2023

Derrickson has succeeded in making a film that is definitely worth any horror fan's time. Is it a new classic? No, but by hell, it is one fun ride.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 31, 2023

The Black Phone carries a horror premise with a supernatural touch full of potential, but it plays too safe by betting on a narrative that's too simple, predictable, and repetitive.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Jul 25, 2023

A New Horror Icon lives

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

Ethan Hawke attempts to scare in a straightforward serial killer nightmare that is about as satisfying as a one-minute payphone call.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 21, 2023

Derrickson is comfortable navigating dark and demented worlds, so it's frustrating when "The Black Phone" doesn't come together in a successful way.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 16, 2023

Derrickson prioritizes jump-scares and sustaining a disquieting mood over the lives of these kids. He loses himself in the technique when the real nightmare is staring him right in the face.

Full Review | May 30, 2023

These additions significantly alter the tone of the original story for better or worse depending on what kind of horror movie you’re looking for.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Feb 18, 2023

It’s a B-movie abduction flick centered in the 80s that values simplicity over complexity. And ultimately, The Black Phone is a theatrical experience that is sure to get your blood pumping.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Feb 10, 2023

Scott Derrickson's return to his horror sandbox, The Black Phone, is a fantastic vintage horror film that utilizes sound against its audience.

Full Review | Jan 9, 2023

Ethan Hawke continues his spectacular mid-career run in a rare villainous role.

Full Review | Jan 3, 2023

The Black Phone is easily one of the best horror/trillers this year. The young cast members Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw light up ever scene they are in & then Ethan Hawke becomes something horrifically unknown and yet interesting. A MUST WATCH FILM!

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | Dec 26, 2022

a good ole fashioned scary night out at the movies filled with dead kids, creepy masks, and haunting 8mm film.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Nov 2, 2022

It is as much ‘coming of age’ as ‘run from the monster’, and that is very much to its credit.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Oct 17, 2022

The Black Phone is a solid, classical horror flick by a team who love the genre and excel at their craft — what more could you ask for?

Full Review | Sep 29, 2022

In theory, the concept of The Black Phone is unique and interesting.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 22, 2022

The Black Phone is grounded in realism for a large part of the story & has just a cinch of fictional horror that truly allows the audience to become immersed in the story, which is elevated by good performances & unique creativity within the narrative.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Aug 21, 2022

The Black Phone delivers one of the best stories and some of the best characters that I have seen all year. Ethan Hawke's performance as The Grabber paired with Derrickson's directing of Cargill's script are a match made in hell.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.25/5 | Aug 19, 2022

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‘The Black Phone’ Review: The Dead Have Your Number

Ethan Hawke plays the big bad in this 1970s-set child-abduction thriller.

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By Jeannette Catsoulis

More touching than terrifying, Scott Derrickson’s “Black Phone” is less a horror movie than a coming-of-age ghost story. In place of gouting gore and surging fright, this enjoyable adaptation of Joe Hill’s 2005 short story has an almost contemplative tone, one that drains its familiar horror tropes — a masked psychopath, communications from beyond the grave — of much of their chill.

The movie’s low goose bump count, though, is far from ruinous. Set in small-town Colorado in the 1970s, the story centers on 13-year-old Finney (Mason Thames), an ace baseball pitcher burdened by a dead mother, school bullies and an abusive, alcoholic father (Jeremy Davies). An early lecture from a new friend (a charismatic Miguel Cazarez Mora) about fighting back will prove prescient when Finney becomes the latest victim of The Grabber (Ethan Hawke), a clownish magician and the abductor of several neighborhood boys.

While light on scares and short on specifics (The Grabber is a generic, somewhat comic villain with an unexplored psychopathology), “The Black Phone” is more successful as a celebration of youthful resilience. As Finney languishes in a soundproofed cement dungeon, his spunky little sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw, a standout), is using the psychic gifts she inherited from her mother to find him. Finney also has help from the killer’s previous victims, who call him on the ancient rotary phone on the wall above his bed, undeterred by the fact that it has long been disconnected.

Revisiting elements of his own childhood and adolescence, Derrickson (who wrote the screenplay with C. Robert Cargill) evokes a time when Ted Bundy was on the news and “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” was at the drive-in. The movie’s images have a mellow, antique glaze that strengthens the nostalgic mood while softening the dread. (Compare, for instance, Finney’s kidnapping with Georgie’s abduction in the 2017 chiller “It” : both feature balloons and a masked monster, but only one is terrifying.) It doesn’t help that Hawke is stranded in a character whose torture repertoire consists mainly of elaborate hand gestures.

Leaning heavily into the familiar narrative obsessions of Hill’s father, Stephen King — plucky kids, feckless parents, creepy clowns and their accessories — “The Black Phone” feels unavoidably derivative. But the young actors are appealing, the setting is fondly imagined and the anxieties of adolescence are front and center. For most of us, those worries were more than enough to conjure the shivers.

The Black Phone Rated R for bloody apparitions and blasphemous words. Running time: 1 hour 42 minutes. In theaters.

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‘The Black Phone’ Review: Ethan Hawke in a Serial-Killer Movie with Some Nightmare Images but Less Fear Than Meets the Eye

Scott Derrickson's thriller has the trappings of a grungy dread-soaked nightmare, but it's too driven by fantasy to get under your skin.

By Owen Gleiberman

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Ethan Hawke , in 30 years, has never played a flat-out villain before, so it would be nice to say that in “ The Black Phone ” he not only plays a serial killer — one of those anonymous madmen who live in a one-story house of dingy brick with a dungeon in the basement — but that he makes something memorable out of it. His mask is certainly disturbing. Hawke’s character, who is known as the Grabber, is a kidnapper of teenage boys, to whom he presumably does unspeakable things. He drives a black ’70s van with the word Abracadabra written on the side of it, and when he pops out of the vehicle to yank his victims off the street, he’ll be wearing a magician’s hat or carrying some black balloons. But it’s not until we see him in his home element that we take in the full hideous grandeur of that mask, which comes in removable sections and looks almost like it’s been chiseled in stone: sometimes it’s got a leering smile, sometimes a frown, and sometimes he just wears the lower half of it.

That this is Hawke playing a figure of evil is one of the principal hooks of “The Black Phone.” Yet serial-killer films, or at least the good ones, tend to have a dark mystery to them. By the time Hawke shows up in “The Black Phone,” in an odd way we feel like we already know him.

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The movie is set in North Denver in 1978, which seems like the perfect setting for a serial-killer movie, especially since it colors in the era with a quota of convincing detail. We meet Finney (Mason Thames), the doleful, long-haired 13-year-old hero, when he’s pitching a Little League game; after he gives up the game-winning home run, we see the teams shuffle past each other, shaking hands and saying “Good game, good game” — a detail owned by “Dazed and Confused,” though at least the reference has its nostalgia in the right place. Finney and his precocious kid sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), discuss who’s the biggest heartthrob on “Happy Days” (she thinks it’s Potsie, but prefers Danny Bonaduce on “The Partridge Family”), and the movie weaves a resonant period vibe out of backyard rocket launchers, “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” songs like “Free Ride,” and, tellingly, posters for missing children.

It seems there’s been a recent epidemic of them: five teenagers, all boys, pulled off the streets by the Grabber. And Finney, of course, is next. It’s not long before he’s been kidnapped and stuck in the Grabber’s dungeon — a concrete bunker, soundproof and empty except for a dirty mattress, with corroded walls marked by a rusty horizontal crack that looks like a wound. The heart of the movie is Finney’s experience down there and his attempt to escape. Now and then, the Grabber presents himself to the kid, hinting at terrible things to come, and giving him food, like scrambled eggs that look scarier than anything else in the movie (though they prove quite edible).

Yet despite the hellhole trappings, “The Black Phone,” as we quickly discover, is not a dread-soaked, grungy, realistic serial-killer movie, like “The Silence of the Lambs” or “Dahmer.” It’s more like “Room” driven by a top-heavy dose of fanciful horror, with touches of “It” and “Stranger Things.” We get a hint of where the movie is going early on, when Gwen has a dream revealing details about the killer, like the fact that he keeps those black balloons in his van. You might hear about Gwen’s nightmare premonition and think, “Cool!” Or you might take it as the first clue that “The Black Phone” is a horror film that’s going to be making up a lot of rules as it goes along. The director, Scott Derrickson , made the first “Doctor Strange” film (as well as the 2012 horror film “Sinister,” which also starred Hawke), and here, adapting a short story by Joe Hill, he has made a serial-killer movie that feels like a dark cousin to the comic-book world, with supernatural elements that drive the story, even as they get in the way of it becoming any sort of true nightmare.

The ’70s were an era when Middle American serial killers, the kind who would spread their crimes over decades in places like Wichita, appeared to be sprouting like mushrooms. Yet they were still in the process of becoming iconic; it would take popular culture to accomplish that. (“Red Dragon,” the first Thomas Harris novel to feature Hannibal Lecter, was published in 1981.) Now, however, they’re so iconic that they’re downright standard. In “The Black Phone,” the Grabber violates the bucolic setting but also fits rather snugly into it. The film presents him not as a complex figure of evil but as a pure screen archetype: the psycho with a dungeon next door. Hawke, apart from the Ethan-Hawke-as-demon mask, doesn’t have a lot to work with, and to up the creep factor he reflexively falls into mannerisms that may remind you of Buffalo Bill in “The Silence of the Lambs.” Hawke is such a well-liked actor that he’ll probably get a pass on this, but given the outcry that character caused 30 years ago in the LGBTQ community, you may wonder why Hawke allowed himself to drift into what amounts to a kind of sicko cliché.

In the dungeon, there’s one other object: an ancient black rotary phone hanging on the wall. The Grabber tells Finney that the phone doesn’t work, but it keeps ringing, and each timer Finney answers it the voice he hears on the other end belongs to…well, I won’t reveal it, but suffice to say that the movie has taken a leap beyond the everyday. Finney gets a lot of clues about the Grabber: what his games are, the weak points in the dungeon’s infrastructure (like a hole he starts to dig under loose tile, or a refrigerator hidden in a wall behind the bathroom). Much of this doesn’t lead anywhere, but it establishes that Finney has become part of a brotherhood of victims. He’s a bullied kid who’s going to learn to fight back!

“The Black Phone” carries you along on its own terms — that is, if you accept that it’s less an ingenious freak-out of a thriller than a kind of stylized contraption. It’s a horror ride that holds you, and it should have no trouble carving out an audience, but I didn’t find it particularly scary (the three or four jump-worthy moments are all shock cuts with booms on the soundtrack — the oldest trick in the book). The movie plays a game with the audience, rooting the action in tropes of fantasy and revenge that are supposed to up the stakes, but that in this case mostly lower them.

Reviewed at Tribeca Film Festival, June 18, 2022. MPA rating: R. Running time: 102 MIN.

Production: A Universal Pictures release of a Blumhouse Productions, Crooked Highway production. Producers: Jason Blum, Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill. Executive producers: Joe Hill, Ryan Turek, Christopher H. Warner.
Crew: Director: Scott Derrickson. Screenplay: Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill. Camera: Brett Jutkiewicz. Editor: Frédéric Thoraval. Music: Mark Korvan.
With: Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, E. Roger Mitchell, Troy Rudeseal, James Ransone.

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‘the black phone’: film review | fantastic fest 2021.

Scott Derrickson’s adaptation of a Joe Hill story stars Mason Thames as a boy who receives supernatural help in his attempts to escape a serial killer played by Ethan Hawke.

By John DeFore

John DeFore

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The second feature film (after several TV projects) based on the work of horror author Joe Hill, Scott Derrickson ’s The Black Phone expands on a short story in ways that feel very true to the source material while significantly enhancing its theatrical appeal. It was never in doubt that this would be a more commercial outing than the deeply odd (but effective, in its way) 2013 adaptation Horns , but the picture also dovetails nicely with the current vogue for retro-set genre fare, lightly scratching a nostalgic itch without seeming at all like it’s trying to ride Stranger Things ’ coattails. (Or those of Hill’s father and Stranger inspiration, Stephen King, though this story could easily be one of his.)

The Black Phone

Venue: Fantastic Fest

Release date: Friday, Jan. 28

Cast: Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Ethan Hawke, Jeremy Davies, James Ransone

Director: Scott Derrickson

Screenwriters: Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill

Like the boogeyman in King’s It , the Grabber approaches his prey in the garb of a clown. But this is a vastly more straightforward thriller, whose menace has nothing to do with the supernatural. Ethan Hawke ’s nameless character, whose motives we’ll never dig into, is simply a man who kidnaps teenage boys while posing as a party entertainer, keeps them locked up for a while, and presumably murders them.

Here, the spirit world is in contact only with the good guys, even if its attempts to help often scare them. Like her absent mother before her, Gwen is troubled by prophetic dreams. Her visions predicted the most recent kidnapping, with a specificity that brought her to the attention of local detectives. (Interacting with them and other authority figures, McGraw steals scenes with foul-mouthed impatience.) But she has no advance warning that Finney will be next.

Derrickson and writing partner C. Robert Cargill set us up to wonder if what’s in store between Finney and the Grabber will be a two-handed psychodrama. Once he has kidnapped Finney and locked him in his large, nearly empty basement, the Grabber is nearly gentle to the boy. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he promises, tacitly suggesting that Finney isn’t like the boys who preceded him. But do those promises come from the man Hawke is playing, or from only one facet of him? The lower half of the Grabber’s mask can be switched out to depict different expressions, from no mouth at all to a Joker-like, menacing grin; each may represent a psychological state distinct from the others, as in M. Night Shyamalan’s abduction thriller Split .

But while the interactions between the two, and Finney’s attempts to find a way out, work well enough to sustain purely reality-based suspense, that’s not all we get. An old rotary phone hangs on the basement wall, and it rings an awful lot for one whose cord hangs severed beneath it. Finney starts getting calls from the spirits of the basement’s previous residents, each of whom has his own piece of advice for the kid. Clearly, none of them escaped, so Finn will have to add his own abilities to their know-how — and maybe benefit from Gwen’s as well — if he hopes to get out.

Even when projecting utter desperation, Thames is spirited enough to keep the film from becoming utterly bleak, and the action aboveground offers some lighthearted moments of hope — from Gwen’s increasingly grouchy interaction with a God who won’t deliver visions on demand, to the involvement in the case of Max (James Ransone), a coked-up wild card whose efforts as a civilian detective may be more valuable than the cops think.

A couple of effective jump-scares aside, the film runs on ticking-clock suspense, knowing that whatever the Grabber says, it’s unlikely Finn will stay in his good graces for very long. The story’s final third works even better than the buildup would suggest, shrugging off some of the atmospherics and, with a clever nod to a classic in the serial-killer genre, focusing all the movie’s energies on a sequence that delivers. Happy or sad, this episode will certainly be immortalized in neighborhood lore, the kind of half-factual legend repeated from one school year to the next, until something more exciting happens.

Full credits

Venue: Fantastic Fest Distributor: Universal Pictures Production company: Crooked Highway Cast: Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Ethan Hawke, Jeremy Davies, James Ransone Director: Scott Derrickson Screenwriters: Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill Producers: Jason Blum, C. Robert Cargill, Scott Derrickson Executive producers: Joe Hill, Ryan Turek, Christopher H. Warner Director of photography: Brett Jutkiewicz Production designer: Patti Podesta Costume designer: Amy Andrews Editor: Frédéric Thoraval Casting directors: Sarah Domeier Lindo, Terri Taylor

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‘The Black Phone’ Review: Scott Derrickson Dials Into Realistic Terrors with Arresting Joe Hill Adaptation

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Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2021 Fantastic Fest. Universal Pictures releases the film in theaters on Friday, June 24.

“One minute you’re invisible and the next minute the whole state knows your name.” A young and phantom voice speaks this ominous fact over a rotary phone receiver into the ear of the town’s latest kid who’s gone missing. Isolated in a basement with a single window too high to access and an antiquated phone that won’t stop ringing, Finney Shaw (Mason Thames) accepts his new reality like he does every day in the outside world. He’s used to being the victim of everything kids fear: bullies, the death of a loved one, being unpopular, crossing an abusive caregiver, saying the wrong thing to your crush, even jumping too much while watching a scary movie alone. However, with a little help from beyond the grave, Finney may have just enough fight left in him to face his ultimate fear head-on.

Adapted from Joe Hill’s short story of the same name, “ The Black Phone ” is a sleek, stressful, and violent slice of horror that captures the audience’s emotions as quickly as the film’s antagonist kidnaps children in broad daylight. Ethan Hawke stars as a masked kidnapper (nicknamed “The Grabber”) who terrorizes a suburban Colorado town in the 1970s. Hiding behind the facade of a clumsy magician, he lures kids in with kindness before eclipsing their world with mace and a swarm of signature black balloons.

The story is told through Finney’s perspective as audiences get a glimpse into his home and personal life before he becomes the kidnapper’s latest victim. In between dodging his classmates on the prowl to beat him up, Finney has to walk on eggshells at home in order to avoid any further abuse from his alcoholic father. The only solace he can find is alongside his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), a sweet yet religious spitfire in pigtails, who has no qualms about cussing out cops or smashing a rock over a bully’s head.

However, support comes in supernatural form once Finney winds up in a derelict basement with bare resources sprawled about and a black phone on the wall. His kidnapper, donning a two-piece interchangeable mask (designed by the legendary Tom Savini) taunts him with a ritualistic game that has to occur in order for any torture and Finney’s subsequent death to unfold. Despite being informed that the phone does not work, Finney begins to receive calls from the kidnapper’s previous victims as they provide him useful information for his survival. All the while, Gwen investigates her brother’s disappearance by utilizing her dreams as a catalyst for her clairvoyant abilities.

Hill’s short story is a creepy bare-bones framework, which allows Derrickson and Cargill to deeply flesh out the characters. Finney and Gwen have an admirable relationship where they protect one another from the dangers that stalk them inside and outside of their home. Thames brings a tender sense of vulnerability to Finney but his character arc is exactly what audiences want to see from an underdog protagonist. From the start, McGraw is a force to be reckoned with and was described as “sunshine in the apocalypse” by Cargill during a post-screening Q&A when the film debuted at Fantastic Fest. Her performance as Gwen is a powerhouse of emotion, whether it’s crying for mercy at the hand of her father’s belt or bluntly asking Jesus why he won’t do more to help.

While Hawke typically avoids villainous roles, it’s clear that he enjoyed playing “The Grabber.” Throughout most of the film, his face is hidden, but Hawke uses this to his advantage by playfully adjusting his voice and fluctuating from a menacing captor to a calm presence that teases Finney at a potential release. There are elements similar to John Wayne Gacy present, but the abuse does not cross into sexual territory. What’s also great about this particular villain is that his character does not leave any cravings for a backstory. The “why” of his heinous actions is not a general focus. His behavior is simply summed up as a certain kind of inexplicable evil that is all too common in the news. The fact that Derrickson and Cargill chose to keep his origin story absent works extremely well with the film’s tone and overall dread the story elicits.

The supernatural aspect of dead children talking to Finney over the phone may sound bland, but is executed well through special effects and eerie editing. Their severed voices are coupled with a gory presentation of what “The Grabber” did to them in their final hours, a stark portrait that produces a handful of well-timed and effective jump scares. All the while, production designer Patti Podesta and costume designer Amy Andrews beautifully immerse audiences into the seventies in a naturalistic manner that does not feel forced or overdone for nostalgia purposes. To build upon this time frame, Brett Jutkiewicz adds texture to the film’s story with grainy cinematography and vintage light that captures the dichotomy of a sleepy town being ravaged by a prolific killer.

“The Black Phone” is a succinct and stressful terror blanketed with themes of friendship, family, and inventive portrayals of resiliency. Every aspect of the film is emotionally arresting and tackles timeless fears with razor-sharp precision. Derrickson and Cargill’s collaborative vision navigates horror down multiple avenues and preys upon traditional forms of strengths and weaknesses through aspects of religion and familiarity. For example, terror can live next door in the form of a murderer while simultaneously residing in your heart or simply walking down the hallways at school. The duo who brought audiences “Sinister” now provides a film with a bleak yet entertaining reminder that horror is omnipresent, but sometimes you can find a lifeline in the darkest of hours, if you just listen.

“The Black Phone” premiered at Fantastic Fest. Universal Pictures will release it in theaters in 2022.

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There’s a Better Story The Black Phone Wishes It Could Tell

I haven’t read the Joe Hill short story that The Black Phone is based on, but watching the movie, it’s not hard to imagine what the source material must be like. In some ways, Scott Derrickson’s film still feels like a short story. It’s all setup and resolution, with little of the incident and complication that usually helps a feature-length movie come fully to life. In industry parlance, it feels like it’s missing a second act. But thanks to a host of excellent performances (and a few generic but effective scares), most viewers may not mind.

The film takes place in the year 1974; The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is in theaters, bandannas are in fashion, and the kung-fu craze is in full swing. In the suburbs of north Denver, however, a mysterious figure known as the Grabber is kidnapping teenage boys off the street. These disappearances have understandably invaded the fearful waking thoughts of local teen Finney Shaw (Mason Thames), even though he also has more immediate concerns on his mind — namely, a trio of savage bullies at school and an abusive father (Jeremy Davies, sporting an impressive pompadour and beard combo).

The deeply unstable Mr. Shaw terrorizes both the shy Finn and his headstrong little sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), but there is more to this family than meets the eye. Gwen is having dreams that feature specific details about the Grabber’s crimes that have not yet been made public, and the kids’ late mother apparently also had such premonitions and visions. Their alcoholic father is terrified at what might happen if his kids follow in the path of their mom, who we learn killed herself thanks to the voices and visions in her head. When Finn himself gets kidnapped, Gwen swings into action, desperately probing her dreams and breaking out a gauntlet of religious items (like some of Derrickson’s other films, The Black Phone has its share of Christian imagery) for clues to her beloved brother’s whereabouts.

Finn has been imprisoned in a large, dark basement by a masked, reedy-voiced psycho (Ethan Hawke, impressively unsettling in a role that almost never lets us see his whole face). The Grabber insists he will not hurt the child, but we know that he intends to do exactly that. Much of the film involves watching Finn scrape around this basement, and it’s to the 14-year-old Thames’s credit that his character’s predicament never feels repetitive or overtly downbeat. He brings a welcome mix of intelligence, bewilderment, and fear to the part — a complexity rare in young actors.

The Grabber’s basement is empty, save for a black phone that we’re told doesn’t work. Of course, as soon as the captor goes back upstairs, the phone rings. (The movie is, after all, called The Black Phone .) And yes, there is a voice on the other end of the line …

If you don’t want to know anything more about The Black Phone , you should probably stop reading at this point, although some of the following happens early enough that it feels more like part of the setup than an actual plot reveal. Either way, it’s hard to discuss the picture’s key weaknesses and strengths without addressing where it goes. Anyway, spoilers follow.

… The voices on the phone belong to the boys the Grabber has already killed. Finn can presumably hear them because his family is touched by a divine power. The boys are calling from some sort of afterlife, and even though their memories are slowly drifting away, they are able to guide Finn through his predicament — some of it via specific bits of advice, some of it via gnomic, Signs -like clues. Derrickson also uses these phone conversations to stage a number of jump scares which feel somewhat tacked on. These jolts are Finn’s own visions, it seems, but they’re never quite explained within the logic of this world — almost as if the filmmakers came up with them after realizing that mere phone conversations with ghosts wouldn’t provide the requisite genre thrills.

The movie is confused in conception, which is a shame because there’s potential here. The premise is genuinely creepy, and the conceit of phone calls from the afterlife is rife with possibility. When the dead boys first begin to speak, we get a couple of touching flashbacks to their lives, and it feels like the picture might be headed in a more emotional direction. That’s not the only promising idea that’s abandoned. The always-interesting James Ransone shows up as a weird, coked-up amateur sleuth who looks like he’s about to take the movie in a whole other direction — but his presence, sadly, is relatively short-lived and pointless, not quite enough to even count as a red herring. In most other horror movies, this might be a minor narrative nuisance, but The Black Phone at times feels so undernourished dramatically that these dropped subplots feel like missed opportunities.

Even Gwen’s search for Finn, to which the film cuts at opportune moments, is never as filled out as we might like. What makes it work, however, is 13-year-old McGraw’s electrifying performance as the little girl. It would have been easy to play this precocious, strong-willed child as a cutesy, foul-mouthed kid detective, but her concern for her brother shines through. Whenever Gwen is onscreen, the film locks into its more emotional register: We feel her anguish, her growing sense of helplessness.

So much so that the film loses some of its power whenever it cuts away from her. But it has to cut away, because Finn’s dramatic thread is where we get all the jump scares and the creepy imagery and the predictable escape-room theatrics. This tension between the sister’s narrative and the brother’s seems indicative of the rift at the heart of this picture. All throughout, The Black Phone feels like it’s trying to reconcile typical horror elements with the more expressive and tender story Derrickson clearly wants to tell. The reconciliation never really comes, but the cast gets us there anyway.

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Ethan Hawke plays the Grabber in The Black Phone.

The Black Phone review – Ethan Hawke is eerily good in scary-clown kidnap horror

Impressive performances help an uneven plot in this 70s-set kidnap horror based on a story by Stephen King’s son Joe Hill

H ere is a supernatural shocker that amounts to a queasy, nasty and perfectly serviceable horror-homage to Stephen King; it is in fact based on a 2004 short story by the author’s son, Joe Hill. The setting is north Denver, in the double-denim world of the late 70s, and a small town is in fear of a serial abductor nicknamed “the Grabber”, played in a gruesome mask by Ethan Hawke. He is targeting teenage boys, reportedly driving around in clown gear with black balloons in his van. Tatty, yellowing “missing” posters are accumulating on walls and gateposts and the community is normalising and internalising its fear.

Finney Shaw (Mason Thames) is a shy child, good at mathematics and baseball whose widower dad (Jeremy Davies) is a depressive alcoholic and whose smart kid sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) appears to have inherited her late mother’s gift of second sight. When the Grabber takes Finney, he holds him prisoner in a scuzzy basement room with a weird wall-mounted black dialler phone which is apparently disconnected. But this phone eerily rings when the Grabber isn’t there, with ghosts of his previous victims on the line; meanwhile Gwen has dreams about the Grabber that the police are taking very seriously.

This is watchable entertainment that achieves a reasonable altitude with its jump-scares, and whose suspense-thriller aspect keeps it engaging on a human level: but there’s a kind of plot issue in the film’s second act, with Finney’s terrified life as the Grabber’s prisoner in which he seems to be able to get away with an enormous amount of undetected escape preparation. But Hawke, whose creepy bad-guy potential is a plausible new career direction, is unnerving, and there are really good performances from Thames and McGraw.

Horror films
Ethan Hawke
Film adaptations
Stephen King

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The Black Phone Review

24 Jun 2022

The Black Phone

Where do you go when you’re lost? If you can, you find a way home. In many ways, this is the path that filmmaker Scott Derrickson has chosen. After exiting Marvel ’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (possibly via a glowing orange portal) during pre-production, having successfully launched the character on screen in 2016’s Doctor Strange , the director now finds himself back in, well, Sinister territory with this, his horror comeback. There’s ultra-dark subject matter. Ethan Hawke in a major role. Regular co-writer C. Robert Cargill back on scripting duties. Jason Blum as producer. Scott Derrickson is home again.

Following his foray into multi-million-dollar blockbuster territory, The Black Phone is not so much a step back for the director as it is a film about looking back — at what home really is; at Derrickson’s own upbringing; at the forces (and friendships) that forge us into who we are. The ideal prism through which to explore these ideas is Joe Hill’s short story, taken from his 2005 20th Century Ghosts collection, resulting in an adaptation whose bleak premise and personal demons coalesce into a surprisingly warm, hopeful, and — yes — scary film.

Derrickson has spoken much about his own childhood in relation to The Black Phone , having grown up in a scuzzy ’70s Denver neighbourhood suffused with violence. It was a time not just of physical parental discipline and bloody, kid-on-kid backyard beat-ups, but one in which the spectre of Ted Bundy (who committed several murders in Colorado at that time) loomed large. All of these forces swirl around The Black Phone ’s central figure of Finney, excellently played by Mason Thames in his big-screen debut. He’s an almost-teen growing up in scuzzy ’70s Denver, where his alcoholic father regularly brandishes his belt as a whipping tool, bullies wait round quiet corners to ambush him, and the local urban legend of child-catcher ‘The Grabber’ adds an ever-present threat of abduction. Even before he’s held captive in The Grabber’s basement, Finney lives in the shadow of danger.

Derrickson’s film spends a reasonable amount of time in the outside world before trapping its central character in stark, concrete walls — evoking the time and place with a Linklaterian ability to turn memories into movie scenes. ’70s rock pounds on the soundtrack (The Edgar Winter Group’s ‘Free Ride’ can’t help but evoke Dazed And Confused ), bottle rockets soar, and kids brag in bathroom stalls about seeing The Texas Chain Saw Massacre . It all feels fondly remembered — but that warmth sits side-by-side with the ever-present threat of physical and emotional torment, and tales of boys vanishing with black balloons left at the scene. Derrickson evokes both the nostalgia and the nastiness with skill, neither one negating the other.

Hawke becomes one with The Grabber's masks, perfectly moulded to his facial contours. It’s hard to look away.

Once The Grabber bundles Finney into his black van, the film dials in on its central conceit: that the killer’s former victims can speak to the boy from beyond the grave through a disconnected landline attached to the basement wall. It’s here that The Black Phone plays like the darkest possible iteration of an Amblin movie (yes, darker than IT ), as child ghosts call up to help Finney escape a similar fate. Hawke, in a rare villain role (albeit his second this year, post- Moon Knight ), gives a frightening and fascinating physical performance — since his face is masked for almost the entire movie, it’s his presence (sometimes dominant, sometimes playful, always creepy) and vocal work that most impresses. He swaps out the upper and lower portions of his devil-horned mask like some fucked-up psychological exercise — donning frowns that feel more like snarls, or malice-dripping Man Who Laughs grins. Sometimes, he exposes his eyes or mouth entirely. Hawke becomes one with those masks, perfectly moulded to his facial contours. It’s hard to look away.

The Black Phone ’s effective jolts and jump-scares should quell summer crowds looking for a straight-up scarefest, but it’s the dread that’s most palpable — the spectre of waiting for repercussive violence, whether in Finney’s attempts to escape The Grabber’s basement, or when anticipating his father’s wrath. And the salvation from all this is companionship; from the lingering ghosts of fellow kids, or Finney’s psychic sister Gwen ( Madeleine McGraw , also excellent), who dreams in Super 8 and delivers perhaps the greatest cinematic prayer of 2022: “Jesus: What the fuck?!”

While there are occasional tonal missteps — James Ransone ’s brief supporting character Max, conducting his own Grabber investigation, feels out of place — The Black Phone manages to be a mainstream genre movie that also feels deeply personal and impassioned. It’s horror, delivered with considerable heart. Welcome home, Scott.

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The black phone, common sense media reviewers.

Violent but effective horror tale about kidnapped teens.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The themes here are rather dark; even the idea of

Some of the supporting characters are admirable. T

Positive portrayals of Asian and Latino teens, but

Young girl brutally whipped by father with a belt;

Multiple uses of "f--k," "c---sucker," "motherf---

1970s-era Lemon Sprite served to main character.

Secondary character appears to have a drinking pro

Positive Messages

The themes here are rather dark; even the idea of "learn to stand up for yourself" inevitably involves violence. It's a violent world, and the only way to handle it is to be more violent than others. The movie ends in a way that suggests that things have been made better through violence.

Positive Role Models

Some of the supporting characters are admirable. Teen ballplayer Bruce projects kindness and confidence, and Robin is strong and smart -- she gets into fights but follows a method and protects the weaker kids. Although the killer gets them both, their short time onscreen feels fairly positive. Gwen also has notable qualities -- she's extremely strong-willed and always does what she thinks is right, regardless of the consequences.

Diverse Representations

Positive portrayals of Asian and Latino teens, but both are supporting characters and are killed by the villain. Someone calls the Latino character a "beaner." Other actors of color appear in smaller roles, i.e. one of a pair of police detectives and a high school principal. Gwen is a powerful, smart teen girl.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Young girl brutally whipped by father with a belt; she screams and sobs. Brutal fights involving bullying: punching, kicking, slamming, martial arts. Teen hit in head with rock, leading to a wound gushing blood. Young girl punched in face, bleeding mouth. Teen punched in face over and over until face covered in blood. Switchblade, carving flesh. Teen kidnapped, kicking, fighting; he's sprayed in eyes and mouth with something from a spray can. Teen tackled, knife held to throat. Teen punched hard, knocked cold. Teens murdered offscreen. Teens in peril. Character punched with blunt object over and over again. Character's head sliced open with axe; blood spurts. Person strangled. Bandaging bloody knuckles. Broken ankle. Sliced-open arm. Jump-scares. Ghostly images. Fall from window.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Multiple uses of "f--k," "c---sucker," "motherf----r," "s--t," "dips--t," "c--t," "a--hole," "a--face," "son of a bitch," "hell," "damn," "d--kweed," "puta," "f-g," "beaner," "jerkface," "fartknocker," "dumb." Middle-finger gesture. "Holy Mary, Mother of God."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

Secondary character appears to have a drinking problem; passes out drunk in the evenings, with empty bottles all over house. Supporting character sniffs cocaine. Brief social drinking at ballgame.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Black Phone is a horror movie about a kidnapped teen ( Mason Thames ) who gets supernatural help while trying to escape from his maniacal kidnapper. It's a solid, visceral thriller, albeit one that's full of peril and violence involving young teens. There are scenes of brutal, bloody bullying, including bashing a head with a rock, use of a switchblade, punching, kicking, martial arts, and face-punching. Adults also attack kids: There's a whipping with a belt, a teen boy being abducted (and something sprayed in his face), and a teen getting tackled, being threatened with a knife, and knocked him unconscious. Teens are murdered offscreen. There are also jump-scares and some spooky stuff. Frequent strong language includes "f--k," "c---sucker," "s--t," "c--t," "a--hole," and more. A secondary character appears to have an alcohol dependency, passing out in his chair and leaving bottles everywhere. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parents say (26)
Kids say (79)

Based on 26 parent reviews

Dark and intense thriller following a kidnapped teen is violent and heavy on the language

When your dialog sucks, add cuss words..., what's the story.

In THE BLACK PHONE, it's 1978 in Denver. Local boys have been disappearing, never to be found. Thirteen-year-old Finney ( Mason Thames ) is frequently bullied at school, even though his firecracker younger sister Gwen ( Madeleine McGraw ) sticks up for him. Gwen has clairvoyant powers and sometimes dreams about "The Grabber" ( Ethan Hawke ), who kidnaps the boys and leaves behind black balloons. Meanwhile, Finney befriends tough, smart Robin (Miguel Cazarez Mora) and is given a brief reprieve from those who target him. Unfortunately, Robin also disappears, soon followed by Finney himself. Trapped in a concrete room, Finney starts getting mysterious calls on a broken black phone. With help from the voices on the other line and his sister's dreams, Finney begins to attempt his escape.

Is It Any Good?

This tense horror movie seems a little tentative about how far to go with its subject of child kidnapping/murder, but it still delivers genuinely brutal tension via its vivid characters. Based on a short story by Stephen King's son Joe Hill ( Horns , NOS4A2 , Locke & Key ), The Black Phone takes its time before putting Finney in the concrete room, trying to humanize the victims as much as possible. Director Scott Derrickson seems to want viewers to feel the impact of death, but not too strongly. The movie frequently retreats into humor; a scene with a hyped-up, paranoid James Ransone is a hoot, and McGraw -- who plays young Gwennie -- amuses with her colorful insults.

Another small issue is Finn himself. He's introduced as a brilliant baseball pitcher, staring down batters with a fearsome glare before throwing perfect strikes. Given that context, it makes little sense for him to be so meek and passive later. As a result, The Black Phone can feel somewhat shapeless. But once Finn is in the room, his interactions with a scenery-chewing Hawke, as well as the voices on the phone, start to build into something worth watching. Derrickson offers up a couple of spine-tingling moments, as well as suspenseful races-against-time that will make viewers' palms slick with cold sweat. The final moments are savage in their violence, but it's also cathartic and primal. All in all, this one's worth picking up.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Black Phone 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

Is the movie scary ? What's the appeal of horror movies? Why do people sometimes like to be scared?

How far should a movie go in depicting bullying and teen violence? Did this one go too far? Could it have gone farther?

How relevant is the movie's message that "you need to learn to stand up for yourself"? Does that lesson/skill need to include violence? Why, or why not?

Movie Details

In theaters : June 24, 2022
On DVD or streaming : August 16, 2022
Cast : Mason Thames , Ethan Hawke , Madeleine McGraw
Director : Scott Derrickson
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Universal Pictures
Genre : Horror
Run time : 102 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : violence, bloody images, language and some drug use.
Last updated : April 8, 2024

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The Black Phone (2021)

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Review: Thriller ‘The Black Phone’ is captivating, really

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Ethan Hawke, left, and Mason Thames in a scene from “The Black Phone.” (Universal Pictures via AP)

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Ethan Hawke as The Grabber in a scene from “The Black Phone.” (Universal Pictures via AP)

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Mason Thames in a scene from “The Black Phone.” (Universal Pictures via AP)

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Mason Thames, left, and Madeleine McGraw in a scene from “The Black Phone.” (Universal Pictures via AP)

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Phones in serial killer movies are usually used by the deranged hunters to taunt the police or carefully tell victims how they’ll die. But in “The Black Phone” it’s the other way around, fitting for a horror-thriller that flips many of the genre’s formula.

The serial killer at the heart of Scott Derrickson’s latest film is clueless about the chunky wall-mounted rotary phone in his soundproof dungeon. He tells his victims it hasn’t worked in years. They think otherwise: They use it to communicate with each other.

The kid-centric thriller “The Black Phone” is a very satisfying balancing act of a movie that has elements of supernatural, psychological suspense and horror but never falls heavily into a single camp. It also has one of the most satisfying ending of a horror-thriller in recent years.

The film — set in northern Denver in 1978 — follows 13-year-old Finney, played with real verve by newcomer Mason Thames. The filmmakers establish a grim mood right from the start, with wide-scale bullying, school-yard fights, bloody bruises and alcoholic and abusive parents. Add to this mix, the low-level buzz of homemade missing posters on walls.

There’s a serial killer prowling, nicknamed The Grabber, (In a nod to John Wayne Gacy, he’s a professional magician. And in perhaps another nod to The Steve Miller Band, he drives around in a black truck emblazoned with the word “Abracadabra,” fitting the lyrics “I wanna reach out and grab ya.”) Five teen boys have vanished. Finney — and his spunky younger sister, a fabulous Madeleine McGraw — are old enough to understand stranger abduction but still young enough to think that saying his name out loud is unlucky.

Finney knows a few of the victims but gets a first-hand knowledge when The Grabber — a confusing Ethan Hawke — nabs him and locks him in his basement, a space meant to hold humans. It’s carefully curated except for that black phone the killer says is disconnected, it’s wires cut. So why does it keep ringing for Finney?

Poor Hawk is marooned as another one of those pure movie psychos, by turns gentlemanly and menacing. We’ve seen his like before, a chilling precision with enunciation and that relentless, bloodless toying with his victim. His only stand-out quality is a very good collection of creepy masks. (Halloween will be super nuts this year if this movie takes off.)

“The Black Phone” is in some ways a reteaming of the guys who made “Sinister” in 2012 — Derrickson and cowriter C. Robert Cargill partnered with producer Jason Blum and Hawke for that one, too. This time, they’re leaning on horror royalty — the source material is a short story by Joe Hill, the pen name of Joe King, son of Stephen King.

The filmmakers, to my mind, lean a little too much on the supernatural to free Finney — does the phone really need to periodically beat like a heart? — but that’s me. The movie has a “Stranger Things”-meets-"Room” vibe and even namechecks a film deep in its debt: “Texas Chain Saw Massacre.”

The film’s tagline is “Don’t Talk to Strangers” and it’s painfully wrong. While applicable to The Grabber, Finn learns that the voices on the other end of the black phone are his previous victims. They’re helping him, each call a way to outwit The Grabber and, put together, a way home safe. “Use what we gave you,” one disembodied voice counsels.

What makes “The Black Phone” stand out is how it perfectly captures what growing up was like in the often raw ‘70s and an utter respect for the world of kids. Every adult is either dismissive and distant — or downright murderous. At its center is the fraternity of teen victims and the bond between sister and brother working against the twisted adult world. It will, uh, grab you.

“The Black Phone,” a Universal Pictures and Blumhouse release that hits theaters on Friday, is rated R for “violence, bloody images, language and some drug use.” Running time: 103 minutes. Three stars out of four.

MPAA definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Online: https://www.theblackphonemovie.com

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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The Black Phone review: A spooky, surface-level thriller

The Black Phone is at its best when it’s working with as little as possible. A majority of the new film from Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson takes place in a grimy basement, but it manages to make the most out of its central confined space — filling it with intimidating shadows and secrets for its protagonist to discover over the course of The Black Phone ’s 102-minute runtime. Based on a short story of the same name by Stephen King ’s son, Joe Hill, the film follows a young boy who gets kidnapped by a notorious child killer and has only a few days to escape before he becomes the man’s next victim.

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The film’s premise supplies it with an easy-to-grasp conflict and enough tension to sustain a feature-length story, and when The Black Phone actually focuses on its young protagonist’s efforts to escape from the soundproofed basement he’s found himself trapped in, it works as a visceral, occasionally spooky horror-thriller. It’s when The Black Phone attempts to bend its thriller plot to be compatible with certain themes about abuse and self-esteem, however, that the film comes up disappointingly short.

Set in the late 1970s, The Black Phone takes place in a suburban Colorado town that has recently found itself living in fear of a notorious child kidnapper known only as “The Grabber” ( Ethan Hawke ). Several children have already gone missing by the time Finney Shaw (Mason Thames), a kindhearted young boy from an abusive home, is drugged and trapped in a basement by Hawke’s sadistic criminal. Shortly after his capture, Finney’s nightmarish entrapment quickly takes a surreal turn when the disconnected phone that hangs from one of the basement’s walls begins to ring.

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When Finney answers the phone, he discovers that it allows him to communicate with the ghosts of the children that The Grabber has previously killed. The film then follows Finney as he attempts to escape from his captor’s basement by using the knowledge and advice of those who have already been trapped there. At the same time, Finney’s younger sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), finds herself experiencing otherworldly visions and dreams, which she uses to try and discover where her brother is being kept.

Gwen’s quest allows Derrickson to frequently cut away from Finney’s imprisonment in The Grabber’s basement — gifting the film with moments of brief humor and reprieve from the claustrophobic tension of its central sequences. That said, Derrickson, who has returned to the horror genre after briefly taking a detour into the MCU, never misses a chance to ratchet up the tension as much as possible during the film’s Grabber scenes. One midpoint sequence involving a bike lock, in particular, easily ranks as one of the tensest stretches of any film released so far this year.

However, The Grabber’s imprisonment of Finney is not the only form of abuse that’s depicted in The Black Phone . The film’s overlong opening act is relentlessly violent and that’s true without even counting certain scenes involving Finney and Gwen’s abusive father, Terrence (Jeremy Davies), one of which sees him repeatedly beat Gwen with his belt while Finney watches helplessly from across the room. The sequence in question is shockingly brutal, and it sets a mean-spirited tone that’s difficult for The Black Phone to shake off from that point on.

Derrickson, to his credit, remains as talented as ever at making the violence in his films feel visceral and authentic, but depicting real-world, grounded forms of violence like child abuse requires a level of deftness and sensitivity that The Black Phone lacks. The film’s early instances of mundane violence only begin to stand out more, however, once certain dreamlike elements are introduced.

Derrickson uses the film’s titular phone to conjure several inspired, memorable images, like that of a child’s ghost hanging upside down in one corner of The Grabber’s basement, the youngster’s presence initially made clear only by the sound of their blood perpetually dripping onto the floor. In several of the film’s most visually inspired moments, Finney also sees the phone expand and shrink at the same measured pace as a heart. Combined, these images inject The Black Phone with several refreshing, dreamlike moments of grim escapism, which make the otherwise all-too-real horror of Finney’s situation slightly easier to take.

As Finney, Thames turns in a surprisingly assured, measured performance. McGraw also shines as Gwen, Finney’s feisty and caring younger sister, and the ride-or-die bond that exists between Gwen and Finney is easily the most emotionally affecting element of The Black Phone . Hawke, meanwhile, turns in a reliably charismatic, in-your-face performance as the film’s blandly named villain. As is usually the case with Hawke’s characters, he manages to add several more shades to someone who is rather thinly sketched.

But for as effective as the performances in The Black Phone are, nothing in the film is strong enough to save it from itself. The film’s attempts to say anything of worth about abuse are, at best, muddled and unclear and, at worst, deeply troubling. Not content with allowing the film to exist solely as an exercise in tension and suspense, Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill attempt to turn The Black Phone into a kind of coming-of-age tale for Thames’ Finney. Consequently, the film goes out of its way in its first act to establish Finney as a young man incapable of fighting back against his abusers. It’s a flaw the film argues he needs to overcome.

In certain contexts, that would be a powerful and worthwhile message, but it’s one that doesn’t really work here. The film’s belief in the necessity of fighting back is commendable, but less so when it tries to send that message while also telling a story about a boy who is repeatedly physically abused by his father. Beyond that, using his imprisonment and kidnapping as the dramatic event that gives Finney confidence that he needs to talk to the girl he’s always had a crush on is a wildly misguided idea — one that greatly underplays the severity of the kind of trauma and abuse that Finney experiences throughout The Black Phone .

With that in mind, it’s hard to talk about The Black Phone without thinking of Leigh Whannell’s modern take on The Invisible Man . That 2020 thriller attempts to use a heightened genre story as a vehicle to investigate the complexities of abuse in much the same way that The Black Phone does. But what The Invisible Man understands that The Black Phone doesn’t is that personal abuse, whether it’s coming from a parent or partner, isn’t something you beat — it’s something you survive . Apparently, that’s a call the makers of The Black Phone didn’t receive.

The Black Phone hits theaters on Friday, June 24.

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Barbarian is a true swing for the fences. The film, which marks writer-director Zach Cregger’s solo directorial debut, is a horror mash-up that seems in certain moments like a modern riff on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and at other times like a loving homage to the kind of campy horror comedies that Sam Raimi has perfected. When it’s at its best is when Barbarian feels like it is combining those influences to become a horror ride that is simultaneously absurd and terrifying.

More than anything else, Barbarian is unlike anything else you’ll see in a movie theater this year. That kind of remark doesn’t always equal praise. Uniqueness alone is, after all, not enough to save a movie that is otherwise coming apart at the seams. In the case of Barbarian, though, the film's commitment to delivering a genuinely unpredictable and tonally-challenging experience is what makes it so memorable. To watch it is to get swept up not only in the dramatic stakes of the film’s story but also in the audacious, go-for-broke creative spirit at the center of it.

Regardless of how much they might suggest otherwise, no one wants to be seen as uncool. Who Invited Them, the new horror comedy from writer-director Duncan Birmingham, understands that. To its credit, the film also understands that a person's desire to be accepted and welcomed by those they admire can, in certain instances, lead them to ignore their own instincts and perform acts that they wouldn’t normally consider doing.

Consequently, while Who Invited Them never quite reaches the heights it would need to in order to be considered one of this year’s genre gems, it does manage to steal a trick from every great horror movie’s playbook. The film, which premieres exclusively on Shudder this week, weaponizes its characters’ core desires and forces them into a situation that only grows weirder and more distressing the further into its runtime Who Invited Them gets.

The Invitation wears its influences on its sleeve. The film’s moody, effectively spooky opening prologue, which throws viewers headfirst into the deserted halls of a creepy British mansion on one fateful night, feels like something that could have been ripped right out of a Guillermo del Toro film. Its premise, meanwhile, feels so strikingly similar to that of 2019’s Ready or Not that the YouTube page for The Invitation’s spoilerific first trailer is filled with comments comparing the two films.

In a sense, there’s something endearing about how obviously indebted The Invitation is to filmmakers like del Toro and modern horror thrillers like Ready or Not. But The Invitation also makes a classic mistake. It is, after all, commonly understood that acknowledging one’s influences is only a good idea if you’re capable of delivering something that still feels new and fresh. The Invitation doesn’t manage to do either. Instead, the ambitious, overlong new film packs neither the bite nor the thrills present in so many of its genre predecessors.

'The Black Phone' Review: Don't Answer That Call

The Grabber's gonna get you!

The Black Phone was probably the horror movie I was most excited for this year. Based on a Joe Hill short story, and directed by Scott Derrickson , who directed one of my favorite recent horror films, Sinister , it seemed to have everything going for it. I was ready to love it.

And yet, I did not.

Set in 1978, in a small, working-class suburb in West Denver, the town has been besieged by a series of child kidnappings. Interestingly, no one seems particularly terrified by these seizures. There has been no curfew installed, and no one seems to change their daily routines. It’s weirdly background fodder. Maybe because our main kids, siblings Finney ( Mason Thames ) and Gwen ( Madeleine McGraw ), have an abusive, alcoholic father and neighborhood bullies to deal with. They can’t be worried about The Grabber ( Ethan Hawke ) – as the news stations have dubbed him – getting his grubby paws on them.

Until he does. Driving around in a black Abracadabra-branded minivan, The Grabber uses a bouquet of black balloons to hide a canister of gas which he uses to knock out his victim. He uses this on Finney as he is walking home from school. When Finney wakes, he is in a soundproofed basement, with only a bare mattress, a toilet, several rolled-up rugs, and a disconnected black phone on the wall.

Though that phone is disconnected, it still rings, and on the other end are the ghosts of the boys who had been kidnapped before Finney. They all offer various tips on how to escape, but none of them work. On the outside, Gwen has vaguely psychic dreams that she – and the police – hope will lead them to her brother. These dreams were a gift that was handed down from her mother, who killed herself over her own “gifts.” Gwen’s psychic gifts felt like an afterthought, or an underdeveloped red herring. It felt shoehorned into the story.

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I am probably going to sound like a sadist for saying this… but there didn’t feel like there was any real danger for Finney here. He spent most of his time alone, in that basement. The Grabber didn’t touch him. He didn’t threaten him. He hardly even came downstairs and did anything weird or alarming. He could have done a bizarre dance or told a befuddling joke… anything, really. He had virtually no contact with Finney at all. It was mostly just Finney and the ghosts of dead children trying to figure a way out.

On top of that, we never knew anything about The Grabber. I’m not talking about knowing his motivation; we knew nothing . We don’t know anything other than he likes to abduct and kill adolescent boys, and there is a hint at the beginning that he was once held in a basement like the one he holds Finney in. That’s it. If we are getting a hint that he was abused as a kid, I want to know more, I want to know how that translates into a troubled adulthood. How does the mask tie into that? Why does he panic if it is removed? Is he really a magician? Why is the color black so important to him? How does he choose his victims? How long does he keep them alive? When and how does he decide to kill them? Is it a ritualized murder?

There are very few classic hallmarks of horror films in The Black Phone. They arrive in the third act, but before that, it is a lot of… nothing. Talking. No cat-and-mouse chasing. No killing. Not even any suspense. You know Finney has been kidnapped; you know who took him; you know that the previous kids are dead.

I will say that things picked up at the end, but I don’t want to say anything more for fear of spoiling it. But boy… it was a struggle getting there.

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Smaller films hit april doldrums – specialty box office, ‘the black phone’ cinemacon review: a scary ethan hawke and terrific young stars make this thriller a blumhouse best.

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Hopefully audiences won’t be put off by that approach, because this is a truly effective movie that defies easy description but should appeal to a wider crowd. It originally premiered at the 2021 Fantastic Fest and was planned for a January release but Blum and the studio felt it needed to be seen in theaters, thus the smart move to a prime summer slot and exclusive theatrical run.

Based on the 2014 Joe Hill short story comparisons to Stephen King, and particularly It, will be inevitable, but The Black Phone marches to its own beat as we are introduced to its protagonist, young teen Finney Shaw ( Mason Thames ), an ace baseball pitcher who nevertheless finds himself subjected to constant harm by school bullies, as well as a single alcoholic father (Jeremy Davies) who is in over his head in raising Finney and his younger, foul-mouthed but quite religious sister Gwen ( Madeleine McGraw ). Gwen’s psychic dreams are given credence by local authorities (if not her own dad, who physically abuses her and orders her to stop) when she is able to pinpoint an abduction of one of the Colorado town’s young teen boys.

It seems a serial killer is on the loose and several boys are disappearing. Little does she know her beloved brother is about to become one of them as a black van stops and a clown-like magician (Hawke) appears, and using a gaggle of black balloons knocks out Finney and throws him into the back of the vehicle. Finney soon finds himself locked away in a basement, the latest victim of The Grabber as Hawke’s disturbed and masked man is known in the town. Assured he will suffer no harm, a cat-and-mouse game ensues between them. A black dial-up phone on the wall which The Grabber said was inoperative starts ringing and Finney finds himself in conversations with previous victims, now dead, but offering tips on how to escape without getting caught, something each of them failed to do. Meanwhile, the feisty and determined Gwen begins her own dreamlike quest to find the whereabouts of her brother and bring him to safety.

The best movies of any genre are the ones that focus on character giving us a reason to root for them. These filmmakers put the thrills and chills (and there are many) in second position to favor advancing a story that also stands in as an allegory for the terrors of growing up and losing the innocence of childhood in a very dark world, this one inhabited not just by The Grabber, but also bullies who mercilessly beat up their fearful schoolmates, unhinged parents, and other realities of life. The Black Phone may also be known someday as a star-making film, with both Thames perfectly anchoring the story as Finney, a kid whose own awkwardness and eventual determination to survive has us cheering for him, and particularly McGraw, who steals every scene she has with a seeming ease that says this movie will not be the last we hear of her. She is a true standout.

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All the teen roles are well played in fact, and there is some amusing support from James Ransone as a drug-addicted guy named Max who basically does lines of coke upstairs as dire things happen in the basement below. Hawke really ventures out of his usual zone here but gives this non-descript killer more than one dimension, all the while hiding behind a gross mask. That’s acting.

The Black Phone is certainly not the highest-profile summer offering studios have on display this week at CinemaCon, but I have a feeling it is one that could turn into a major sleeper hit when Universal releases it June 24. It is a highly entertaining and gripping thriller of the best kind, one where the horrors of everyday life are not all that easy to escape.

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‘The Black Phone’: Who Wants a Lazy Serial-Killer Thriller?

By A.A. Dowd

What serial killer worth his weight in dismembered corpses would be happy with a moniker as uncreative and flatly descriptive as “the Grabber?” That’s the name either a lazy detective or a reporter on deadline has bestowed upon the 1970s child-murdering villain Ethan Hawke plays in The Black Phone , a gloomy new Blumhouse thriller from director Scott Derrickson ( Sinister, Doctor Strange ). At least the killer looks creepy enough, issuing casual threats from behind a kabuki-like mask that magically changes expression to match his shifting moods. We’re guessing it slumped out of toothy rictus grin and into a pouty frown when the bad guy first saw his unchosen nom de guerre splashed across a front page.

The Grabber seems to have put most of his creative energy towards his facewear. There’s nothing terribly distinctive or elaborate about his methods, which amount to locking kids away in his dungeon, taunting them with condescending remarks, and then just kind of waiting for them to mount a feeble escape attempt, after which he can justify doing his grisly thing. Hawke brings a certain spooky nonchalance to the role, conveying the mundanity of evil through the uninflected naturalism of his delivery. But he’s playing a rather low-concept psychopath, too lethargic to develop much of a gimmick or even the impression of a fearsomely fucked-up pathology.

Much of the movie takes place in that aforementioned dungeon: a soundproofed basement with a dirty mattress, a single high window, and the rotary device of the title. It’s here that 13-year-old Finney (newcomer Mason Thames) is dismayed to discover that he’s joined the gallery of kids with their names and faces plastered on posters all over town. Finney, a quiet loner type, might be doomed to meet the same fate as those before him were it not for a rather literal lifeline: That supposedly non-functioning phone periodically rings, and on the other end are the voices of the Grabber’s slain victims, all offering advice on how the boy might avoid making the same mistakes they did and capitalize on their combined knowledge of the property.

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The premise is reasonably clever and gripping. It comes from a short story by Joe Hill, son of none other than Stephen King. The Grabber’s hunting grounds are the northern suburbs of Denver circa ’78, all bell bottoms, FM radio hits and rabbit-ear TVs. But any viewer up on their tales of missing kids in deceptively idyllic small-town America could be forgiven for mistaking this real place for one of King’s haunted Maine burgs. Mean bullies, abusive and neglectful grownups, tween losers racing away on their bicycles — it’s all very Derry. In fact, the movie often plays like another Stranger Things dilution, watering down the paperback thrills of literature’s reigning master of horror into an inferior throwback substitution. Do we mention that the Grabber lures his prey with a bundle of black balloons?

Hill, to his credit, doesn’t offer quite so many blatant nods to his father’s work. On the page, The Black Phone is ruthlessly efficient — a lean, mean, 30-page survival yarn, King-ish mostly in its punchy prose. But in expanding this short story into a feature-length movie, Derrickson fatally slackens the tension. His script, co-authored with regular collaborator C. Robert Cargill, lingers on generic coming-of-age business before getting to the kidnapping, then keeps cutting away from Finney’s dilemma for curiously perfunctory scenes with his clairvoyant, annoyingly precocious little sister (Madeleine McGraw), who curses like a sailor and “comically” bargains with Jesus. The bumbling local cops seem to gather all their leads from her vaguely promontory dreams. Also ineffectually on the case is an amateur gumshoe (ace character actor James Ransone) too dim to realize just how close to the truth he really is. Where’s Clarice Starling, or even a nominally competent manhunter, when you need her?

Derrickson, returning to his genre roots after a brief toil in the Marvel content mill, is capable of tauter entertainment. A decade ago, he corralled both Hawke and Ransone into Sinister , a much more effective Stephen King riff about children imperiled by a malevolent stalker. That horror movie had real ideas about the divided priorities of its protagonist, a writer endangering his family for the sake of his breadwinning work. More importantly, perhaps, it was just really scary — an expertly paced haunted-house movie that used snippets of celluloid surveillance to worm effortlessly under the viewer’s skin.

The Black Phone , which similarly steers into the occasional 8mm-stock detour, only gets a few drops of genuine suspense from its familiar conceit. The ending is an easy layup, all but guaranteed to inspire applause, but it could have really killed if the Grabber’s gauntlet of terror, well, grabbed us harder throughout. The guy’s an eerie mask in search of a bona fide bogeyman; he’s no more genuinely unsettling than what you’d find lining the strip-mall shelves of a Spirit Halloween . And to pull back the film’s own Pennywisian mask of derivative fright-making is to find nothing much underneath.

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The Black Phone movie review & film summary (2022)
Advertisement. "The Black Phone" is a saga of support and resilience disguised as a semi-paranormal serial murderer flick. Underpinned by emotional performances across the board and a commanding atmosphere, "The Black Phone" aces its foundational qualities and allows its nuances to take control. The gore is secondary to the story, with ...
The Black Phone
The Black Phone is a faithful adaptation that is absolutely worth a watch. Rated 4/5 Stars • Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review Galen M This one pleasantly surprised me.
The Black Phone
Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 31, 2023. The Black Phone carries a horror premise with a supernatural touch full of potential, but it plays too safe by betting on a narrative that's too ...
'The Black Phone' Review: The Dead Have Your Number
More touching than terrifying, Scott Derrickson's "Black Phone" is less a horror movie than a coming-of-age ghost story. In place of gouting gore and surging fright, this enjoyable ...
The Black Phone (2021)
The Black Phone: Directed by Scott Derrickson. With Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Ethan Hawke, Jeremy Davies. After being abducted by a child killer and locked in a soundproof basement, a 13-year-old boy starts receiving calls on a disconnected phone from the killer's previous victims.
'The Black Phone' Review: Ethan Hawke as a Serial Killer
'The Black Phone' Review: Ethan Hawke in a Serial-Killer Movie with Some Nightmare Images but Less Fear Than Meets the Eye Reviewed at Tribeca Film Festival, June 18, 2022.
The Black Phone Review
Childhood is terrifying. This is an advance, spoiler-free review of The Black Phone, which will debut in theaters on Feb. 2, 2022. The Black Phone had big shoes to fill. Nearly a decade ago, the ...
'The Black Phone' Review
Director: Scott Derrickson. Screenwriters: Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill. Rated R, 1 hour 42 minutes. Like the boogeyman in King's It, the Grabber approaches his prey in the garb of a ...
The Black Phone review
The Black Phone review - Ethan Hawke shines in a supernatural chiller. A fter a brief but well-regarded segue into the Marvel universe with Doctor Strange, director Scott Derrickson returns to ...
'The Black Phone' Review: Scott Derrickson Adapts Joe Hill
Adapted from Joe Hill's short story of the same name, " The Black Phone " is a sleek, stressful, and violent slice of horror that captures the audience's emotions as quickly as the film ...
'The Black Phone' Review: A Thrilling And Terrifying Crowd-Pleaser
Universal. The Black Phone (2022) Blumhouse Productions/rated R/102 minutes. Directed by Scott Derrickson. Produced by Jason Blum, Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill. Written by Scott ...
Movie Review: The Black Phone, with Ethan Hawke
Movie Review: In The Black Phone, a new horror film based on a Joe Hill story, Ethan Hawke plays a creepy psycho called The Grabber who kidnaps teenage boys. James Ransone, Jeremy Davies, and ...
The Black Phone review
This is watchable entertainment that achieves a reasonable altitude with its jump-scares, and whose suspense-thriller aspect keeps it engaging on a human level: but there's a kind of plot issue ...
The Black Phone
Finney Shaw, a shy but clever 13-year-old boy, is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement where screaming is of little use. When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer's previous victims. And they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn't happen to Finney.
The Black Phone Review
The Black Phone Review. Denver, 1978. Teenager Finney (Mason Thames) and his little sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) live under the threat of violence from their alcoholic father (Jeremy Davies ...
The Black Phone Movie Review
Parents need to know that The Black Phone is a horror movie about a kidnapped teen (Mason Thames) who gets supernatural help while trying to escape from his maniacal kidnapper.It's a solid, visceral thriller, albeit one that's full of peril and violence involving young teens. There are scenes of brutal, bloody bullying, including bashing a head with a rock, use of a switchblade, punching ...
The Black Phone (2021)
Permalink. 7/10. Works well with its interesting premise and features some solid performances from its cast. MrDHWong 25 August 2022. "The Black Phone" is a horror film based on the short story of the same name by Joe Hill. Directed by Scott Derrickson ("The Exorcism of Emily Rose", "Doctor Strange") and starring Ethan Hawke, it works well with ...
Review: Thriller 'The Black Phone' is captivating, really
The kid-centric thriller "The Black Phone" is a very satisfying balancing act of a movie that has elements of supernatural, psychological suspense and horror but never falls heavily into a single camp. It also has one of the most satisfying ending of a horror-thriller in recent years. The film — set in northern Denver in 1978 — follows ...
The Black Phone review: A spooky, surface-level thriller
The Black Phone hits theaters on Friday, June 24. Editors' Recommendations. 3 underrated Peacock horror movies you need to watch in February 10 best social horror and thriller movies, ranked ...
'The Black Phone' Review: Don't Answer That Call
The Black Phone was probably the horror movie I was most excited for this year. Based on a Joe Hill short story, and directed by Scott Derrickson, who directed one of my favorite recent horror ...
'The Black Phone' Review: A Scary Ethan Hawke And Terrific ...
The Black Phone may also be known someday as a star-making film, with both Thames perfectly anchoring the story as Finney, a kid whose own awkwardness and eventual determination to survive has us ...
Review: Is 'The Black Phone' the Laziest Serial-Killer Thriller Ever?
'The Black Phone' lets Ethan Hawke play a creepy '70s serial killer—but everything else about this horror movie is a missed call. Our review.
The Black Phone
The Black Phone is a 2021 American supernatural horror film directed by Scott Derrickson and written by Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill, who both produced with Jason Blum.It is an adaptation of the 2004 short story of the same name by Joe Hill.The film stars Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, James Ransone, and Ethan Hawke.In the film, an abducted teenager (Finney Blake played by ...

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50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

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50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

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Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

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Parents' Guide to Podcasts

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Explaining the News to Our Kids

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Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

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Dark and intense thriller following a kidnapped teen is violent and heavy on the language

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