A film review by Craig J. Koban October 26, 2022

THE BLACK PHONE ½ 

2022, R, 102 mins.

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

It seems that Disney's loss was the horror film world's gain with Scott Derrickson's THE BLACK PHONE, a stupendously well oiled and intensely thrilling new supernatural horror film.  

The writer/director may be familiar to super hero film fans for his work on the first DOCTOR STRANGE solo entry for the MCU, but hopes of him returning for the sequel were crushed when he abruptly left the production due to creative differences, leaving THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS being helmed by Sam Raimi instead.  Derrickson deserved serious props for tackling such a challenging comic book character and making the most of his foray in the genre, but all disappointing thoughts about what could have been if he quarterbacked DOCTOR STRANGE 2 are all but forgotten with THE BLACK PHONE, which was shot for almost nothing (well, at least compared to a MCU effort), but still looks as polished and precise as anything triple its price tag.  That, and the filmmaker's first film in six years is a small scale triumph as an endlessly unnerving and spooky coming of age period film that delves into one highly resilient kid fending himself off from a vile serial kidnapper/killer. 

While watching the opening sections of THE BLACK PHONE it's easy to question whether or not this is even a horror thriller at all.  Set in 1970s Denver, we're introduced to young Finney (Mason Thames) as he's playing a Little League game and very early on Derrickson does a bravura job of immediately immersing audiences in the sights and sounds of the bell bottomed adorned decade in question.  Finney seems like an ordinary, well rounded, and adjusted kid for the most part, but his home life is a disastrous mess when he and his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) have to deal with the frequent mental and physical abuse of their widowed alcoholic father (Jeremy Davies, who seems to have made a career out of playing disturbing wackos).  Beyond that, Finney is the subject of aggressive bullying at school, meaning that he has very few areas to escape to and away from all of this torment.  The whole town is on edge with the shocking appearance of The Grabber (a mostly masked Ethan Hawke, re-teaming with Derrickson after SINISTER), a deranged maniac that has been having his way with local school children and all while evading police capture.  Compellingly, Finney's young sister seems to have some sort of psychic ability to re-experience the horrors of these abducted children in her dreams, which makes her a person of interest to detectives that are desperate to find any clue that might help them nab The Grabber once and for all. 

Poor Finney is unable to avoid this psychopath, and on one fateful day he is ruthlessly drugged and taken by The Grabber.  When the traumatized boy awakens he finds himself in a grimly dark basement with no apparent exits available to him.  For all intents and purposes, he's trapped and unable to go anywhere, but his masked abductor doesn't seem to have any quick plans to murder him and instead opts to wage psychological war against him.  Having to deal with this freak of nature and a basement dwelling that might as well be a dungeon is traumatic enough, but Finney tries to pull himself together to find a way to get out of there alive.  There's a strange black rotary phone in the room, which The Grabber has gone out of his way to tell Finney doesn't work, but it does ring out and when Finney answers it appears that one of The Grabber's dead victims speaks to him beyond the grave.  This victim also gives him advice on how to escape, but just as he attempts to do so he's greeted by another call from the black phone and this time it's another deceased victim that pleads with Finney that there's another way out that's better and won't tip off The Grabber.  Concurrent to this is Gwen having visions of her brother's captivity and escape plan, which she relays to her father and the authorities.  

It should be noted that THE BLACK PHONE is based on a 2004 short story by Joe Hill, who's the son of Stephen King, and it's abundantly apparent - in mostly successful ways - how much of a shadow of influence that his father has over his story, especially in the way that it deals with adolescents and their brush with horror in a small town setting.  One thing that Derrickson (who co-wrote the film with his DOCTOR STRANGE writer F. Robert Cargill) wisely understands is that this story needs room to breath, so they don't rush things out of the gate.  The Grabber doesn't even make a physical appearance until deep into the film, which makes his frightening presence even more established and pronounced (he's scary because of the implied threat that he can come out from the shadows at any moment and snatch any kid in his vicinity).  Before all of this, however, Derrickson and company display great patience in grounding us in Finney's school and home life on top of nurturing the unique dynamic that he has with his baby sister.  In the early stages, THE BLACK PHONE has the look and feel of just about any other 70s themed coming of age drama, but when the film segues to its heart of darkness with its introduction of The Grabber it becomes more hauntingly bleak by the minute.  The early sections are all about establishing Finney's normal middle class suburban life, and when he has his existence shattered by being taken and thrown in The Grabber's sound and escape proof basement the film's real carnival of terror begins.   

And the character dynamics between brother and sister here are paramount to what comes later for them, and it's a testament to Derrickson's measured approach that he doesn't pepper his horror tale with obligatory gore and jump scares too early.  He respects his young characters and wants to get into their respective head spaces to fully understand their individual frailties and concerns.  Yes, Gwen is established with some sort of unexplained clairvoyant gifts, to be sure, but she's not treated here as some super powered being that's impossible to relate to or understand.  She has a loving and protective bond with her brother that's authentically rendered and dramatically grounds the story even when it takes more fantastical twists and turns.  And speaking of fantastical, THE BLACK PHONE's very premise is a hypnotically potent one and not one based on purely terrorizing viewers.  The whole idea of a kidnapped kid trapped in a basement with a phone that he can't use to make calls, but does mystically allow calls incoming to him from the previous dead victims of his kidnapper is boldly original for the manner explores themes of shared trauma and how victims from different walks of life bind together to overcome said trauma.  It's telling that the film is set in the 1970s, because it feels like a product of that era.  THE BLACK PHONE is a throwback picture in more ways that one; it's literal time setting also spiritually harkens back to a time when horror films were more about fostering an undulating sensation of dread and suspense first and blood spewing violence a distant second. 

Again, THE BLACK PHONE was shot with relatively modest means (a reported budget of well under $20 million, bankrolled by Blumhouse), but stylistically the film is richly envisioned and maintained.  The fashions and decor are on point without coming off as garishly laughable (that's tricky for most 70s era films), not to mention that Derrickson litters his film with tunes of the period that sometimes makes it simmer with the cool vibes of a DAZED AND CONFUSED before it.  Of course, the mask of idealized suburban quaintness is lifted when the story transitions into the horrid basement that imprisons Finney, and from that point THE BLACK PHONE fully embraces all of its macabre nastiness and taps into tangible real life fears of being kidnapped while young by a rampaging serial killer.  Hawke is an inspired choice to play this creepy villain, and he has the thorny task of emoting through various masks throughout.  The way he speaks to Finney (and his past prey) with the plain and soft spoken disposition of a kindergarten teacher makes him almost more unsettling (his grotesque masks don't help either).  Hawke is flanked well by his supporting cast, especially with the tandem of young Thames and McGraw who foster tangible chemistry and effortlessly make you believe that they're flesh and blood siblings.  Plus, I appreciated how Thames in particular feels like a real vulnerable teen versus the kind of overwritten young protagonists that seem like the product of an adult screenwriter.  Like the adolescent heavy IT, THE BLACK PHONE is exceptionally well cast and exemplarily performed as far as it youth cast goes.