The Black Phone – Film Review

Finney Shaw is a shy but clever thirteen-year-old boy who’s being held in a soundproof basement by a sadistic, masked killer. When a disconnected phone on the wall starts to ring, he soon discovers that he can hear the voices of the murderer’s previous victims — and they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney.

It’s rare to see a horror film in this day and age that cares so incredibly much about setting up the right atmosphere in order to lure audiences in. Story and characters are always the most important part of any story – and trust me, Scott Derrickson‘s The Black Phone has a masterful story and exceptionally interesting characters – but it also contains some genuinely unsettling world-building that’s been unmatched in 2022.

The world of The Black Phone – an adaptation of Joe Hill’s short story of the same name – is absolutely disgusting and grimy everywhere you look. The very first scene of the film shows our lead protagonist – thirteen-year-old Finney Shaw – playing a game of baseball, where he’s the pitcher.

When many people think of baseball, they think of summertime and sunshine, but this scene is basically a complete reversal. It’s gloomy and dark and dreary, and even though The Grabber is nowhere to be seen, we all get a sinking feeling that some terrible things are going to unfold rather quickly, and yet…

They don’t. Finney finishes his game of baseball and heads home, but not before stopping to talk to the opposing team’s batter who ensures him that his arm is “mint,” a line that actually serves as an extremely important one by the time the film comes to a close.

It’s writing like this that makes The Black Phone stand out as being one of the most well-written horror films in years. Even scenes that initially feel like normal scenes that don’t really serve too much purpose, come back later on and once all the puzzle pieces are put together, it seriously blows your mind.

Screenwriters C. Robert Cargill and Scott Derrickson have written such a polished, well thought-out, and legitimately terrifying story, and one that seems uncomfortably plausible. Sure, the film does dip its toes into the supernatural at times, especially when it comes to the scenes involving the titular black phone, but even those scenes aren’t so outlandish to the point where it takes you out of the film.

Usually in these sequences, we watch Finney as he talks to the spirits of deceased children who also got kidnapped by The Grabber. Of course, since they are spirits, it obviously means that their attempt to break free of The Grabber’s clutches were unsuccessful, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have some wise advice for Finney.

They oftentimes tell him information that will be incredibly vital to him breaking out of the isolated bunker he’s being locked inside. These scenes are not only deeply unsettling, but they are brilliantly written. There’s one scene involving the black phone towards the end that was absolutely genius.

But the core of this movie is really just about a young boy who lives at home with an alcoholic father who wishes for a better life before getting kidnapped by a lunatic in a mask. It’s insanely plausible to the point where it can almost be a little too upsetting to watch.

In my showing of the film, there was a woman – perhaps in her thirties – watching it alongside either her boyfriend or husband, and they were both quite into it. Every time something terrible happened to Finney that set him back one step in his mission, the woman would audibly mumble things such as “Come on, you can do it!,” and “Get that bastard.”

This film works wonders with a crowd because there are a handful of phenomenal moments in the third act in particular that are immensely satisfying to watch. A large part of this film’s creepiness comes from Ethan Hawke‘s bone-chilling performance as The Grabber.

Hawke has been in so many films in the past, and he has an incredibly recognizable face. Yet, despite this, when watching The Black Phone, you never once see him as Ethan Hawke. The actor disappears, and the character of The Grabber takes center stage. As this character, he is haunting and highly unpredictable.

In certain scenes, you may feel as if you have a relatively solid understanding of who this mysterious mask-wearing child abductor is. You may even start to think that you realize what his motive is, but then, the film comes along and changes all of those ideas you had and it forces you to reconsider everything.

So many of his lines in the film are also super mysterious and up for so much interpretation. It’ll certainly be exciting to read some of the fan theories regarding this story on the internet because The Grabber is a complex character and one that’s fascinating to learn more about as the film progresses, but there are still some huge mysteries presented to the audience once the credits roll.

The Black Phone is a bone-chilling and scarily plausible horror-thriller with an incredibly eerie atmosphere, a creepy story, and a haunting lead performance from Ethan Hawke.