High-schooler Finney (Mason Thames) has problems of his own, thanks to a frankly startling level of violent bullying at his school and a drunken, controlling father (Jeremy Davies) at home. His younger sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) is in the same boat, only with less bullying and more creepy dreams that sometimes come true.
The Black Phone is not a story that leans heavily on surprise. With its supernatural themes, psychic kids, insanely violent bullies, deeply flawed parents, small town vibe, and fondness for catchphrases ("your arm is mint"), this would almost count as Stephen King fanfic if it wasn't based on a short story by Joe Hill, who happens to be King's son.
Once Finney gets grabbed, what follows is basically a puzzle game where the spirits of the Grabber's previous victims provide advice on what escape options turn out to be dead ends. They do this via a disconnected phone on the wall of the basement where Finney is trapped, which is exactly the kind of creepy device we need more of in horror even if it does make you wonder if ghosts are behind all those mystery spam calls everyone gets today.
This is a lean storytelling machine, constantly moving forward in a way that isn't always as scary as it could be but is never less than firmly watchable. If characterisation can't be done in thirty seconds or less then it's not done at all; the ghosts can't remember their names because they don't matter any more.
The fast pace - we haven't even covered Gwen's street level search for Finney - helps skim past some serious questions, like "if everyone knows the teens are being grabbed off the streets because the kidnapper is literally called 'The Grabber' why aren't the police watching that sketchy dude who drives around in a black van?"
Another question is, what if the Grabber (Ethan Hawke) was right? All the teens here are brutally and casually violent, even by King family standards. Heads are bashed with rocks, knives are pulled at the convenience store, and pummeling a bully until your knuckles bleed for hours is a heroic deed. The main character arc of the story is "grow up and kill someone"... so yeah, maybe it's a good thing these kids are being killed before they get old enough to do some serious damage.
Slightly more seriously, Hill is a hardcore horror guy so even though the story itself is basically video game problem solving, he - and director Scott Derrickson - create a strong, dingy vibe to life above ground and below, while fitting in a decent amount of creepy stuff around the edges. At heart The Black Phone is a well-oiled suspense thriller where angry ghosts provide plot shortcuts, but the horror moments can be genuinely disturbing.
The idea of the dead kid's spirits crumbling away in the afterlife is unsettling, while Hawke's masked killer has a personal narrative we only get glimpses of. Hawke doesn't get a lot of screentime, but his off-kilter performance speaks volumes (or at least enough to make him chillingly memorable). He's unknowable while being all-too-human; his biggest mistake might have been keeping decent steaks in the fridge.
- Anthony Morris
