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The Black Phone, 2021
Finn (Mason Thames) is a teenager living in a Colorado suburb in the late 1970s, where there's a spate of child abductions. Finn lives with his alcoholic father (Jeremy Davies) and sort-of psychic sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw). Despite his generally cautious nature, Finn is kidnapped one day by the Grabber (Ethan Hawke), who stashes the boy in an enormous--but soundproof--basement. As Finn tries to survive his captivity, and unconnected phone on the wall rings. When Finn answers it, he finds himself speaking with the spirits of the Grabber's past victims.
This film is an adaptation of Joe Hill's short story of the same name from the collection 20th Century Ghosts. Adapting a short story into a feature length film rarely results in something great, but this is a solid enough flick thanks to the premise and engaging performances from the cast.
The original story took place entirely inside the basement room. It makes sense that in adapting the story, subplots outside of Finn's captivity would be added, and they have quite the range of success.
The best subplot is Gwen's ability to see glimpses of the crimes in her dreams. Living in the shadow of her mother--a woman who had similar abilities but who also eventually took her own life--Gwen has had it literally beaten into her by their father that she is not to take her dreams seriously. McGraw is really likable in the role, at times saving some dicey or overly cutesy dialogue. (Kids swearing is an unending source of amusement to the writers of this film.)
Less successful is the time given to two detectives working the case. They are ludicrous at best, and extraneous and useless at worst. Similarly a subplot about a man who is determined to piece together the case, complete with conspiracy board, does not earn any kind of worthwhile payoff.
The central horror of the film--Finn's captivity and the sadism of his captor--works well thanks to an engaging performance by Thames and some committed physicality by Hawke, who isn't given a ton to work with dialogue-wise, but makes for an imposing and eerie presence. The Grabber's motives, and even what specifically he does to the children he kidnaps, are left largely unspoken except for hints here and there. It makes it both a bit more palatable and a lot creepier to watch.
The scenes where Finn talks to the previous murder victims are staged in different ways, and for the most part they work pretty well. Whoever cast these small roles did a good job of finding charismatic and fun actors to play the parts, especially Miguel Cazarez Mora as Robin, a tough kid who nonetheless is a good friend to Finn.
There are plenty of "wait a minute . . . " moments here that don't totally add up. And the portrayals of fights between middle school kids are so over-the-top violent that it's almost laughable. (During several fights between kids we see multiple blows that would have left the kids with fractured skulls, if not just out and out dead.) And like I wrote earlier, there are definitely moments where you can sense the film struggling to fill the time to be a full-length feature.
Still, overall, not a bad film at all and grounded by two child protagonists who are easy to root for and some genuinely creepy moments.
The Black Phone, 2021
Finn (Mason Thames) is a teenager living in a Colorado suburb in the late 1970s, where there's a spate of child abductions. Finn lives with his alcoholic father (Jeremy Davies) and sort-of psychic sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw). Despite his generally cautious nature, Finn is kidnapped one day by the Grabber (Ethan Hawke), who stashes the boy in an enormous--but soundproof--basement. As Finn tries to survive his captivity, and unconnected phone on the wall rings. When Finn answers it, he finds himself speaking with the spirits of the Grabber's past victims.
This film is an adaptation of Joe Hill's short story of the same name from the collection 20th Century Ghosts. Adapting a short story into a feature length film rarely results in something great, but this is a solid enough flick thanks to the premise and engaging performances from the cast.
The original story took place entirely inside the basement room. It makes sense that in adapting the story, subplots outside of Finn's captivity would be added, and they have quite the range of success.
The best subplot is Gwen's ability to see glimpses of the crimes in her dreams. Living in the shadow of her mother--a woman who had similar abilities but who also eventually took her own life--Gwen has had it literally beaten into her by their father that she is not to take her dreams seriously. McGraw is really likable in the role, at times saving some dicey or overly cutesy dialogue. (Kids swearing is an unending source of amusement to the writers of this film.)
Less successful is the time given to two detectives working the case. They are ludicrous at best, and extraneous and useless at worst. Similarly a subplot about a man who is determined to piece together the case, complete with conspiracy board, does not earn any kind of worthwhile payoff.
The central horror of the film--Finn's captivity and the sadism of his captor--works well thanks to an engaging performance by Thames and some committed physicality by Hawke, who isn't given a ton to work with dialogue-wise, but makes for an imposing and eerie presence. The Grabber's motives, and even what specifically he does to the children he kidnaps, are left largely unspoken except for hints here and there. It makes it both a bit more palatable and a lot creepier to watch.
The scenes where Finn talks to the previous murder victims are staged in different ways, and for the most part they work pretty well. Whoever cast these small roles did a good job of finding charismatic and fun actors to play the parts, especially Miguel Cazarez Mora as Robin, a tough kid who nonetheless is a good friend to Finn.
There are plenty of "wait a minute . . . " moments here that don't totally add up. And the portrayals of fights between middle school kids are so over-the-top violent that it's almost laughable. (During several fights between kids we see multiple blows that would have left the kids with fractured skulls, if not just out and out dead.) And like I wrote earlier, there are definitely moments where you can sense the film struggling to fill the time to be a full-length feature.
Still, overall, not a bad film at all and grounded by two child protagonists who are easy to root for and some genuinely creepy moments.