Saw a few reviews and learned about this new drop. Usually, I don't keep track of what's on the list going to be released or things like that. I just write down recommendations on a watchlist, or pick randomly sorting via my favorite genre. It's only been a month and its thriller/horror genre made me tempted to go for it.
The Black Phone is a thriller film with some supernatural horror scenes. I would take this as a thriller one as those horror scenes are only a few to count. This one is directed by Scott Derrickson and based on a short story written by Joe Hill.
The base story is kinda simple, about child abductions. There is a kidnapper who kidnaps kids from that city continuously and leaves behind some black balloons, and serial killer stuffs, leaving behind his identical traces. So this role of the grabber is played by Ethan Hawke.
Another two interesting characters are Mason Thames as Finney and Madeleine McGraw as Gwen, they are siblings. I really loved them, if I kept aside those thriller and horror scenes, I would still appreciate their bonding and performance. So the boys, two of them were from Finney's school and many more got kidnapped. And on the other hand, Gwen gets dreams about those kidnaps, isn't it strange? Actually, she has got this from her mother, she used to get them too, in one scene Gwen's abusive and alcoholic father tells this.
So the main thing is that Finney gets kidnapped too, locked in a soundproof basement. So the naming of the movie comes from that basement, a black telephone which is out of line, with no scope of communication. But, Finney gets calls from the previous victims of the grabber, who are dead by now. They instruct him in various ways but none of them seems to work out perfectly.
It might give you a feel of another famous horror thriller film 'IT' but yeah, this one is amazing too. With the role of the grabber, Ethan Hawke did well, though most of his scenes were behind a mask of a monster. Finney and Gwen did well too, also the character of their abusive father played by Jeremy Davies as Terrence.
It could be a spoiler but there are two of the best scenes that I am gonna remember from the movie. One is horror and the other one is courageous. In one scene Gwen's father beats her through a belt and then she holds the bottle of alcohol, threatening him that she would drop it, Terrence threatens to beat her even more yet she drops it. And the other one is during a phone call we get to see one of the dead victims standing beside Finney, I got so scared on that scene that I almost dropped the water glass from my hand, what a bad timing it was!
Overall I will say this one was good. If you are a thriller lover and also want to have a taste of mild horror then go for it. The runtime is also not so long, it's worth watching. I would like to rate it 7.5 out of 10.
