523: The Black Phone

[00:00:00] 229. Let's get to The Black Phone from 2021. It's directed by Scott Derrickson, stars Mason Thames, Madeline McGraw, Ethan Hawke, Jeremy Davies.

[00:00:18] And the synopsis is, after being abducted and locked in a basement, a boy starts receiving calls on a disconnected phone from the killer's previous victims.

[00:00:32] While this one was a first time watch for me, I had been meaning to get around to it for a while.

[00:00:39] I had heard fairly good things, surprisingly good things about it. And overall, I thought it was solid.

[00:00:50] I did have a few issues that I could see going away over time and the movie getting better and better.

[00:00:58] One of the best things about it though, Scott Derrickson, who also did the first Doctor Strange,

[00:01:07] the atmosphere, the direction in this is very consistent. That very unsettling, mysterious mood and tone to it.

[00:01:20] It's shot really well. I know they did a lot of Super 8 formats with it and a lot of very traditional styles of filmmaking.

[00:01:29] It almost looks like home video at times, very 70s, 80s, but as authentic as I feel like you could do at this point in time.

[00:01:39] On top of that, nowadays it's pretty hard to create an iconic horror character that hasn't already been established.

[00:01:52] And I think they do that very well with The Grabber, which is played by Ethan Honk.

[00:01:57] It's like him being this serial killer of children, for one, and then a kidnapper, which is how everything gets started.

[00:02:08] And he just goes around in this black van, lures kids into it, and he takes them away to this unknown home.

[00:02:17] All the sequences of the kidnappings are very effective and very chilling, and it's very subtly done with someone just getting out of a black van in the background,

[00:02:30] or you just see the van taking a turn towards the children on the street.

[00:02:38] But more than any of that, the design of the character is fantastic.

[00:02:44] The white mask that covers his whole face, the hat, the very everyday clothing almost looks like a librarian or something.

[00:02:56] The sweaters and checkered plaid button-up shirts and stuff that makes him look very, in some ways, humble and non-threatening.

[00:03:07] The white mask that's being juxtaposed against the super creepy mask, and then how they change the look of the mask,

[00:03:14] and what part of his face is covered throughout the movie.

[00:03:18] Like, sometimes he'll just have the bottom part, sometimes just the top part, or other times all of it.

[00:03:27] It just feels way more thoughtful in that construction than you usually get nowadays in horror.

[00:03:36] Performance-wise, very good across the board, especially the kids.

[00:03:40] You never really know with kids how it's really going to be, but I think everyone is well cast, especially Mason Thames.

[00:03:49] Ethan Hawke, such a great actor. He has such a wide variety of roles and a very underrated character actor, in my opinion.

[00:04:00] He's able to play that villain well, to where it's a little theatrical, it's a little exaggerated, but not so much that it becomes goofy or unrealistic.

[00:04:09] Like, I can buy that he was a real guy in this.

[00:04:13] My main problem, which, as I said earlier, it could change on rewatches.

[00:04:22] The supernatural element of this, which is mainly the black phone in the basement where the kid is trapped.

[00:04:32] He gets calls from the previous victims of the grabber, and they say, hey, this happened to me.

[00:04:41] I made this mistake. I left this piece of rope behind, or this didn't work, this worked, etc., etc.

[00:04:47] And through the power of numbers, which I think is one of the main ideas or messages of the movie, he's able to...

[00:04:56] Spoilers here. He's able to escape.

[00:05:00] Which, I haven't really seen something like that before done in this way, and I thought it was...

[00:05:05] Overall, it was done very confidently, so I was never really second-guessing anything.

[00:05:11] It was frustrating, though. Maybe I'm in the minority, I'm not sure, but...

[00:05:18] I didn't love how it would seemingly switch back between being set in reality to being supernatural.

[00:05:27] Because for the most part, I guess aside from the sister of the main boy,

[00:05:35] everything is pretty much set in a realistic setting.

[00:05:39] But then it would switch back to the sister having these visions, and then, again, the phone calls from all the ghosts.

[00:05:52] So I kind of wish that it had chosen one or the other.

[00:05:59] And while I don't need them to explain the logic of the ghost phone calls,

[00:06:05] it felt sort of out of left field, and there was never really a resolution to that.

[00:06:11] I like the ending, and I appreciate that more and more these days, horror movies, especially when it comes to...

[00:06:23] slashers, serial killers, what have you...

[00:06:26] It's becoming more and more about the victims standing up against the evil.

[00:06:33] Like in Halloween, for example, or Scream.

[00:06:36] And then in this, you see...

[00:06:38] These characters are not helpless anymore.

[00:06:40] I mean, they might be at first when they first get attacked or anything in that realm.

[00:06:45] But by the end, typically, they are standing up for themselves,

[00:06:49] and they're getting the right support group to help them with that as well.

[00:06:56] And that's a very refreshing, empowering message to have in movies that don't necessarily have to have that.

[00:07:04] They're low-budget, violent, dark movies that could easily continue the trend of the classic slashers

[00:07:13] of a bunch of helpless, innocent people get killed, movie over, basically.

[00:07:21] And that's fine sometimes.

[00:07:23] Like, there's nothing really wrong with that.

[00:07:24] But I appreciate that there has been an evolution of those ideas and of those character arcs,

[00:07:30] even in just one movie, not necessarily a whole franchise.

[00:07:36] Besides that, everything with the brother of the Grabber

[00:07:41] and him being obsessed with finding out who the Grabber is and not knowing.

[00:07:48] The sequences of the boy getting out and getting up the stairs

[00:07:53] and then seeing Ethan Hawke just sitting there, usually with his shirt off, with his mask on,

[00:07:59] and staring blankly at the doorway.

[00:08:02] Or sometimes he falls asleep or breathing really creepily.

[00:08:06] It's something that could easily be laughable and takes you out of it.

[00:08:12] But I don't think it ever comes close to that.

[00:08:17] When the boy does, at least for a moment, escape, and he gets out the door and he's running down the street,

[00:08:22] but the Grabber is able to get him and he puts his hand over his mouth

[00:08:27] and he waits for all the neighbors who heard the commotion to turn off the lights

[00:08:32] and then takes them back to the basement.

[00:08:38] The score by Mark Corvin is very good.

[00:08:41] He did the score for The Witch and some others, a very good composer.

[00:08:49] The relationship of the family, of the main boy with the alcoholic father,

[00:08:54] who's turned into a very abusive, drunk, and very incompetent in handling his kid's problems.

[00:09:04] Especially the daughter, who he can't understand why she's acting the way she does.

[00:09:09] And, you know, I think that speaks realistically because there are plenty of people out there

[00:09:14] who their kids may be going through a change, maybe developing something mentally

[00:09:19] and they don't understand, they don't know how to deal with it, they're scared of it, whatever.

[00:09:23] I think all that speaks truth.

[00:09:27] Even though all that in the end feels a little too convenient for how they're able to find the boy

[00:09:34] and how all that comes together.

[00:09:38] I know they're making a second part.

[00:09:40] I'll be curious to see what they do with that and who becomes the next grabber.

[00:09:48] For all the Blumhouse films, all the low budget horror films out there,

[00:09:53] this is definitely one of the best of recent years.

[00:09:56] I would encourage you to check it out if you haven't.

[00:10:02] So that is a heavy three and a half out of five.

[00:10:05] And that's a good one I'll be about it.

[00:10:05] And so that is the best.

[00:10:05] Now I've been warned.

[00:10:06] Thank you.