The black phone movie

 Story

Adapted from a 2004 short story of the same name, ‘The Black Phone’ is about a young teenager’s daring faceoff with the most dreaded serial killer in his town.

Review

 A good horror film isn’t just about jump scares and spirits lurking in the dark, wearing the most outrageous hair, make-up and costumes. It’s also not about slick visual effects to create a scary entity. It’s about giving the audience a story that resonates with their innermost fears and compels them to place themselves in the dire situation of the victims. ‘The Phone Book’ is one of those rare horror films that checks these boxes and more. It’s as much a psychological thriller as it is a horror film. It combines the chilling tropes of a serial killer saga and dramatic escape bids by the protagonist. You will find yourself rooting for the victim at all times as writer-director Scott Derrickson and his co-writer C. Robert Cargill manage to transport us into the heady life of the 1978 Denver, Colorado. It’s the volatile decade when being a teenager meant battling school bullies, frequent fist fights and slugging it out in cutthroat video games and baseball fields. Finney (Mason Thames) is one such teenager, who has an absolute killer of an arm on the baseball field, but he never has an upper hand against his bullies. His sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) is a year or two younger than him, but a total daredevil with a psychic vision and a foul mouth, who doesn’t even spare Jesus, if her prayers go unanswered. The two motherless children are at the mercy of their constantly intoxicated father, who beats them up often. Amidst all of this, this sleepy town is rocked by frequent instances of missing children, kidnapped by a masked serial killer, who grabs them out of nowhere and hence earns the moniker ‘The Grabber’.

It’s a story we have seen often (more recently in ‘It’) but here the execution is refreshingly different, fast-paced and full of conviction. The screenplay engages you right from the start, as you slowly start investing yourself in the curious case of the Grabber and his unholy ways of taking innocent children. For a serial killer film, the blood and gore are kept to a minimum and yet there is no dearth of the urgency and the spine-chilling moments.

Ethan Hawke is menacing as the Grabber, but the makers fail to provide any valuable insights into his life or his motives, which would have gone a long way in giving our villain, a well-rounded narrative. This is the only major complaint from this otherwise fantastic horror thriller. Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw give top-notch and endearing performances as siblings, who look out for each other. Rest of the cast performs well.

‘The Black Phone’ is a dark film, no doubt, but within its sinister plot that reeks of dead bodies, abduction and child abuse, also lies hope for life. This fine balance makes this horror thriller a must-watch.