This is the last call, Finn. It’s all you from here on out.
In this stripped down, throw-back horror-thriller, thirteen-year-old Finney Shaw finds himself in the clutches of a serial child killer known as the Grabber; locked in the soundproof room in The Grabber’s basement, things look about as grim as they ever look. But, as it happens, The Grabber has racked up quite a few victims and those victims are going to do everything they can to help Finney escape The Grabber, whispering clues and suggestions over that disconnected black phone on the basement wall.
It's a sharp, punchy premise and the film both delivers on that premise with all the requisite genre thrills and also reaches past that premise to create a genuinely moving story about the fight for survival against all the odds. I’m just gonna tip my hand: I downright loved this movie, loved basically every second of it. Here’s why. Derrickson’s direction is really good; along with his technical crew, he’s created a movie that really captures the vibe of the late-seventies and the film has atmosphere to burn. Even during the very lengthy portion of the movie that takes place in that small basement set, Derrickson finds a way to keep things visually interesting and even get in a couple of very effective jump-scares. About the only thing harder to keep visually interesting than a one-location movie is a movie that is based around a series of telephone calls and this movie has both elements to contend with and I think Derrickson does an extremely good job visually. I think the script is sharp and dramatically satisfying in the way that it introduces the side characters and has them play their respective roles in the story. Just in terms of those relatively small roles, I have to give praise to Tristan Pravong, Miguel Cazarez Mora & Jacob Moran; some of those are primarily or even entirely vocal performances, but they really work. Mora in particular has a really effective scene near the end. James Ransone, an old friend from Sinister, is on hand in a really tiny part, but he’s so good as always. Jeremy Davies is also very good as the abusive father of the main characters. And, sure, let’s get to him, Ethan Hawke is really good; Tom Savini’s masks are doing the heavy lifting, but Hawke’s body language and line delivery are solid and he doesn’t make the mistake of overacting since he’s behind a mask. He still comes off as surprisingly natural at times, though he’s never less than frightening and off-putting.
But the performances, man, this movie falls apart if those kid performances don’t work; let’s face it, that’s what has ruined a substantial number of kid-focused horror movies over the years. But I think both of the young performers here are genuinely fantastic. Mason Thames gives us a main character we can root for, a kid with a lot of vulnerability but hidden strengths we can believe. He gives a surprisingly minimal performance at times; he’s able to communicate his terror, but mainly through his eyes – the performance never becomes hysterical or over-the-top. Madeline McGraw is a real spitfire as Finney’s younger sister and there’s an intensity to her performance that is really gripping. She can go from vulnerable and afraid to seething with fury and then back again in a heartbeat. Ultimately, those characters and that relationship were the reason this movie became more than just an excellent thriller; it becomes a story about strength in the time of trial, of finding what it takes to survive in those moments when all hope seems lost.
But I want to talk about something else that I really loved about this movie and that is the degree to which it is a very angry movie, angry about childhood trauma and the people who visit it on children. The movie ensures that we understand that, even before The Grabber intrudes on their lives, Finney and Gwen are children who are beset by traumatic circumstances on all sides, at home and at school. Once The Grabber arrives, the film has no time for giving him a back-story or giving him any kind of “reasons” for what he’s doing or for allowing even a split-second of sympathy for him. We see him solely through the eyes of Finney to whom he is only a pure force of evil, a true monster. I really loved this; maybe because Hawke was on board, I was expecting the film to eventually get into The Grabber’s psychology and what traumas there may have been in his past, but, no, this movie has no time for that. It doesn’t matter who The Grabber is or why he’s doing what he’s doing; he’s a force of evil that has to be stopped. No spoilers, but, when you really think about that climax, and the final moments of confrontation between Finney and the Grabber, you can’t help but feel the collective rage of all of The Grabber’s victims in that scene and it’s crucial that, at a certain point, Finney stops thinking about how to escape The Grabber and starts thinking about how to kill him. There’s a real rage in this movie at those who prey on children or abuse children and I found it bracing and refreshing. At the end of the day, we often talk about how victims are robbed of their voices; in the world of The Black Phone, on that titular black phone, the victims are literally given back their voices and that instrument of communication becomes a weapon, a way of striking back with everything they have left. 4 stars.
tl;dr – a scary and unsettling horror-thriller is also a meditation on the nature of trauma and the struggle to survive; emotionally moving, thought-provoking and brilliantly acted. 4 stars.