he Black Phone (2021) There's a simple reason this visually arresting creepfest is drenched with the atmosphere of Stephen King's mixture of horror, nostalgia and childhood.....as in "It".
Director Scott Derrickson adapted the film from a short story by King's son, Joe Hill.
And Hill's a chip off the old shock. He knows what scares you. So does Derrickson, who chilled everyone to the bone with 2012's "Sinister", which also starred Ethan Hawke, whose presence guarantees to lift this film into above average status.
Like many a Stephen King story, we're back in a bygone suburb, where teen boy Finney (Mason Thames) navigates a boyhood afflicted with violent bullies. (These King-like bullies are particularly heinous here, drawing much blood.)
Finney's life takes an even worse turn when he's abducted by "The Grabber" (Ethan Hawke), a serial killer who's already racked up a body count of five other neighborhood boys.
Hawke, grotesquely masked for the entirety of the film, assaults, drugs and imprisons Finney in his filthy basement lair, which curiously features a broken wall phone, its wiring long torn away.
In between the Grabber's sporadic basement appearances, bearing food and soda, the phone manages to ring. On the other end of the line float the ghostly tortured voices of the fiend's dead and buried victims, giving a desperate Finney tips on escaping captivity before it's his time to die.
The poor souls, calling from a netherworld purgatory where they can no longer remember their own names, rely on Finney to remind them who they were.....one of movie's great touches, both horrific and sad at the same time.
Away from the basement horrors, Finney's kid sister Gwen (Madeline McGraw) has clairvoyant dreams of her brother's plight, a supernatural gift she inherited from their late mother. This ability both enrages and torments her abusive, alcoholic father (Jeremy Davies) who brutally whips her with a belt. (And in a few of film's brief but telling moments, it's clear that Gwen, when provoked, also inherited her father's explosive hair trigger temper)
But back in that dank, miserable basement is where the film's expected main event unfolds - Finney's ferocious battle for survival against the implacable, monstrous Grabber. And once again, you can see how much of Stephen King's work deeply influenced his son's story.
I can hardly keep up with the constant flow of horror movies these days, but "The Black Phone", which rolled off the Blumhouse scare-factory assembly line stands out among the crowd. Scott Derrickson brings a vivid visual style to everywhere in the story, whether in that accursed basement or in the skillfully recreated soft-focus visions of 1970's suburbia.
Rising to the challenge of playing a role with his face hidden, Ethan Hawke, a born actor's actor, employs a childish sing song voice and snake-like body movements to bring to life an all new horror movie monster. And he's right up there with Freddy Kreuger and Michael Myers. (Don't be surprised if you see a Grabber origins story come next.....)
If you dip your toe in horror every so often, this one's worth a watch. And if you're a horror movie fan, dial up "The Black Phone" right away. 3 & 1/2 stars (***1/2)
No comments:
Post a Comment