At this stage in the parlour game, hardened horror fans may think the jig must be up for Blumhouse but The Black Phone's mix of shocks, gore and family drama has a lot going for it
Here’s a bit of a novelty - a horror movie that gets in the way of itself. The Black Phone may have all the hackneyed moves of another B movie from the Blumhouse factory but underneath the tick box menu of jump scares and diabolical goings-on, this story of siblings Gwen (a brilliant Madeleine McGraw) and Finney (Mason Thames making his feature debut) has all the warmth of a feel good flick.
The box office draw is Ethan Hawke making a rare turn as a baddie in the ghoulish form of The Grabber, a failed and twisted former clown in a devil’s mask who may have hero-worshipped the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but it’s the kids who are more than alright in this tale of smalltown evil.
Ethan Hawke talks to Alan Corr about playing The Grabber in The Black Phone
Based on a 2004 short story by Stephen King’s son Joe Hill, The Black Phone is set in a very well-observed 1978 Denver, a time and place of double denim, kids on chopper bikes and random juvenile violence. Meanwhile, The Grabber has been terrifying the neighbourhood, prowling the streets in a black van and a clutch of large black balloons.
Madeleine McGraw (a real firecracker) and Mason Thames are outstanding as Gwen and Finney, two spirited siblings growing up with their widowed, alcoholic father (a twitchy Jeremy Davies) and dealing with a group of bullies. Finney is becoming slowly drawn in by the urban myth of The Grabber while Gwen, who is blessed/inflicted with a form of ESP, tries to calm his nerves.
We spoke to Madeleine McGraw and Mason Thames about their roles in The Black Phone
Before you can say IT, young Finney has become his latest victim and is imprisoned in a dank basement, leaving a distraught Gwen pleading with the voices inside her head (and "Jesus "f****** Christ") to show her how to find her missing brother.
However, the imprisoned Finney has another possible way out - a disconnected old dial telephone that grants him a portal through which he can communicate with The Grabber’s previous victims. In classic Blumhouse style, this clunky black phone fetishes the seventies and a pre-mobile era when there was far more potential for peril.
The film is a salty little shocker about the existential fears of childhood and the resilience of kids (kudos too for the superb use of a Pink Floyd song in one key scene), but it loses its way in the gloom of the second act only to storm back with a satisfying ending.
Hawke has taken a brave move by spending 90% of the film in a mask and he’s got the presence and charisma to carry the role with unhinged glee but its young Thames and McGraw who’ll keep you watching and wondering.
Alan Corr @CorrAlan2
