Kymm Zuckert Looks at the Tight Thriller The Black Phone (2022, dir. Scott Derrickson, US)
“Are those black balloons in there?”
“Would you like to see a magic trick?”
The Black Phone is a tight little thriller directed by Scott Derrickson and based on a short story by Joe Hill. I’m always a fan of movies made from short stories because an entire short story fits beautifully into the length of a movie, as opposed to a book where you have to either cut out half of it, rush through things, or make it a television miniseries. But a short story filmed has room to breathe.
If Joe Hill’s name sounds familiar it either means that you are a fan of traditional folk music (“I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night/alive as you and me…”), or you know that he is the son of Stephen King who wisely, as a writer, decided that walking around with the last name King wasn’t going to help any.
Finney (Mason Thames) lives with his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), who has psychic dreams, and their alcoholic father (an unrecognizable Jeremy Davies), who tries to beat it out of her. Finney is bullied at school, and really isn’t have a good time of it.
Boys keep disappearing, including a good friend of Finney’s, taken by someone nicknamed The Grabber, and never seen again. One day, it’s Finney’s turn, and he is grabbed by Ethan Hawke, in a strange and terrifying mask, who locks him in a soundproof basement with a black phone on the wall. The phone isn’t attached to anything and doesn’t work. Except when it does.
The other victims of The Grabber, from beyond the grave, are able to call Finney and each tell him how they tried to escape, and what went wrong, and Finney has to find the bravery that he didn’t have when being beaten up by kids at school. At the same time, Gwen is trying hard to understand her dreams, to try to find and save Finney before it’s too late.
The performances of the cast of mostly children are really solid all around, very natural and strong, and Mason Thames’ scenes with Ethan Hawke are mesmerizing.
I feel bad about comparing Joe Hill’s work to his father’s, as I doubt a single review ever has neglected to do so, but I think that anyone writing a period story about small town kids who are threatened by a real live monstrous person, and also there’s some paranormal stuff in the mix, and the kids have to get through it using their own smarts and strength, Steve King’s kid or no, you will be compared to him. In this case, it’s more like it takes place in the same universe as King stories, while definitely being its own thing and with its own author’s voice.
The short story of The Black Phone is from a 2007 collection called 20th Century Ghosts that I immediately bought as I was walking away from the theatre. I cannot wait to read it.
Kymm Zuckert is an actor/writer/native Angelino. When Kymm was a child, her parents would take her to see anything, which means that sometimes she will see a film today and say, “I saw that when I was eight, I don’t remember any of that inappropriate sex stuff!” Check out her entire 365 day blog @ https://365filmsin365days.movie.blog