'The Black Phone' (2022) Reaction

Blumhouse’s latest release, The Black Phone, opened to rave reviews from both critics and general audiences this past weekend, June 24. For what it’s worth, the film currently sits at 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, along with a 90% audience score. In fact, the film was so successful during advance test screenings last fall that Blumhouse decided to move its original January 28 release date to a summer premiere. The move proved to be a success, with early box office numbers showing that the film made over $23 million in its opening weekend.

Before I get into my thoughts on the film, I do want to reiterate that I’m not a critic or a reviewer – I’m not going to break something down to shreds and go on tangents about the shortcomings or imperfections of a piece of work for the sake of getting clicks and reactions. I choose to only write about the things I enjoy on here and explain why I found something worthwhile. Yes, there are times I’ll point out certain attributes that I wasn’t a fan of, but it won’t change the fact that I’m still a fan of something.

With that being said, The Black Phone can be seen as a breath of fresh air for theatrical horror. In a market that’s dominated by sequels, reboots, remakes, and other iterations of previously established properties hitting the big screen, it’s always nice to see something completely new paying off and having success. Yes, it’s based on a short story by Joe Hill (Stephen King’s son, for those who don’t know), but an adaptation isn’t the same as a remake, so I still consider it to be something new in the context of a film. I won’t add any spoilers, but as far as the plot goes, the official logline from Universal sums it up pretty concisely:

“Finney Shaw, a shy but clever 13-year-old boy, is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement where screaming is of little use. When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer’s previous victims. And they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney.”

In theory, there’s something for everyone in this movie – there’s a mix of true crime, paranormal, drama, and even some comedic moments. The film takes place in the 1970s, and it’s right in line with the times – there are several themes that reflect the societal climate of that decade, from the kidnapping and abductions reminiscent of John Wayne Gacy, the growing popularity of the debate of spiritual superstition and the existence of God, and the toxicity of family dynamics in regards to domestic violence. It also explores a common argument in today’s society, which is the incompetence of the police, while also staying with the 1970s by incorporating the involvement of the community in the process of investigation, which was a strategy the police began to popularly employ at that time.

As far as acting goes, the performances here are fantastic – Mason Thames was a great choice for the role of Finney Shaw, Jeremy Davies does a great job as the abusive alcoholic single dad to the point where I had to remind myself that it was just a movie because I hated his character so much, Ethan Hawke is super effective as the emotionally complex creeper (referred to as The Grabber) that kidnaps Finney, and the greatest character of them all was Madeleine McGraw as Gwen, Finney’s little sister. Not only was she perfectly written, but McGraw’s performance was spectacular, especially for such a young actress. She did a phenomenal job with her character, and I hope she ends up appearing in more horror movies as a result of this performance.

With every horror release, the question ends up being, “is it scary?” I always have a hard time answering this question because I’m of the belief that our society has become desensitized over the years and movies aren’t scary at face value the way they used to be, and while I don’t get scared watching movies anymore, I can still understand situations and find them scary. With that in mind, the plot of this movie is terrifying from all perspectives –as a victim, a parent, a friend, no matter why you look at it, being kidnapped or being close to a missing person is an absolute nightmare, so I don’t know how anyone wouldn’t be scared in that situation. Thinking about movie scares though, this film builds suspense like nothing I’ve seen in recent years. There are several moments where it keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat and just waiting for something to pop up. While I’m not the biggest fan of jump scares because I think they’re cheap and overused, but I commend The Black Phone for the way they utilize them during the few occurrences in the film. In a way, they break the formula by having the jump scares happen when the audience least expects it, which makes them even more effective than other films having them happen right at the end of some sort of suspenseful buildup. Long story short, to answer the question, while you may not feel afraid, this movie is, in fact, scary.

Aside from the plot and the characters, The Black Phone is also just a well-made movie – director Scott Derrickson and writer C. Robert Cargill created a great script adaptation of Joe Hill’s short story, the cast was perfectly selected for their roles, Mark Korven composed a chilling score that was super effective for building suspense, horror legend Tom Savini did a wonderful job with the designs of The Grabber’s masks, and the cinematography is tremendous with its continuous movement and use of tracking shots. I honestly didn’t know what to expect from this film going into it, but I was very impressed and I highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t seen yet. It’s intense, creepy, and well worth a watch.

To learn more about The Black Phone and buy tickets, click here

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