The Black Phone (2021)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Finney	Mason Thames
Gwen	Madeleine McGraw
The Grabber	Ethan Hawke
Terrence	Jeremy Davies
Detective Wright	E. Roger Mitchell	-
Detective Miller	Troy Rudeseal	-
Max	James Ransone	-

Review

Although the 1970s were the heyday of both the American serial killers, groundbreaking horror movies, and school bullying, the serial killers weren't abstract concepts, there weren't any ghosts that scared you with loud sound effects but were really there to help you, and the school yard fights weren't UFC matches. The Black Phone is the name of Scott Derrickson's latest picture – a cinematic computer game disguised as a horror movie. Based on a story by Stephen King's son Joe Hill and with a script co-written by Derrickson, the film is obviously a nostalgia trip for the filmmakers. They want to revisit the unforgiving school yards and dysfunctional home lives of their youths, and the film touches a nerve when delving into the latter. When alcoholic dad Jeremy Davies whips his daughter Gwen brutally with a belt, the film connects with a reality which it never is able to repeat or satisfactorily follow up on. Davies' character is the only really interesting one in here. The serial killer, called "The Grabber", on the other hand is not. He is a theoretical being of horror cliches; a plot device the protagonist Finney (Mason Thames) must overcome to win his escape room challenge. Granted, there are one or two clever ideas in the mix, but as with most of the suspense elements, they come off as so overly planned and neatly presented that any spunk the film could have had is lost.