I can never quite work out how big a star Ethan Hawke is as he appears in such a wide variety of films, both in terms of budget and genre. Here he plays The Grabber, a child killer at large in Denver in 1978, in the latest horror from Blumhouse, and Sinister director Scott Derrickson. He abducts 13 year old Finney (Mason Thames), and imprisons him in a soundproof basement, but there is a phone in there, on which Finney starts to receive calls from previous victims. Will they be able to help him escape?
This is a definite improvement on most of the studio’s output. The thought of someone snatching kids is inherently scary, and Derrickson makes the most of that. There a couple of times when Finney attempts to escape that are pretty nerve shredding. The more supernatural elements involving the phone calls and Finney’s sister Gwen’s dreams worked less well, though Madeleine McGraw is excellent as the feisty young girl. There are also questions left unanswered involving The Grabber, and I would put money on there being a prequel to flesh out his story.
The setting of 1970’s American suburbia, and the subject if children in peril, were reminiscent of the recent screen adaptations of Stephen King’s It – in fact it is based on a short story by the renowned horror author’s son – and The Black Phone can be ranked alongside those.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10