The Black Phone

rekluse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQWAVkx8O74

Didn't see a thread for this. I caught this today and while I enjoyed parts of it, overall I was left a bit disappointed and it feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. I liked the score and setting in 1970's Denver, it has the Stephen King eerie Maine vibes (the film is based on a short story by his son) . The premise and the characters were intriguing but the whole thing just felt a bit flat. We don't get enough of an insight into 'the grabber' and there are lots of unanswered questions about his character/motivations. The masks were pretty creepy, but I felt like they carried the character mostly, I don't see why Ethan Hawke is getting so many rave reviews for this. Madeline McGraw is fantastic as the sister and is the standout performance for me. There are some pretty glaring plot holes to contend with and just a general lack of depth to the movie. It's not so much a 'horror' and more a thriller. A 6/10 for me but could have been a lot more. Seems to be doing pretty well at the box office so we might get a sequel/prequel. Anyone seen this? I'm usually quite easily pleased when it comes to horror movies, so I'm a little perplexed about the high praise it seems to be getting from critics.

Conall Cernach

I'm not long back from it and thought it was great. Easily a 7 or 8/10.

santana75

This was a very pleasant surprise, I thought it was great. Genuinely creepy and disturbing. There's a sense of foreboding from the get go and it maintains a healthy pace from start to finish.

KilOit

Very good movie, Madeleine Mc Graw was a standout in it, unreal soundtrack. Well worth going to see it

El Duda

The Black Phone – 6.5/10

Scott Derrickson deciding the leave Dr Strange 2 and instead work on this little passion project of his was the correct decision. This little supernatural horror chiller owes a huge debt to Stephen King (IT in particular) with its late 1970’s setting and themes of child abduction and bullying. The jump scares are sparse and well earnt. I can’t remember the last time I jumped in the cinema so hats off for that.

The big problem for me is that there are a few plot elements that are set up in the first act that don’t have any real payoff, in particular the abusive Dad subplot. I also got excited when I saw that James Ransone (Ziggy from The Wire) was quite high up in the billing, but his character (Max) felt completely out of place. Like a hangover from an early draft of the screenplay that should have been written out.

Ethan Hawke is good in it and suitably creepy, but I find it baffling that he seems to be getting more praise for this than for the likes of First Reformed.

artvanderlay

God, what a waste of time this was. A sub-Stephen King story written by somebody without his talent or charm (his son Joe Hill!). Lead actor (the kid) was excellent, but everything else was derivative and risible. 2/10.

flasher0030

Really good entertaining movie. If you like a bit of a suspenseful thriller, this should definitely be on your bucketlist.

If anyone is put off that it seems like a scary horror film, it's not. There are no terrifying jump scares.

I highly recommend.

gmisk

Really excellent film.

The two main kids are terrific, incredibly natural, great to see it doing so well in the box office.

yerwanthere123

Genuinely surprised at the quality of this. Strong cast, good soundtrack and none of the usual horror movie tropes. 8/10.

Homelander

Yeah, I enjoyed this movie a lot. The kids were great and it was a good lick of paint of a fairly formulaic plot.

Blumhouse really are the masters of producing low budget, decent, and very high return horror films. Though this maybe is more of a thriller than a true horror.