THE BLACK PHONE

Taking place in North Denver, 1978, THE BLACK PHONE stars siblings Finney (Mason Thames) and Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) with a serial killer on the loose who is abducting and killing young children. The media dubs him The Grabber, who's played by first-time villain, Ethan Hawke. The story is well paced but does open up with a few children being abducted, in order to build young Finney's fear of this boogeyman, as he soon becomes The Grabber's next victim. There is an old out-of-order rotary phone in the basement where he's being held; however, he somehow receives calls on it from other deceased victims of The Grabber and they assist Finney in his escape, giving him clues of how he can possibly break out that they previously tried. Finney's younger sister Gwen has a somewhat clairvoyant gift where sometimes her dreams are actually visions, a trait that was passed onto her by her recently deceased mother and is being raised by an alcoholic father, who wants her to believe her dreams aren't real in order to save her from a fate similar to her mother's. Doing any and everything within her power to save her older brother, Gwen ignores her father's protest and assists the police in their investigation. As much as I loved Hawke's first step over to the dark side (and he is very enjoyable in this), the children surprisingly are the real stars here. Foul-mouthed and stubborn, they remind you very much of the kids from IT. Both carry themselves extremely mature for such young actors (Mason being only 15 and Madeleine 14). However, their chemistry, affection, and bond truly pulls at your heartstrings throughout the film; especially since neither of them has the same type of relationship with their father, so they confide in each other. A wonderful film that I cannot wait to see again! Director and writer Scott Derrickson deserves a lot of credit and this is his best film to date. 9/10