Review: The Black Phone
Set in the late 70s where children are being snatched by a masked killer nicknamed The Grabber (Ethan Hawke). Mason Thames and his sister Madeleine McGraw’s lives are affected by The Grabber. The former ending up being snatched by him, the latter having psychic visions via a dream about one of the kidnappings. Jeremy Davies plays their unstable father. I don’t know how faithful this 2022 film is to the short story by Joe Hill, but if it is indeed representative, one suggests Mr. Hill needs to find influences beyond his father Stephen King in future. Directed by Scott Derrickson ( “Hellraiser Inferno” , “Deliver Us From Evil” , “Sinister” ) and adapted by Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill ( “Sinister” , “Doctor Strange” ), the film initially looked quite promising to me and the reviews have certainly been good. The cinematography by Brett Jutkiewicz ( “Ready or Not” ) is stunning from the outset, and early on the story intrigued me. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long before I felt