Blumhouse Productions which focuses on Horror Thriller productions, let it be series or movies has been consistent in giving us content that gives us the scares and has also established a good name in the Horror genre which was earlier dominated by James Wan and his “Conjuring Universe”.
It’s refreshing to see another horse in the race. Blumhouse’s new production “The Black Phone” based on a novel of the same name by Joe Hill is about so many things but in general, it is a Horror Thriller, not particularly the bad spirit or any kind but it involves a serial killer that targets children played by Ethan Hawke known as “The Grabber” and previously 4 children have been kidnapped by him and their bodies have never been found. The Grabber ends up taking the lead actor
“Finney” who is timid and is a quiet child who does not stand up for himself when he should, whether it be in school against his bullies or when his father is beating his younger sister in front of him. It’s a story about standing up for yourself and redemption by the earlier kills of The Grabber as they help him through a dead phone in the basement, that’s the infamous “Black Phone”.
The Film is notable here because not of Blumhouse creates a very good surreal horror thriller but also takes Ethan Hawke playing The Grabber but the cat itself. The child actors have played very well and the cinematography is worth noting here as well. The film made over in just less than $20M has gotten a very positive reaction from the audience and managed to garner more than $100M at the box office, five times more than what it was made in.
The film has various sentiments associated, like Standing up to your adversities in the darkest of times, redemption, the meaning of family, and self-confidence. Finney who would never even stand up to his bullies ended up killing The Grabber by the help of the previous victims. Previous victims were able to get redemption for their murders by Finney’s help, Finney’s father is able to realize his mistake and apologizes in the end and Finney who was kind of afraid to talk to a girl is not able to with newfound confidence.
The Black Phone works so well in a lot of areas and in the end, it shows us someone who came out of his adversities after fighting them and actually feels like a feel-good movie but we shouldn’t forget the fact that the middle half of the movie was traumatizing as we saw The Grabber playing games with Finney known as “Naughty Boy” in which he would not lock the door and wait for the victim to try to escape and then beat the living hell out of them with a belt. It was also worth noting that The Grabber changed his masks according to the emotion he was feeling.
Happy when he caught Finney, sad when Finney told a fake name to him and The Grabber found it in the newspaper. Ethan Hawke is brilliant in the movie and it was new territory for him but he still ended up coming out victorious.
The movie is still running in theatres, if you haven’t watched it by now, please do.