Each week, I will look at a movie that is currently in theaters or available to stream and give some reasons why people should watch it. This isn’t necessarily a film critique, rather, an overview of what I think is enjoyable about the film, and why it’s worth seeing. This week, we’ll take a call from The Black Phone, currently in theaters.
In what has been a nice surprise at the box office, The Black Phone has brought sizable audiences to one of the best horror films of 2022. The film has been positively reviewed, which is sometimes difficult for horror movies to obtain. So, going into it, I expected a good movie, and I got a good movie. The Black Phone does a couple of things that I really appreciate. First, it keeps you guessing with which kind of image you’ll see next. When the main character is talking on the black phone, who he is talking to is usually shown. However, the image of them is sometimes fairly normal, and sometimes horrifying. It’s a form of a jump scare, which people usually don’t love, but this is executed in a nontraditional way which I think people can appreciate.
Second, The Black Phone is good at everything intensifying the deeper the movie goes. This sounds elemental and obvious but every part of it is unified in how intense things get,
making this a good thriller as well. Late in the movie, the sister’s prayers, the methods of attempted escape, all the way down to how loud and furious the phone seems to ring all heighten the anxiety as the film nears conclusion. The last thing I want to mention is how sufficiently creepy the “grabber” is (Ethan Hawke.) The quietly psychotic way Hawke talked to his prey, almost making the audience believe he could be kind and that this was all a show was great. Often times that’s how serial killers did it: have that ability to seem too normal, as if there was kindness there, with just a screw loose. Hawke’s performance as the grabber/serial killer is noteworthy, and another element worth appreciating about the movie. This is one of the better horror movies made as of late, so if you’re wondering as to whether or not to watch it, and are having a big debate internally my advice is, don’t ignore the call.
The Black Phone is currently playing in theaters.
