The Black Phone

The Black Phone is a 2021 American coming-to-age horror film directed by Scott Derrickson who co-wrote with C. Robert Cargill, adapting the short story of the same name from 2004 made by Joe Hill. The film follows an abducted teenager (Mason Thames) uses a mysterious telephone to communicate with the previous victims of his captor (Ethan Hawke). Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, and James Ransone also stars in the supporting role. Development began in Early 2020 after Derrickson left the project for Marvel Studios' Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness due to the creative differences. He decided to team up with Cargill to penned a script. The film released theatrically on June 24, 2022 by Universal Pictures in United States. The film received positive reviews from film critics upon 2021 premiere on Fantastic Fest, praising its all of the performances and faithfulness to the source materials.
== Plot ==
In 1978, a serial child abductor nicknamed "The Grabber" prowls the streets of a Denver suburb. Siblings Finney and Gwen Blake live in the area with their abusive, alcoholic father. At school, Finney is frequently bullied and harassed. He has a friendship with a classmate, Robin, who fends off the bullies. A boy from another school that Finney knew, Bruce, is abducted by the Grabber. Gwen, who has psychic dreams much like her late mother, dreams of Bruce's kidnapping and sees that he was taken by a man in a black van with black balloons. Detectives Wright and Miller interview Gwen but struggle to believe her claims. The Grabber abducts Robin, as well as Finney days later. Finney awakens in a soundproofed basement. On the wall is a disconnected black rotary phone that the Grabber says does not work. Later, Finney hears the phone ring and answers it. Bruce's ghost, unable to remember his own name or who he was when he was alive, tells Finney about a floor tile he can remove to dig a tunnel to escape.
The police search for Finney is unsuccessful. The Grabber brings Finney food and leaves the door to the basement unlocked. Finney prepares to sneak out but is stopped by another boy on the phone called Billy. He explains this is a game that the Grabber plays, and he is waiting upstairs to attack Finney with a belt if he leaves the basement. Billy instructs him to use a cord Billy found to get out via the basement window. While climbing Finney breaks the bars on the window, preventing him from climbing back up. Gwen dreams of Billy being abducted and confides in her father about what is happening.
Wright and Miller speak to an eccentric man called Max who is staying in the area with his brother. It is revealed Finney is being held in Max's basement, of which he is unaware, and the Grabber is his brother. After an agitated exchange with the Grabber, where he tests Finney's honesty, he makes it seem as if he would have let Finney go. Finney speaks to another one of his victims, Griffin, on the phone. Griffin shows Finney a combination to a lock and informs him that the Grabber has fallen asleep upstairs. Finney sneaks upstairs and unlocks the door but the Grabber's dog alerts him to Finney's escape. Finney flees down the street but is recaptured.
Despondent over his failed escape attempt, Finney answers the phone to hear another victim, a punk called Vance whom Finney was scared of. Vance informs Finney of a connecting storage room he can escape through if he breaks a hole in the wall and exits through the freezer on the other side of the wall. Finney creates a hole with a toilet tank cover and enters the back of the freezer only to discover that the freezer door is locked. The phone rings one more time with Robin at the end of the line. He comforts Finney and encourages him to finally stand up and fight for himself. He instructs Finney to remove the phone receiver and pack it with the dirt he had dug up to use as a weapon.
Gwen dreams of Vance's abduction and discovers the property of the Grabber. She finds the house and contacts Wright and Miller. Max realizes Finney is being held in the house and rushes to the basement to free him, but his brother kills him with an axe. The police rush to the house that Gwen found but find it is empty. In the basement, they find the buried bodies of the Grabber's victims. The Grabber attacks Finney with the axe, but Finney manages to trip the Grabber with the cord, causing him to fall into the tunnel Finney dug, where the Grabber breaks and traps his ankle in the window bars placed at the bottom. The ghosts taunt the Grabber over the phone before Finney breaks his neck with the phone cord, killing him. Finney distracts the guard dog with meat from the freezer and escapes the house using the combination he learned. Finney exits the house across the street from the gravesites where he reunites with Gwen and the police rush to the property. The siblings comfort each other as their father arrives and apologizes for his treatment. Back at school, a confident Finney sits next to his crush in class.
== Cast ==
* Ethan Hawke as The Grabber, a serial killer and child murderer in Finney and Gwen’s area.
* Mason Thames as Finney Blake, Gwen's brother who is captured by The Grabber
*Madeleine McGraw as Gwen Blake, Finney's sister and Wright's nephew detective who experiencing psychic dreams
*Jeremy Davies as Terrence Blake, Gwen and Finney’s father.
* James Ransone as Max, the Grabber’s brother.
*E. Roger Mitchell as Detective Wright, Gwen's nephew and the detective
*Troy Rudeseal as Detective Miller, a detective
*Miguel Cazárez Mora as Robin Arellano, Finney’s best friend and one of the Grabber’s victims.
*Tristan Pravong as Bruce Yamada, Finney’s baseball rival and one of the Grabber’s victims
*Brady Hepner as Vance Hopper, a bully and one of the Grabber’s victims.
*Banks Repeta as Griffin, one of the Grabber’s victims.
*Jacob Moran as Billy, a paperboy and one of the Grabber’s victims.
*Ahmad Harhash as Gliff one the Neighbor 
== Production ==
Scott Derrickson was working with Marvel Studios on the Doctor Strange sequel Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness when he decided to make The Black Phone with his frequent collaborator C. Robert Cargill. Given Derrickson's commitments with Marvel, Cargill began looking at other filmmakers to direct the project. As a result, Derrickson asked Cargill to postpone The Black Phone until he was available to direct; Cargill agreed and promised to wait. Soon after, Derrickson clashed with Marvel over creative differences and left in January 2020 to work on The Black Phone instead.
In October 2020, it was reported that Derrickson would direct an adaptation of the short story "The Black Phone" by Joe Hill for Blumhouse Productions, from a screenplay co-written by Derrickson and Cargill, with Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw set to star. In January 2021, Jeremy Davies and Ethan Hawke were cast in undisclosed roles. Principal photography for The Black Phone began on February 9, 2021, at EUE/Screen Gems in Wilmington, North Carolina, and around the counties of New Hanover, Brunswick, and Columbus, under the working title Static. The following month, James Ransone joined the cast, with filming concluding on March 27.
== Marketing ==
The marketing campaign from Universal Pictures for The Black Phone began on August 25, 2021, when a trailer for the film was released at CinemaCon. In their review of the footage, Variety described the trailer as being "scarier than the COVID-19 delta variant", with Derrickson "fully flexing in his comfort zone after leaving low-budget horror", and said the film's mix of "unthinkable crimes" and "paranormal elements" could set up "the next possible franchise for Universal and Blumhouse." Screen Rant noted that the audience's reaction to the trailer was "intense".
On September 25, 2021, a teaser poster was released featuring the film's antagonist wearing white face paint and a mask with the tagline "never talk to strangers". While Screen Rant found it to be "terrifying" and said it would be "interesting to see if the film lives up to the hype", Collider said the mask in the poster evoked Lon Chaney's character from London After Midnight. Furthermore, MovieWeb wrote that the poster would "be behind your eyelids as you fall asleep tonight. When you set your peepers on the new The Black Phone poster, you just know things are not going to work out for some people. You will sleep with the night light for a few nights. And we won't be able to see Ethan Hawke again without thinking of him as the terrifying and twisted Grabber. I've heard tell of his 'no villains rule', but clearly he's thrown that out the window."
An official trailer was released online on October 13, 2021. It was described by Vulture as a "stranger danger PSA". After watching the trailer, The A.V. Club wrote that "Hawke looks to be having a ball as the Pennywise-meets-Wonka child killer."
== Release ==
The Black Phone is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States by Universal Pictures on June 24, 2022. It was originally set for release on January 28 and later February 4 before being delayed again to June 24. The film had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest on September 25, 2021. It will be available to stream on Universal's Peacock website 45 days after its theatrical debut.
== Reception ==
Screen Rant describes the film's critical response as generally positive, with criticism for its repetitive format and "the number of scares" but praise for its faithfulness to the source material, Derrickson's direction, and Hawke's performance. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 11 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.8/10. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 79 out of 100 based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
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