The Black Phone is easily one of the best horror films reaching cinema screens in 2022. The pace, the effects, the story, its message, the evil, the relationships among characters; everything works like a clockwork. If you have a sudden thought of an orange right now, that is still relevant here. Even though Anthony Burgess wrote A Clockwork Orange in early 1960s; it became a controversial work only years later, not particularly liked by censors anywhere after the release of Stanley Kubrick’s movie in 1971. The Black Phone is set in 1978, and the reason why there’s a mention of A Clockwork Orange in this review is that the new film from Blumhouse and Universal Pictures deals with the theme ACO is most known for – violence.
It wouldn’t be worth mentioning violence if it was something I’d have expected from a horror film, but The Black Phone goes about it all differently. Firstly, the violence in this movie isn’t part of the pop culture where it is supposed to have a shock value, all for its own sake; rather an “ordinary” everyday abuse at school and at home. I’ve not read Joe Hill, Stephen King and Tabitha King son’s short story, on which TBP is based, so I can’t say anything about the original ideas of the story, but the way the script of both screenwriters, C. Robert Cargill and Scott Derrickson has ended up, the everyday violence has a shape of a predestined, closed place, apart from which nothing exists. Even Pennywise has become more violent here without clown tricks and attempts to lure children using some verbal balderdash – this version of the weirdo is focused on close encounters with calculated acts of turning the attention away only to be able to grab the poor souls; and the only thing that floats in this film is the dirt in the toilet bowl before it’s flushed away.
Secondly, violence is the real antagonist in this film, which the protagonist Finney (Mason Thames) is learning to stand up to, and that includes, of course, standing up for himself. As if the director Scott Derrickson had gotten the opportunity to work with his own version of Stranger Things; only without The Demogorgon, but with Ethan Hawke’s masked psycho Grabber instead. Depending on what films you have seen that star Hawke, you may be surprised by the fact of him taking on a role like this one, and yet Grabber manages to epitomize the traits of a despotic and sadistic father figure so fully, you may end up finding it more disturbing than the Pennywise clown. You can't see Hawke's facial expressions here, but the collaboration between him and Derrickson has resulted in a voice and movements that may revisit you in your dreams later on.
Dealing with The Grabber involves teamwork thus we get an ensemble of teenage characters who are helping the lead protagonist to overcome challenges. Certain psychic faculties turn out to be instrumental in achieving those goals. I guess Joe Hill has played here with phenomena, which implies both, a mediumship and a lesser known faculty of clairaudience, but the screenwriters have managed to blend all the metaphysical part of the story in such a way that it ends up looking like a usual human thought or mind process rather than something that’s supposed to be an unusual psychic faculty a la that of The Shining’s Danny Torrance or The Dead Zone’s Johnny Smith.
Production still with Mason Thames as Finney in The Black Phone movie. Source
Certain things in The Black Phone are like pieces of puzzle from the pool of familiar methods and techniques generally known to work in achieving particular objectives; such as the scene involving aerial shot at night with police cars and a parent giving a statement; all in slow motion, which altogether contributes to effecting an alarming mood. Still everything comes together quite nicely, and if you are a horror fan, you will love Gwen’s (Madeleine McGraw) dream sequences with a nod to John Carpenter’s horror classic Prince of Darkness. In The Black Phone this is also to do with clairvoyance, and I loved the fact that the use of special effects was pretty much limited to paranormal phenomena like that – the fact which, I think, helps to shock the spectator with the realism of violence in teenager’s everyday life. Madeleine McGraw’s character stands out in this regard: Gwen has to go through dealing with repercussions the suicide of a close relative brings about, as well as the suffering from domestic abuse and, to add to all that, she is standing up for her brother with a plain and absolute "go, get 'em kid" outlook in a situation, where the odds aren’t in her favor – makes you jealous because you didn't have a sister like that. In short, both, Derrickson and Cargill have made Gwen such a badass survivor kid that Jesus would go "wtf!?" watching her.
Production still with Madeleine McGraw as Gwen in The Black Phone movie. Source
There is also a rather gorgeous hound in The Black Phone. You may even end up watching the film again just to see that pet. It made me think about how we always put the equals sign between “dog” and “loyalty”; the main reason we love them animals. But rarely do we think about how the dog is an extension of ourselves as owners. The look of the beast of Baskervilles, and jaws that can break a bone like matchstick can be an expression of owner’s rage and viciousness. Children and animals are never to blame for expressing themselves in a cruel and violent manner; they are the extension of us.
Peer Ynt
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