Scott Derrickson’s ‘The Black Phone’: I Have Mixed Feelings

Based on the story by Joe Hill, who’s credited as an executive producer, and made by Blumhouse. Colorado, 1978. A small town is menaced by The Grabber (Ethan Hawke), a serial killer who targets adolescent boys. Our Final Boy is Finney (Mason Thames), who’s brave but needs to learn to stand up for himself. He gets ample opportunity to do so when The Grabber shuts him in his soundproof basement. Finney then receives helpful phone calls from Grabby’s former victims.

The performances are amazing, with deeply nuanced characters. They’re all likable or at least compelling, even the dead ones. Mason Thames is wonderful as Finney, who’s vulnerable but never gives up. Madeleine McGraw shines as Finney’s sister Gwen, who’s bold and always trusts her instincts even when she faces serious consequences for it. Jeremy Davies is disturbing but moving as Finney and Gwen’s father, who’s deeply flawed and wounded but still good at the core. Ethan Hawke is unsettling as the demented and broken Grabber. The Grabber’s brother Max (James Ransone) is a basic goofy slacker character and also pretty pointless, but it’s a delight to see Hawke and Ransone reunited from Derrickson’s previous film Sinister.

The movie is unsettling from the start, with eerie music playing over grainy footage of missing posters and kids bleeding. Unlike Sinister, this one relies more on suspense than jump scares. There’s a surprising amount of tension for a movie that features a kid we know is going to make it. But there are some visual callbacks to Sinister, like an upside down kid appearing suddenly. Also The Grabber, who wears a few really creepy masks, has one that bears more than a passing resemblance to Bughuul.

I can’t decide how I feel that two of the three actors of color prominently featured in the movie play The Grabber’s victims. They aren’t technically the first to die; there are three white kids before them, but they are the only two still alive when the movie starts, and we get to know and like them in a way we don’t the other three. Robin (Miguel Cazarez Mora) is a cool guy, but he’s the Sassy Best Friend of Color who’s sacrificed for the white protagonist’s inner journey. Well, most SBFoCs don’t get to vigorously pummel a bully who calls them racial slurs. So there’s that at least.

Speaking of unwelcome clichés and creepy things, I have to gripe about The Grabber being creepy in an offensive way. I wasn’t going to bring it up, because I enjoyed the movie and Hawke’s performance, and I didn’t want it ruined by The Grabber being into same-sex pedophilia, but I googled it and folks who write lots better than I do agree with me that it’s a thing. As this article points out, The Grabber isn’t outright shown to be a pedophile, but it’s heavily implied. The Grabber coos at Finney and brushes his hair out of his face, referring to his victims as “naughty boys”. When Finney awakens suddenly to see the guy watching him sleep, he says, “I just wanted to look at you.” He’s also wont to sit around half-naked in anticipation of beating Finney with a belt if Finney comes upstairs. The film heavily evokes 1970s fears of stranger danger, but it also evokes the 1970s mentality that gay dudes are floppy-wristed and devious and weak (as The Grabber very much is–without his mask, he’s helpless and cowering) and, worse, that same sex pedophiles and gay men are interchangeable. All of which is bad enough, but the filmmakers go to a lot of trouble to establish that Finney, our hero, is not gay, despite bullies calling him anti-gay slurs, by throwing in a five-second female character to emphasize that he is attracted to girls. In fact, his entire character arc after getting out of The Grabber’s basement is that he can hit people really hard and talk confidently to his crush.

Overall, I was drawn in to it immediately, and I mostly liked it until the last ten minutes, which are unbearably corny. But the more I think about it, the more disappointed I am. Give it a look if you’re in the mood for something moody and competently made.