The Black Phone (2022) - Review

The Black Phone is a pretty solid horror that offers some unique scares and style. I’m not gonna lie, I was not into the film for the first act. You get some basic plotting with the kids in the 70s and the tonal whiplash you get with some scenes really left me off-put. But once the Grabber arrives, and Finney gets trapped in the basement, the film hits its stride. Ethan Hawke delivers a great performance, and I wish he was in the film more. Mason Thames is great as well, with a child performance that feels youthful but not stupid as many kid roles become. The horror elements are creative and stylistic, the way Scott Derickson shoots the sequences show a lot of skill and style as a filmmaker. I still wish it was more totally consistent at the start, but The Black Phone brings the goods by the end.