Review: 'The Black Phone' grabs you

Four out of Five Stars

By Chloe Gregg
Associate Editor

Last night for our weekly movie night, my boyfriend and I stayed in to stream a horror movie on Amazon Prime. This week’s choice was “The Black Phone.”

“The Black Phone” is a horror movie that came out in June of 2022, but I unfortunately wasn’t ever able to go see it.

The movie stars Ethan Hawke in a villain role, “The Grabber,” and Mason Thames in a breakout role as Finney Blake.

In this movie, a young boy, Finney, lives in a town where young boys keep disappearing. His twin sister, Gwen, played by Madeleine McGraw, has had dreams of these kidnappings, and some of them seem to come true.

When Finney himself gets taken by the terrifying mask-wearing Ethan Hawke, he has to figure out a way to get out of the basement he’s trapped in. Meanwhile, his sister is trying everything to dream about where her brother is so she can find him.

Finney realizes that he also has some sort of psychic ability like his sister, because while locked in the basement he is able to communicate with the many young deceased boys that had been locked down there as well. With them on his side, freedom looks more and more possible.

Although presented as a horror movie, I would say that this movie is more of a thriller with very few jump-scares. It was still very good and is filled with suspense, drama and emotion.

As the movie unfolds, viewers learn about how each of the young boys died at the hands of the sadistic serial killer, “The Grabber.”

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves murder documentaries or thrillers!