The Black Phone (2021)

The Plot of The Black Phone: In a suburb of north Denver teenage boys are disappearing to the extent that the perpetrator is named as “The Grabber’, although he is unknown. In this environment live Finney and Gwen with their alcoholic father, and Gwen has dreams which seem to relate to the abductions, to the extent that the police visit, which angers the father and results in Gwen being beaten. Finney has a hard time at school, being bullied and sometimes protected by his young sister. However, she is not about when he is abducted by the Grabber and incarcerated in a soundproof cellar. His abductor wears a mask cover some or all of his face, and sometimes leaves the door of the cellar open, but then a disconnected black telephone on the wall rings and when Finney picks it up to find that he is being advised by one of the boys who had previously disappeared, and who is probably dead.  Further phone calls offer advice, but can he survive, and will Gwen’s dreams save him.

Content: There is no sex or nudity, but quite a bit of unsettling stuff. The children’s father is a drunk and at one point beats Gwen with his belt for informing the police about her dreams. Finney is bullied at school, and is helped by Robin who does a bit of Kung Fu. Finney is abducted and once in the bare cellar is distressed. The Grabber wears a creepy mask which can cover all, or some, of his face. Over time when the phone rings we see the boys who are communicating, but they are injured and bleeding. The police continue to communicate with Gwen. Towards the end the Grabber kills his brother with an axe in the head.

A View: This film was well thought of and seems to have made money. It is a pretty dark presentation, and despite his communications with the dead Finney does not seem to have much on his side. I admit that I do not like films about children in distress, and despite the fact that this one is a sort of fantasy. And is well presented, I still didn’t like it. But that is just me. And if we thought about it, this is a film starring very young people which makes it sort of YA, but it is an R in America and a 15 in UK. So who is it for? Not me, anyway.

A Fun Fact: It is difficult to present any fun facts from a film dealing with child abduction, but the script was written in six weeks and filmed in 33 days.