Ten years after making his mark in the film world with the sensational ‘Sinister’, director Scott Derrickson returns to the horror genre after a time away from it. He does so with “Black Phone”, an adaptation of a short story written by Joe Hill, the son of Stephen King, in his first book, “20th Century Ghosts”. To bring it to the big screen, the director also meets the same actor who starred in that 2012 film, Ethan Hawke. However, instead of returning him to the role of hero, this time Derrickson takes him to the other side, that of the macabre villain of this terrifying story.
‘Black Phone’ tells the story of Finney, a very normal boy from a US town in the 1980s. There he goes to school, fights occasionally and confronts his alcoholic father with his sister and a best friend. In the city there is a mysterious kidnapper who is taking several children who never appear. And sadly, next on the list is Finney himself. Having been kidnapped, the young man finds himself locked in a basement in the company of a mattress and a black telephone anchored to the wall. His captor, who covers his face with terrifying white demon masks, assures him that the device is not working. But Finney listens to him constantly and, when he picks it up, finds he can communicate with the evil man’s previous victims.
More suspense than terror
In this way, the starting point of the film is very solid and intriguing. Far from excessive and sophisticated accessories, “Black Phone” is a classic kidnapping story. The supernatural elements are just an addition to give personality to the fable, but in no moment do they take away from the central theme it covers: how a child must learn to look after himself and what he has learned in a cruel and heartbreaking world. . The counterpart, of course, is that it’s an interesting idea but without a lot of travel. However, it works from start to finish.
When an idea seems to have run out and the film is in danger of stalling, the phone rings again and Finney sets up a new escape plan. This constant use of the same tool over and over does not tire. On the contrary, “Black Phone” becomes a kind of macabre survival game that the viewer witnesses. The suspense creates call after call, like blocks stacked on top of each other so the tower doesn’t fall. And it doesn’t.
The film suffers from an obvious lack of classic fears, the kind that lifts the audience from their seats and makes them scream in fear. It is its biggest negative point, since a horror movie has to be asked to scare and this is unable to do so. But he manages to keep a dense tone of tension very constant. Additionally, Derrickson prints a very precise rhythm for each sequence. He doesn’t dwell on detours that lead nowhere, but he isn’t in a hurry to get to the end either. The result is an enjoyment of an hour and a half (very grateful duration) that is very accessible and in which to immerse yourself without looking for anything revolutionary or unpredictable.
The director’s audiovisual delicacy can also be seen in the formal apparatus of “Black Phone”. The film draws an air of formidable 1980s authenticity. And the villain’s “lair” has a great visual personality based on the contrasting tones of black and white. The biggest exponent is the variations of the demonic mask that Hawke’s character presents whenever he goes downstairs to meet Finney. That pallor contrasts with the darkness of the balloons, the van, the walls of the soundproofed room and, above all, the black telephone. Derrickson presents in this aspect a series of the most interesting ideas that make the whole proposal win.
An inspired cast
But if there is one thing that “Black Phone” stands out above all else, it is in its performance. The young Mason Thames, on his film debut, is able to carry all the tension of the film on his shoulders without weighing it down. His character, Finney, is a scared boy, but he’s also very intelligent and shows those early signs of teenage rebellion. And Thames’ performance manages to balance everything perfectly. sensational also the most secondary work of Madeleine McGraw in the role of Gwen, the sister of Finney. With her we experience anguish and the need to find her brother as we try to understand her strange dreams about her.
But what is brilliant on an outrageous level is Ethan Hawke. His kidnapper is massive and fearsome. And he is able to do it with his face covered. Most of the time, only the eyes come out of the mask, eyes that radiate madness and leave disturbing images in the close-ups. He also uses a lot of his gestural language and his voice, which he modulates even within the same sentence to convey that alienated psychosis that dominates his character. It may go unnoticed for being a genre film and not showing his face more than a couple of times, but we’re talking about one of the best works of Hawke’s career.
Therefore, ‘Black Phone’ is an intriguing and interesting proposition which is able to best combine all its elements to aspire to be one of the horror films of the year. Its most downside is that it can barely generate fear, but it makes up for it with a fantastic setting and some interesting characters that are backed up by prodigious interpretations. Justice has finally been done with Joe Hill in the movies.
Note: 7
The best: The atmosphere that is created and the performance of Ethan Hawke.
Worse: It is not scary.
Source: E Cartelera
