The Black Phone: an ‘exquisitely tense’ horror film
Ethan Hawke gives a ‘riveting’ performance as a masked child killer

Until now, Ethan Hawke has “conspicuously avoided ‘traditional’ villain roles”, said Kevin Maher in The Times. But if his “riveting” performance here is anything to go by, he could enjoy “a long and profitable twilight career playing screen baddies”.
In this often “exquisitely tense” horror film, he plays “the Grabber” – a masked psychopath who is sowing terror in 1970s suburban Denver by snatching children off the street. When 13-year-old Finney (Mason Thames) falls into his clutches, however, he is able to use the black phone of the film’s title to communicate with the Grabber’s previous victims (now dead), who are keen to help him escape.
Using atrocities committed by a serial killer “to drive what is essentially an exciting escape adventure” sounds unbearably tasteless, but the film just about gets away with it, thanks mainly to its “fearless” junior cast.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The film is not as terrifying as it sounds, said Jeannette Catsoulis in The New York Times. An adaptation of a short story by Joe Hill (Stephen King’s son), it has a “nostalgic mood” and an almost contemplative tone. It’s perhaps best to judge it less as a horror movie with a “low goosebump count” than as “a celebration of youthful resilience”.
I’m afraid I found the film “impossible to enjoy” as either of those things, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday. It depicts a horribly bleak world, in which fathers abuse their sons, and children bully and attack each other. “If the child-on-child violence doesn’t get you, then the adult-on-child variety will”. As for the plot’s “leap into the paranormal”, it struck me as both predictable and unconvincing.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Film reviews: The Phoenician Scheme, Bring Her Back, and Jane Austen Wrecked My Life
Feature A despised mogul seeks a fresh triumph, orphaned siblings land with a nightmare foster mother, and a Jane fan finds herself in a love triangle
-
Music reviews: Tune-Yards and PinkPantheress
Feature "Better Dreaming" and "Fancy That"
-
Art review: Jeffrey Gibson: The Space in Which to Place Me
Feature The Broad, Los Angeles, through Sept. 28
-
Bryan Burrough's 6 favorite books about Old West gunfighters
Feature The Texas-raised author recommends works by T.J. Stiles, John Boessenecker, and more
-
Book reviews: 'Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference' and 'Is a River Alive?'
Feature A rallying cry for 'moral ambition' and the interwoven relationship between humans and rivers
-
A city of culture in the high Andes
The Week Recommends Cuenca is a must-visit for those keen to see the 'real Ecuador'
-
Green goddess salad recipe
The Week Recommends Avocado can be the creamy star of the show in this fresh, sharp salad
-
Ancient India: living traditions – 'ethereal and sensual' exhibition
The Week Recommends Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism are explored in show that remains 'remarkably compact'