I really didn’t read the mini description of The Black Phone before watching it. Usually those IMDB lines give some context as to what the movie will be about. I was just fascinated by the look of the poster which made me watch it.
So the start was a bit slow for my taste, I had to skip a few minutes here and there. The real attention came when finny was kidnapped. Kudos to him slicing the grabber’s arm, but comeon how come nobody noticed THE ONLY BLACK VAN in the area? I’m sure the kidnapper used to work or something, in order to afford his two homes. And seriously nobody wondered about the van?
Although the motive truly hasn’t been clear much, my guess is that he liked to hurt naughty boys that’s all. Nothing more was given or shown that indicated if he had a specific purpose or past trauma leading him.
The black phone was a neat psychological torture asset. At first I was like why didn’t he remove it, but those “static ringing” would’ve appeared to him as a plus point, making the kids scared.
The side story of finny’s sister having these guided visions weren’t really my cup of tea, in such stories I would’ve preferred if they gave some context to the origin of these visions. Like is it a temporary gift?, her mother was a witch?..
The jump scares were really good! But the real cinematic goodness was in the final fight, Finny using all the objects and ideas of the previous kids and making it like a joint effort was truly nice to watch.
The phone call was the climatic masterpiece, the kids using the the same phrases they spoke before but you could feel the context changing was truly a marvel. I loved this detail..
All in all a good movie, I’d probably watch it again only once to see if I missed any details or not. But the stupidity of the law enforcement is astounding, if you have a town with multiple disappearances then WHY AREN’T YOU CHECKING EVERY HOUSE IN THE VICINITY ALONG WITH THEIR BASEMENTS??