The Black Phone (2022)

The thing about adapting a short story for cinema is that we tend to get a great deal of padding to get it to the duration. This film is certainly guilty of that, with the first half hour spent on way too much character establishment that really has very little to do with the gist of the story. Once it does get going though, it's a cleverly crafted and well put together scary movie centred around "Finn" (Mason Thames). Bullied at school, he is protected by his friend "Robin" (Miguel Cazarez Mora) until he disappears. He isn't the first child to disappear either, indeed five from this small community have gone missing over the last few weeks. "Finn" is walking home after school when he encounters a man who has dropped his groceries. Offering to help, next thing he knows he is in a grubby basement with only a soiled mattress and a disconnected phone on the wall. His mask-clad captor - who has something of the "Joker" about him - insists he is in no danger, but the phone on the wall starts to ring and the callers - the other five victims - warn him otherwise, and help him to try to best his nemesis. There are one or two jump moments, but mostly there is an effectively accumulating sense of menace well fuelled by confident efforts from Thames and his sister "Gwen" (Madeleine McGraw) who might have inherited her mother's ability to see the future in dreams - a skill that may prove vital in helping the police save her brother from certain death. There are violent undertones, but very little actual violence is shown as the young man comes to terms with some of his own demons and to try to escape. The last ten minutes redeem it well, and there is something distinctly satisfying about the conclusion. Scott Derrickson has provided us with one of the better Blumhouse dramas of recent years that is sure worth a watch.