The Black Phone
Never talk to strangers.
Finney Blake, a shy but clever 13-year-old boy, is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement where screaming is of little use. When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer’s previous victims. And they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney.
Why watch The Black Phone
Ethan Hawke vanishes into pure nightmare fuel as a masked killer in Scott Derrickson's The Black Phone—a horror film that trades jump scares for genuine dread. What makes this sing is the central conceit: a disconnected phone in a basement becomes a lifeline to the dead, and those spectral voices aren't here to comfort. They're here to hunt. It's the kind of premise that could feel gimmicky, but Derrickson (who helmed Sinister) wields it with the precision of prestige horror, crafting something that lands between A24 restraint and the propulsive terror of Netflix's best limited series.
The film moves with surgical pacing—103 minutes that feel inevitable rather than rushed. Mason Thames anchors it all as Finney, a 13-year-old whose quiet intelligence becomes his only weapon. The basement becomes a character itself: claustrophobic, ruled by ritual, a space where the rules of reality bend just enough to let the impossible whisper through the receiver. Madeleine McGraw, as Finney's sister, threads the needle between suburban normalcy and creeping darkness in scenes above ground that feel equally suffocating.
This is for anyone who loved the controlled terror of Hereditary or the supernatural logic of The Sixth Sense. You'll leave haunted not by gore but by the sound design—those voices on the phone will stay with you for weeks, and every ringing telephone afterward will feel like a small betrayal.
— The What2Watch desk · US
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The story
Finney Blake, a shy but clever 13-year-old boy, is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement where screaming is of little use. When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer’s previous victims. And they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney.
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Reviews & ratings
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…Show more
With supernatural dread lifted directly from the likes of _Stir of Echoes_ and _The Sixth Sense_, _The Black Phone_ features a breakthrough performance from Madeleine McGraw while Ethan Hawke’s hauntingly memorable turn as The Grabber is felt in a hair-raising sense; like someone who has unknowingly snuck up behind you and waits in your peripheral for that dramatic reveal. _The Black Phone_ is a solid, pulse racing h…Show more
FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://www.msbreviews.com/movie-reviews/the-black-phone-spoiler-free-review "The Black Phone carries a horror premise with a supernatural touch full of potential, but it plays too safe by betting on a narrative that's too simple, predictable, and repetitive. Scott Derrickson elevates his work with a distinct style, and the fact that the main focus belongs to the protagonists developm…Show more
The Black Phone is a paranormal abduction thriller that balances the tension/despair of being trapped and the ghost elements very well. The movie does a great job setting up the main characters in the beginning that gives you a relationship with them and genuine desire for them to succeed. There are a few plot points that are a little questionable, but are they are minor nitpicks and didn’t pull me out of the story t…Show more
I had to abandon this very early on, as I couldn't see anything. I'm pretty sure it was daytime, because kids were going to school, but it was so darkly lit that it looked like late dusk. I think there was a sun in the sky, but it might have been a firefly. I put my TV on "vivid," but it couldn't remedy the problem. Maybe there's a good movie in here, but the production is clearly broken, so if you have an HDR TV, yo…Show more
THE BLACK PHONE is a haunting and suspenseful new thriller starring Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, and Ethan Hawke, and directed by Scott Derrickson. 13-year-old Charlie is kidnapped by a child murderer and locked in a soundproof basement. The previous victims of the killer start calling Charlie on an out-of-service phone. These chilling calls give the boy a chance to save himself and others from the killer's clu…Show more
Had some decently suspense-filled moments and Ethan Hawke was great but otherwise I found most of this pretty forgettable, yet still worth watching as a rental. **3.25/5**
**Not quite a full-on horror movie but a well-done creepy thriller.** I love a good Blumhouse flick (and honestly, I love the bad Blumhouse flicks too). Thankfully The Black Phone is the former. Even though it’s more thriller than horror, The Black Phone is an eerie story that keeps the tension high. I was worried with the subject matter that Scott Derrickson could take things too far and into some tasteless place…Show more
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