The Black Phone
RT Audience Score: 88%
Awards & Nominations: NA
The Black Phone might have been even more frightening, but it remains an entertaining, well-acted adaptation of scarily good source material.
With a terrific villain and a twisty story stacked with edge-of-your-seat thrills, The Black Phone is a must-watch for fans of suspenseful horror.
Thirteen-year-old Finney is in trouble. A kidnapper locked him in a basement, a place stained with the blood of half a dozen murdered children. With him in his subterranean cell is an antique phone, long since disconnected… but it rings at night with calls from the dead. Based on the short story by Joe Hill.
Tagline
Never Talk to Strangers
Production Company(ies)
Blumhouse Productions, Crooked Highway Productions, Peacock, Supernatural, Universal Pictures
Distributor
Universal Pictures
(Originating Distributor)
Release Date:
06-24-2022
Release Type
STREAMING, STREAMING (PEACOCK), THEATRICAL, THEATRICAL (WIDE)
Filming Location(s)
Wilmington, North Carolina, United States
MPAA / Certificate
R
Year of Release
2022
-
Color:
-
Sound mix:
-
Aspect ratio:2.39 : 1
-
Runtime:1 h 43 m
-
Language(s):English
-
Country of origin:United States
-
Release date:Jun 24, 2022
Genre(s)
Animation, Cult, Horror, Literary Adaptation, Music, Sport, Supernatural, Teen, War
Keyword(s)
Literary Adaptation Horror Movie, Supernatural, Movies Directed by Scott Derrickson, Movies Written by Scott Derrickson, Movies Written by C. Robert Cargill, Movies Starring Ethan Hawke, Movies Starring Jeremy Davies, Movies Starring James Ransone, Movies Starring Madeleine McGraw, Movies Starring Jacob Moran, Movies Starring Jordan Isaiah White, Movies Starring Brady Hepner, Universal Pictures Movie, Blumhouse Productions Movie, Crooked Highway Productions Movie, Movies from 2022, Movies from the 2020s, Low Budget Movie, Movies from United States, English Language, Tribeca Festival, Movies Starring Mason Thames, Movies Starring E. Roger Mitchell, Movies Starring Michael Banks Repeta, Movies Starring Ron Blake, Movies Starring Braxton Alexander, Movies Starring Gina Jun, Movies Starring Chris Tc Edge, Movies Starring J. Gaven Wilde, Black Lead Cast, Female Producer
Worldwide gross: $159,568,230
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $159,568,230
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 811
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 17,401,116
US/Canada gross: $89,887,230
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $89,887,230
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 799
US/Canada opening weekend: $23,633,220
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $23,633,220
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 565
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $18,800,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $18,800,000
Production budget ranking: 1,343
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $10,123,800
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $130,644,430
ROI to date (est.): 452%
ROI ranking: 284
The Grabber
Mason Thames
Finney
Madeleine McGraw
Gwen
Jeremy Davies
Terrence
James Ransone
Max
E. Roger Mitchell
Director(s)
Scott Derrickson
Writer(s)
C. Robert Cargill, Scott Derrickson
Executive(s)
NA
Film Festivals
Tribeca
Awards & Nominations
NA
Academy Awards
Synopsis (Warning: Spoilers!)
The police search for Finney is unsuccessful. The Grabber brings Finney food and leaves the door to the basement unlocked. Finney prepares to sneak out but is stopped by another boy on the phone called Billy. He explains this is a game that The Grabber plays, and he is waiting upstairs to attack Finney with a belt if he leaves the basement. Billy instructs him to use a cord Billy found to get out via the basement window. While climbing Finney breaks the bars on the window, preventing him from climbing back up. Gwen dreams of Billy being abducted and confides in her father about what is happening.
Wright and Miller speak to an eccentric man called Max who is staying in the area with his brother. It is revealed Finney is being held in Max’s basement, which he is unaware of, and The Grabber is his brother. After an agitated exchange with The Grabber, where he tests Finney’s honesty, he makes it seems as if he would have let Finney go. Finney speaks to another one of his victims, Griffin, on the phone. Griffin shows Finney a combination to a lock and informs him The Grabber has fallen asleep upstairs. Finney sneaks upstairs and unlocks the door but The Grabber’s dog alerts him to Finney’s escape. Finney flees down the street but is recaptured.
Despondent over his failed escape attempt, Finney answers the phone to hear another victim, a punk called Vance whom Finney was scared of. Vance informs Finney of a connecting storage room he can escape through if he breaks a hole in the wall and exit through the freezer on the other side of the wall. Finney creates a hole with a toilet tank cover and enters the back of the freezer only to discover that the door is chained shut. The phone rings one more time with Robin at the end of the line. He comforts Finney and encourages him to finally stand up and fight for himself. He instructs Finney to remove the phone receiver and pack it with the dirt he had dug up to use as a weapon.
Gwen dreams of Vance’s abduction and discovers the property of The Grabber. She finds the house and contacts Wright and Miller. Max realizes Finney is being held in the house and rushes to the basement to free him, but his brother kills him with an ax. The police rush to the house Gwen found but find it abandoned. In the basement, they find the buried bodies of The Grabber’s victims. The Grabber attacks Finney with the ax, but Finney manages to trip the Grabber with the cord, causing him to fall into the tunnel Finney dug, where the Grabber breaks and traps his ankle in the window bars placed at the bottom. The ghosts taunt The Grabber over the phone before Finney breaks his neck with the phone cord, killing him. Finney distracts the guard dog with meat from the freezer and escapes the house using the combination he learned. Finney exits the house across the street from the gravesites where he reunites with Gwen and the police rush to the property. The siblings comfort each other and reunite with their father, who apologizes for his treatment. Back at school, a confident Finney sits next to his crush in class.
Trivia
Goofs
Finney uses what appears to be an LED flashlight during his captivity. These would not have been available in the late 70s and were not common until the 21st century.
Quotes
Gwen Shaw: Jesus? What the fuck.
Credits
Alternate Versions
NA
Soundtracks
Free Ride
Written by Dan Hartman
Performed by The Edgar Winter Group
‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ Drops to 45 Million Second Weekend
Jul 16 – The Wrap
10 Scariest Horror Movie Scenes, According To Reddit
Jul 15 – ScreenRant.com
Links
(Click to Visit)
(Click to Visit)
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Phone
Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_black_phone
Coming soon…