It’s the summer of 1978 and a small town’s children are being abducted never to be seen again. When “The Grabber’s” (Ethan Hawke) latest victim Finney (Mason Thames) starts to receive phone calls from the disconnected black phone in the basement he is being held, he hears the voices of his abductor’s previous victims. 

The Black Phone is an incredibly effective and enjoyable horror movie because it allows you to join the dots without delivering every piece of information to you. 

Its opening is reminiscent of Richard Linklater’s classic ‘Dazed and Confused’ which is set two years earlier in 1976. One of the opening songs in fact is shared on the two film’s soundtracks; Free Ride by the Edgar Winter Group. It sets up an idea of an idyllic time when kids could enjoy themselves freely in the streets before destroying that illusion completely with a jarring score by Mark Korven. Later the fun rock songs are replaced by the psychedelic and more troublesome On The Run by Pink Floyd. It is a brilliant use of both soundtrack and score. 

The sense of time and place is perfect as well. A time before mobile phones when children played in the streets is a perfect one to set a story about a man who preys on children. The costumes, sets and locations fit perfectly as well whilst the flashbacks and visions in the film shot through a grainy home video footage style image fits in just as perfectly. 

Our protagonists Finney and his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) are beautifully drawn and hugely likeable. Suffering abuse from their alcoholic father (perfectly cast as Jeremy Davies) they stick together and have an unbreakable bond. One that is solidified further by the loss of their mother who we hear discussed fleetingly, especially when it comes to the possible psychic gifts she may have had and passed on to her children. Gwen is a foul mouthed delight whilst Finney is a boy becoming a man on the crossroads of deciding what he wants to be. 

Our antagonist played by an impeccable Ethan Hawke is scarily unknowable. In fact, thanks to a creepy mask we barely get to see his face. What little information he gives away and what little we glean means that we have to make up our own minds about his motivations, but for me perhaps the most frightening idea is that Finney in a different timeline is not far removed from him. 

Based on a short story from Joe Hill (aka the son of Stephen King) and adapted by Scott Derrickson (who also directed) and C. Robert Cargill this is an expertly put together horror film.