The Black Phone (2021) Dir: Scott Derrickson
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I really wanted to watch this Scott Derrickson directed horror, based on the book by Joe Hill, mainly due to the prospect of seeing Ethan Hawke as a villain. It felt like a film with real potential, and one which I would hopefully enjoy a whole lot.
Visually, the film felt like a mish-mash of other horrors and thrillers. The influence of media like 'Seven', 'American Horror Story' and 'It' could all be felt. That's not necessarily a criticism, but it's also not really a compliment. It wasn't exactly a unique film visually, but it did at least look good.
The writing had its ups and downs, but, for me, the ups outweighed the downs. I thought that, while the dialogue wasn't outstanding, it was good enough. I think that the screenplay cultivated its three most key characters very well, although the other characters weren't so strong. There was one character who was presented, rather oddly, as comedy relief. He was so out of place in the film, and was just a bizarre creative choice to include.
I liked the story a lot, to be honest. I think it felt a lot like the first part of the aforementioned 'It', and the way the narrative unfolded was focused and very watchable. The suspense was well crafted and intense, which provided a strong base for the events of the film to unfold. While I do think the final act falls down a little, it still worked well enough that I didn't dislike it, per-se.
I love the sibling relationship between the two main characters - it was so sweet, so sincere, and so wholesome. It made it that much easier to root for them against their two main narrative trials; one in the domestic space and one with black balloons.
Mason Thames grew on me a bit, but he definitely had a couple of scenes where his acting wasn't quite so strong. I just found some of his acting unconvincing, unfortunately. There was a lot more to like than dislike though, I should emphasise that. He had some very good dialogue delivery, at times.
Ethan Hawke provided a chilling, yet twisted antagonist, who was fairly creepy, if a little one-note. The audience never really find out too much about his character, which is either a good or bad thing, depending on your perspective. I didn't mind it too much, mainly because Hawke was so good.
Madeleine McGraw was phenomenal, in my opinion. I think her being so good really made the shortcomings of Thames stand out a little more. She deserves a lot of credit, either way. I really thought she stole the show with her performance.
I'll give some brief mentions to some of the supporting cast who, for my money, deserve credit for their various performances; Jeremy Davies, E. Roger Mitchell, Troy Rudeseal, Miguel Mora and Rebecca Clarke. For those wondering, it was James Ransome who played the character I didn't like.
Overall, while elements of this horror weren't so strong, I think the good outweighed the bad quite substantially. I very much enjoyed it. I know a sequel is in the works, so hopefully that can build on the positives with this first film, because there really were a lot.
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