The Black Phone

 

The 'tweener siblings at the center of Scott Derrickson's Stephen Kingsian chiller The Black Phone -- bully magnet Finney (Mason Thames) and mouthy badass Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) -- are growing up in Denver in 1978 surrounded by violent schoolmates and adults who are either clueless or menacing.

We meet them during a string of teen boy abductions, about which sister Gwen appears to receive messages in her dreams. This enrages their drunken father (Jeremy Davies), who orders the girl during a lashing to forget about the visions because they only bring trouble.

When Finney himself is kidnapped by The Grabber (a wonderfully masked Ethan Hawke), he discovers in his basement prison the eponymous telephone, which is connected to the realm where previous victims dwell. Most of the movie's action involves Finney receiving ghostly guidance from the other victims, trying to avoid their fate, and sister Gwen praying, sometimes with artful profanity, for help from heaven as she pieces together clues from apparitions.

The sharpness of these two young actors and Hawke, who never disappoints, makes up for some shortcomings in the film's narrative, which is based on a story by Joe Hill.

Essential questions about The Grabber's motives and the spirit world connections suggest that the story is not a fully realized supernatural tale but an allegory for a boy's coming of age, when he finally finds and defends himself.