After leaving the sequel to his ‘Doctor Strange’ due to creative differences with Marvel, Scott Derrickson returns to terror.
Horror starring or directed at children? Nostalgia and retro as a trick or as a mechanism for sociological inquiry and generic self-reflection? Do Stephen King, Alvin Schwartz, RL Stine… clash, overlap or are they all a bit the same? Modest, pragmatic and remarkably effective, this latest work by Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill –the director-screenwriter duo responsible for ‘Sinister’ (2012)– raises questions likeas did more ambitious proposals (I’m talking about formats, not necessarily creativity) such as ‘It’ (Andrés Muschietti, 2017), ‘Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark’ (André Ovredal, 2019), the series ‘ Stranger Things’ or the excellent saga of direct-to-platform movies ‘La calle del terror’.
Based on a concise story by Joe Hill (you know his family tree, right?), naive and murky in equal measure, ‘Black Phone’ offers predictable (and enjoyable) Bogeyman scares, yes, but also traces of genuine angst children capable of disturbing any adult not completely reconciled with his past.
For fans of bogeymen and suffering children
DATA SHEET
Address: Scott Derrickson Distribution: Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Jeremy Davies, James Ransone, Madeleine McGraw, Gina Jun Country: USA Year: 2021 Release date: 06-24-2022 Gender: Terror Script: C.Robert Cargill, Scott Derrickson. original story: Joe Hill Duration: 102 minutes
Synopsis: A sadistic murderer kidnaps Finney Shaw, a shy and intelligent 13-year-old boy, and locks him in a soundproof basement where his screams are useless. When a broken and offline phone starts ringing, Finney discovers that through it he can hear the voices of the previous victims, who are determined to prevent Finney from ending up just like them.
Source: Fotogramas
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
