the Black Phone

I was projecting with this one:

Hoping that Ethan Hawke’s evolvement with the film met that it would be good. The poster itself made me think about the Purge. So, I had high hopes going in…and it was not a letdown.

Not as scary as I thought it should be. Not even in that the situation is real enough for you to be scared off way. In fact, one huge flaw of the movie was its need to insert jump scares into the film. Not that I’m not a fan of a descent Jump scare, but you can tell, this was out of content. the story was sophisticated without the need to benefit us with cheap frights, but it felt like BlumHouse, who I noticed sported a new logo on this film, did not want to take any chance. Almost felt like adding nudity to a b-movie to assure people like it.

But this is a small flaw to an otherwise brilliantly done film. Funny thing, as I was watching the story unfold, I said to myself, this feels a lot like a Steven King story. Then come to find out, Joe Hill, who wrote the book the film is based on and help bring the movie to the big screen is actually the son of Steven King. That’s crazy. The story is very King-like but a little more whimsical than horrific (thus the jump scares) than what Joe Hill’s pops does.

Even funnier, this movie is far better than the latest adaption of a Steven King novel Firestarter. What Black phone has that Firestarter did not was a series of lively characters that moves the story along. A series of great young unnamed actors and then you had Ethan Hawke, who despite being behind the mask on the poster bleed though a stunning performance.

Well, I guess I can’t call Joe Hill a copycat of Steven King, but Blackphone does feel like Joe Hill actually is not a real person, just another pen name for king, and that really makes this film work for me (and would make a great Son of Steven King Novel).