A fantastic adaptation of Joe Hill's story, Scott Derrickson reteams with previous collaborator Robert Cargill and actor Ethan Hawke to deliver another taut and effective supernatural thriller drenched in 70’s era-specific true crime aesthetics. One key to success is lack of bloat, it feels like there are few wasted instances, and most every line and setup rewarded with eventual payoff. Enhancements to the brief story only flesh out some background information, but mercifully resist adding unnecessary baggage. The antagonist visitations are surprisingly infrequent, but each is intense and mesmerizingly portrayed by Hawke through voice and physical mannerisms alone. There are no actual origins or answers given about the grabber, but we learn the names of each and every victim, perhaps commentary on serial killer fetishization. There is an element of sensationalism and sleaze behind the sepia tones and re-created 70s era, there is no rose tint to nostalgia glasses here. Instead there are milk-carton faces and tv updates of ongoing investigations playing to the sobbing households of abuse and neglect. The life of kids is portrayed as unsupervised and free-spirited but fraught with violence and threat. Unfortunately James Ransone’s character is so woefully, distractingly disjointed from the rest of the film it detracts every scene he is in and derails the film’s atmosphere and momentum. It is egregiously unfortunate as the character ends up being central to later events, and continues to be the black mark on an otherwise exceedingly effective thriller. Despite this, every other character manages to demonstrate progression and evolution throughout, including the specters of dead victims. Cleverly, the apparitions aren’t visible to the protagonist, likely conjurations of his imagination, but serve to our benefit to better understand and humanize the ghostly figures seeking solace and vengeance. For a film full of child actors, they are all remarkably good and engaging, with the main two sibling duo hilariously believable and dripping natural chemistry. Were it not for the aforementioned glaring flaw, this would likely be the best horror/thriller of the year, as it stands I hope Scott Derrickson’s next project is equally worthwhile.
The Black Phone (2022)