The Black Phone

Adapted from the short story of the same name by Joe Hill, The Black Phone is the film that Scott Derrickson took on after departing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. This horror film, set in 1978, sees a young boy, Finney Blake, get kidnapped by a child serial killer known as The Grabber, played by Ethan Hawke. As The Grabber feeds him for a while before he kills him, Finney gets help from the ghosts of the past victims by talking to them through a broken phone. At the same time, Finney's younger sister, Gwen, tries to help find him thanks to having latent psychic abilities inherited from her mother but feared by her alcoholic father. Derrickson's direction and his writing with C. Robert Cargill gives us such a superb, meticulous, and frightening production. But, also having some really good laughs here and there between the more dramatic and frightening moments that work well. The characters are well liked and never feel one dimensional and you get a sense of each person's motivations, fears, and needs. Besides Hawke, you also have Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw as the Blake siblings who give just as big and powerful performances as the more older actors. In fact, all of the child actors involved all play their roles so believably, whether they're the bullies or the spirits that help Finney. Capturing the right look for 1978 isn't easy, but thanks to the cinematography from Brett Jutkiewicz and the production design not only captures the time period but helps elevate the horror. Another factor is the good use of effects depicting the ghosts that help Finney and the minimal score from Mark Korven. One great factor that makes this film so great is its slow, yet well executed pacing thanks to Frederic Thoraval's cinematography. While horror is often a genre often not well respected due to being cheap and quick to make, The Black Phone is proof that the genre isn't just constant jump scares. Over all: 100%

2022 top list so far:

1. Top Gun: Maverick

2. The Black Phone

3. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

4. The Northman

5. The Batman

6. Lightyear

7. Dog

8. Everything Everywhere All at Once

9. X 2022

10. Scream 2022

11. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

12. Jurassic World: Dominion

13. Sonic the Hedgehog 2

14. Uncharted