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Frame from The Black Phone (2021) featuring Ethan Hawke
I don’t understand people that find it special watching horror films on
Halloween. I watch horror films throughout the entire year, and I try to
celebrate Halloween by dressing up or scaring people as much too. But to keep
up with the trends, and since yesterday was Halloween, please check out my
brief thoughts on two Scott Derrickson horror outings.
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Sinister 2 (2015) poster
Sinister 2 (2015)
Hot M.I.L.F. Courtney (ShannynSossamon) has taken her kids Dylan (Robert
Daniel Sloan) and Zach (Dartanian
Sloan) away from their abusive father and to a vacant farmhouse in
the middle of nowhere, kindly provided by a friend. The meathead father (Lea
Coco) has found the farm, but he is late, because before him Ex-Deputy So & So (James
Ransone, who brings with him a Shaggy kind
of quality of the Scooby Doo, Where are
you! TV series [1969 – 1970]) arrived there and befriended the family, and
manages to send the bad guy away, duo to a law technicality that the policemen
he brought with him did not foresee. So & So is the only returning
character from the first film [Sinister (2012)], in case you live under a rock; the
character had worked in that
film’s Ellison Oswalt case) and this
time around he arrived at the aforementioned location with a mission to destroy
it, because an antique ham radio (antiques are a theme here, as the female lead
works in restoration of these things, although she’s only telling us so and we
never see her in professional action) came to his attention (its original owner
was the disappeared Professor Jonas from
the first film) and its recordings of
young kids’ voices connect it to the franchise’s main attraction demon Bughuul (stuntman Nicholas
King, also returning from the first film,
and getting closer to becoming a new Kane Hodder).
If that is not enough, Dylan is also visited by a gang of ghost kids led by
Milo (Lucas
Jade Zumann) that share with him
the projection of a few snuff movies on 8mm (these segments
were actually shot on 16mm, but they pass for 8mm)
accompanied with some vinyl music. How on earth young kids would know how to
work with this technology now that their lives without physical media prevent
them from even using a CD player is beyond logic, but then again, these are
ghost kids. The snuff films themselves are quite interesting, one of them has a
family eaten alive by crocodiles, another one has a family buried in the snow,
another one has a family electrocuted, and two more are just featuring plain
torture [old movies is another theme here, and we even get glimpses of Night Of
The Living Dead (1968)]. This grotesque imagery may look shocking to young
audiences today, but we grew up with Joe D'Amato’s Emanuelle
In America (1977) and we do
know better.
As
you may have already guessed from the synopsis above, this is more of a family
drama rather than a horror film, and it is a great one at that; it is a good
movie, just not a scary one. The screenplay (penned again by returning writers C. Robert Cargill and Scott Derrickson) is cleverly devised and convincing. One good
example is when So & So tried to
keep the family in the house, because tradition has the families dying after
leaving the cursed houses, he did so by using a fake legal excuse in regards to
the kids’ custody. It is a logical way to keep the family confined to the house
(to build suspense and scares) and still look like you have a reasonable script
on your hands. If you survive the boring start, you will be rewarded with some
very interesting dreamy imagery too [courtesy of cinematographer Amy Vincent {Black Snake Moan (2006)}].
Other than that, the casting is pitch-perfect, but the moment of greatness came
with the visually compelling end credits.
Shot
in six weeks in Chicago, this was produced by Jason
Blum and Scott Derrickson, on a $10 million budget and it grossed $52.9 million. It
was directed by Ciarán Foy on the
strength of Citadel (2012) in which he also had to work with kids.
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The Black Phone (2021)
The Black Phone (2021)
Set in 1978 Denver (and with plenty of references to the era’s drive-in
horror hits), when a masked assailant called The Grabber (Ethan Hawke, in a
career-defining role, even as he takes his mask of only for the finale) abducts
young kids and leaves behind a trail of black balloons as his signature. His
latest victim, Finney (Mason Thames) is locked in a seedy basement with the
titular non-working black phone attached to a wall that will become a catalyst
to the story. In the meanwhile, Finney’s sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) has
dreams that may help the police with the investigation, much to the annoyance
of their abusive father (Jeremy Davies) – a subplot that doesn’t add much to
the proceedings.
Based on the same-titled short story by Joe Hill, and directed by the
master of current horror Scott Derrickson (who also penned the screenplay, with
C. Robert Cargill – the two of them also produced, with Jason Blum for
Blumhouse Productions), this stunning motion picture creates an uncomfortable
environment – not only due to the sensitive subject matter of the abduction of
minors, but also to the violence among kids that it frequently depicts – and
blends footage, reality, and expectations with such artistry that it wouldn’t
be an exaggeration to call the end result one of the finest horror films of the
last ten years. Made on a modest $18 million budget (after its director
departed a Marvel production), it premiered at the Fantastic Fest, before
receiving a theatrical release from Universal Pictures, and it went on to gross
a glorious $161 million, resulting in discussions of a sequel.
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