Black Phone
Direction: Scott Derrickson subject: from a short story by Joe Hill film script: Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill gender: horror duration: 102 min Country of Production: United States of America distribution: Universal Pictures year: 2021 producer: Scott Derrickson, Jason Blum, C. Robert Cargill photography: Brett Jutkiewicz assembly: Frédéric Thoraval scenography: Patti Podesta cast: Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, James Ransone, E. Roger Mitchell
Synopsis Black Phone
Finney Shaw, a 13-year-old teenager, is kidnapped by a sadistic killer who locks him in a soundproof basement. When a disconnected phone starts ringing on the wall, Finney discovers she can hear the voices of previous victims, determined to make sure what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney.
Ethan Hawke as the killer in one shot of the film
All those who can be considered thrill-seekers in literature will have surely heard of it or more likely, even read a work of Stephen Kingauthor par excellence of the genre in the literary field, the father of novels such as It or The dark half.
In this specific case, however, he is interested in dealing with his inheritance, more precisely with his son, who signed for his publications Joe Hillto whom we owe the original story from which this is taken Black Phonedirected by Scott Derricksona film which is linked in several points to the original story, and also refers to some of the most famous novels of Stephen Kingabove all the one dedicated to the fearsome demon of Derry, Maine, It.
Sometimes you don’t need to show
What the director of Sinister (2012) is intent on doing with this film, it is not so much aiming at the more explicit violence, or at the mere use of the mere Jumpscare (here anyway present in several points) but the whole is aimed at building a growing feeling of tension and restlessness in the viewer, who never manages to understand what his next meeting with the raptor (this is the assassin’s nickname) interpreted in a superlative way by the multifaceted Ethan Hawkewho returns after years to collaborate with the American director.
Some of the children in the film
If it is indeed true that there is no lack of excuses, during the continuation of the plot, to generate numerous jumps from the chair, it is also true that everything aims more directly at instilling in the mind of the public the constant sensation of imminent danger. This dangerous assailant of children could appear in the most unexpected moments to strike their young victims even when they least expect it, this is precisely the idea that is generated in the minds of those who watch the progress of events.
From a purely point of view narrative in addition, everything takes place albeit with some found enough phone calls, even with a good amount of ingenuity and originality with regard to some aspects more closely related to the relationship of children with the raptorwhich hides much more than what can be said at first glance.
Then going to look at the elements that compete with stagingin particular lightingit must be said without too much delay that the latter contributes not a little to the constant maintenance of a perennial status of voltage, which practically never shows signs of decreasing, during the entire duration of the film. These lights almost completely absent in the dark basement where mostly the events of the film take place, which leaves ample space for a scenography purely wrapped indarknessthey succeed in the not easy task of intelligently attracting the attention of an audience too accustomed to the easy and now predictable fright, surprising it by keeping it for several minutes ambiguity on “what is hiding inside that darkness”.
The killer in a shot from the film
Therefore it is possible to argue that the director Scott Derrickson here he does not rest on the laurels of the easy fright and the jump on the armchair, but instead he chooses to dilute the thrill that catches the viewer unprepared, keeping him constant until perhaps he risks letting him go, but only to then catch him suddenly when the viewer least expects it, making that feeling of pure terrorwhich today in genre cinema there is a tendency to underestimate too much, leaving to themselves the unsuspecting spectators convinced that they are surprised by something that actually does them scarenot just grasp of surprise.
