I’ll be honest, there were really only two reasons why I watched this movie. The first and main one was because the sequel comes out soon, and I want to write a review for that, and the second one was, of course, because Ethan Hawke is in it. I didn’t really know what to expect with it, but I would say that I was decently pleasantly surprised by it. It’s definitely a typical and somewhat generic horror movie, but it absolutely held my attention and I very much enjoyed it.

I didn’t really even know the concept of the movie itself, other than it being about a kidnapped child being held in a basement, so most of the movie was a surprise to me. I read the synopsis after watching it, so this is not a spoiler, but the concept in of itself of a victim receiving calls from previous victims after just being kidnapped is definitely a clever and unique concept, even though the rest of the movie was a pretty typical horror flick. I think Scott Derrickson and crew did a really good job for the most part with that concept, and it made for some of the more dramatic, intriguing, and intense scenes in the film.

I loved the 1970s aesthetic, so of course, this movie being set in that time period definitely helped keep me into it. They really captured that time period well, too, and it heavily reminded me of Stranger Things, which is definitely a compliment. The color grading added to that vintage look as well, and although I thought the cinematography was rather generic, everything else about the look of The Black Phone was extremely well done, especially the sets (mainly the houses), and 1970s “stuff” like pinball machines and telephones.

The thing I was most mixed about was definitely the actual horror stuff. There were absolutely scenes filled with tension, but also plenty of scenes, and I would say too many, that broke the tension quite a bit. Mainly, the film would cut back from Finney in the basement to his sister and all the investigation stuff, which I thought removed quite a bit of the sense of urgency that definitely should have been prevalent throughout the entire runtime, well, at least once the actual story started to kick in.

I think another huge thing about the movie that disappointed me a bit was the antagonist kidnapper, known as the Grabber, played by Ethan Hawke. Ethan Hawke gives a fantastic and completely believable performance, but it’s cut short by his very limited screen time. This is definitely odd for me to say, because I usually go into horror films with the mindset that “less is more.” What I mean by that is that usually when the antagonist is shown less, there is more mystery, thus, more tension. Alien and Jaws are the two biggest examples of doing this expertly.

Rather than those movies, I honestly think that The Black Phone would have actually benefited from more screen time for the main antagonist. We never really get to know much about him, which I guess is okay, but the stuff we do learn is mostly told and not actually shown. It makes it hard for him to be “scary” like a horror antagonist should be, which is a shame because there were, without a doubt, hints of a great horror villain there, just not fully.

However, even though the Grabber himself kind of disappointed me as a villain, I still think this movie did its job. It had tension, it had its fair share of scary scenes, and was fairly effective at times at having me on the edge of my seat. Its unique concept also made it a lot more interesting than it otherwise would have been. I would definitely recommend, though don’t set your expectations too high. I’m looking forward to Black Phone 2, though Ethan Hawke better get more screen time.