In the courtyard of 1978 and in a quiet suburb of Denver, terrible things begin to happen: young men are disappearing. Police suspect a maniac has appeared in the city, but no one has seen the kidnapper in person. No one except little Gwen, who inherited the ability to have prophetic dreams from her deceased mother. The girl dreams of clues to how and what the mysterious killer was doing, but, of course, almost no one believes her. Almost, because he has an older brother, Finny – the main character of the film, but in the framework of this story he is an insignificant teenager. Finny spends her days avoiding two equal dangers: her classmates at school are bullied at home by her own drunken father.
One day, Finny disappears and wakes up in a dark, unknown basement. There is no one around, but there is a black phone hanging on the wall, the previous victims of the killer can call him, and behind the door, in a strange mask, the maniac is waiting for his hour.
Shot from the movie “Black Phone”
Universal Pictures
The film adaptation of Stephen King’s son Joe Hill’s 2004 short story The Black Phone was directed by Scott Derickson when the Doctor Strange sequel didn’t work. Creative differences put him out of the crazy MCU, while Hill’s crazy MCU fell in love with him immediately. But before proceeding to the analysis of the film, it is worth understanding the figure of the author and the world in which the events of the Black Phone unfolded.
Despite Hill’s desire to separate herself from her famous father and achieve success on her own, she inherited a lot from a parent whose creative style was literally saturated with handwriting. For example, he inherited a desire to focus not only on horror subjects, but also on child heroes, who suffered equally from the monsters that followed them, and from their indifferent parents.
The protagonist of “Black Phone” echoes King’s favorite metaphor about a boy who is unbearable among adults: psychologically (a harsh father morally abuses him and his sister every day) and physically (the kidnapper threatens him with real punishment). ). And, of course, it is precisely among his peers that he finds hope of salvation, because adults can never fully understand the fragile world of a child.
Shot from the movie “Black Phone”
Universal Pictures
The interest in Hill’s story in the late ’70s is also not accidental: this is the time of the author’s own childhood and the frequent action time of the stories of his father, Stephen King. But for director Derikson, the time-lapse almost 50 years ago is also an opportunity to add to the length of the story, as the ’70s was a time of explosion of unhealthy public interest in the subject of on-screen violence (slashers’ heyday – a subgenre of horror with bloodthirsty maniacs). and in real life when the Zodiac, Ted Bundy, the Hillside Stranglers, and the Vampire from Sacramento went hunting and the term “serial maniac” was first used.
Despite the fact that the pioneers of the genre (“Texas Chainsaw Massacre”) began to appear on the screens, the filmmakers did not have time to seriously reflect on the new time of criminal history and its new “heroes”. Witnesses of these events have had to grow up and go back to their childhood nightmares from a safe distance of 40 years (as in David Fincher’s Zodiac or the writers of Netflix crime documentaries). Hill is also a witness to that period, which took some time, but he wrote “Black Telephone” in 2004 and the film adaptation only hit theaters 18 years later.
Interestingly, the film was originally scheduled to hit theaters in early 2022, but the success of its initial focus screenings forced the filmmakers to postpone the premiere to a more profitable summer season. And they did not fail in this decision: the horror, initially modest in its ambitions, small by Hollywood standards, attracted $ 18 million, has already collected 6 times more in the world – $ 115 million.
But Derickson’s film was successful not only in the summer season, but also in the growing fashion of the ’70s, which had a chance to become the next springboard for mass nostalgia – just after the end of Stranger Things, which appeared in the ’80s.
Judge for yourself: In the first half of 2022 alone, Hollywood released a few notable projects about the seventh decade of the 20th century. Licorice Pizza enjoyed its poignant teen romance, the slasher movie X, which combined horror and eroticism, The Proposal series, which chronicled the creation of The Godfather, mythologized the cinema of that era, and Black Phone filtered the era through the prism of psychological horror. . And whether it will.
Shot from the movie “Black Phone”
Universal Pictures
The main horror in the movie is the mysterious Ethan Hawke protagonist, who neither has an apt name (just called “The Cherry”) nor has his own backstory. It is not known why and why he killed, but this is not the main interest of the authors. True evil is almost always irrational, and trying to give it a reason will only rob it of credibility and scope.
Now in another career upswing (Varangian and Moon Knight have already hit theaters, and the sequel to Knives Out and the director’s documentary project The Last Movie Stars about legendary spouses Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward are leading), Black Phone” mostly plays with just his voice (plays it cleverly). ), because his face is hidden behind several unusual and scary masks.
But no matter how good the story’s main villain is, the haze emanating from him evaporates when young Finny (the wonderful Mason Thames) appears in the frame. One wonders how Joe Hill, the author of the original story, reconsiders the balance of power in the world of history thanks to the hero (an oppressed middle school student). With the help of the living (the police are actively searching for the boy and his younger sister) and the dead (the dead victims of the maniac who called him on the phone, giving clues on how to escape from the basement), Finny redeems himself: cunningly and in a grown-up manner.
This unexpected look at horror, in which adults are even inferior to children in courage, and the elegant stylization of the 70s convinces that the genre is still too early to write. Writers will continue to look to the past, escaping the present, where each new day gets worse. Yes, it was scary there too, but at least we know when this nightmare is over. Just like the Black Phone finale, you can breathe out, because even prolonged fear turns out to be finite.
Source: Gazeta
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.