The Black Phone

Welcome to Weissan Film. On each episode of Voice on Film, we're going to take an everyday approach to movie reviews. Why don't you go over and get yourself some refreshments. There you go, and then we're going to head over to the screening room. All right, you got everything? Are we ready? Let's get into the screening room and get ready to see what we have in store, this time on Weiss on Film. Hey, welcome, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Woice on Film. Let's get into the screening room as we explore the black Phone, this time on wyssan Film. Hey, everybody, welcome to wyssan Film. I'm Terry Weiss and we're so glad you dropped by for this episode. And we're glad you're here. Now. If you like the show, do us a favor. Would you please? Would you go over to your favorite podcast provider and give us a rating. Also, check out the website Purple Pit Studios dot com. Once again, that's Purplepitstudios dot com. There you can listen to each and every episode of Weis on Film as well as all the other shows that Purplepitch Studios produces. And if you want to leave a rating on the website. That would be super as well. If you have any feedback, you want to get in touch with us here at Weysonfilm. Very simple to do. You can just send us an email through the website, or you can send us a email in care of Purple Pitch Studios at gmail dot com Purplepitstudios at gmail dot com and just put in your subject line weiss On Film, won't you please? Super? All right, well, let's get started with this week's episode of weiss On Film. Finleyshaw is a shy but clever thirteen year old boy who's being held in a soundproof basement by a sadistic, masked killer. When a disconnected phone on the wall starts the ring. He soon discovers that he can hear the voices of the murderer's previous victims, and they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn't happen to Finley. This movie was released June twenty fourth, twenty twenty two, directed by Scott Derrickson, starring Mason Thames, Madeline McGraw, Jeremy Davies, James Ransom, and of course, Ethan Hawk. It's the black film based on The Black Phone, I'm sorry, The Black Phone, based on The Black Phone novel by Joe Hill. So far, it's done one hundred and fifteen point five million at the box office, and it's released by Blumhouse now Blumhouse. When they first started coming out way back in the day, they had some real, real bad, bad bad attempts at horror movies. Yeah, they were awful. However, they have got increasingly better at them, which is great. Wait and this one, I must say, Well, we're going to talk about it in. Just a moment. First, I want you to have a listen at the trailer and some highlights from The Black Phone. I'll be home in the morning. We're going, I'm saying over at Cissy's tonight. Snoop the flyer. The papers call them the grabber. Oh sh want to call them that. Goof people? Isn't that just peachy? You see that? But you git me my hat? Yes, sir, hi, I'm a part time magician those as from there. Would you like to see a magic trick? I have an announcement to make. One of our students, Finny Blaze was abducted. What if I could help the police find it? Doesn't work? Not since I was a kid. Full stretch your face, this face, daddy, I had a dream about it. What happened, didn't your dream? He was taken by man with black balloons? Yes, we never released those details. Who don't I know? Who are you? Do you know all? I mean? You're getting out of here? Please please let the dreams be real. The one in front of you. I tore a long cable loose from down there. There's a combination lock on the inside of the storm doors. I curved it in the wall. The tree, the door of the gate. I've never seen it before it except in my dream. You don't have much time. You're gonna use a weapon. You raise the phone, set back and wait. So quldn't you mate me to please hurry? You remember what I told him. There's some day I should stand up for myself, some day if the day fan. So there you go. There's the trailer, the audio trailer for the Black Phone, Blumhouse production. One of the main notable persons in it you may recognize the name of Ethan Hawk. Now this film, let's just get right down to brass tacks, shall we with this one? This one Me and the wife saw my wife's a big horror movie fan. She loves the scary stuff. Me I'm like, Eh, not so much. I don't know if I find it gives me nightmares. However, that being said, I must say this one I really really enjoyed. And for the simple fact of it wasn't your typical low budget horror movie. This one was actually quite suspenseful. It had a couple of segments where you had some predictability, but birring that. Honestly, I must say I really really enjoyed this film. Now, it starts out with our with our hero, as it were in the beginning, he's just a typical kid, okay, who kinda is picked on. It's set from what I can fathom, it's set in the seventies. I want to say, around the seventies, maybe the mid seventies or so, mid to late seventies, and he's a high schooler who's getting picked on a little bit here and there and bullied. One of the notable things is when the movie opens, he's a baseball player playing Little League baseball, and so excuse me, that comes to play later in the movie. There's a couple of scenes in there you want to take note of when you're watching this film now, it does have it does have some jumps and starts, you know, where you get startled and oh my god. But Finny is, like I said, he's a picked on kid in the seventies. Ethan Hawke plays the evil guy in it and better known as the Grabber, and it takes you through you get a sense of the kids in high school and they're basic angst and you know the trials and tribulation of you know, coming of age in high school. But basically what happens is there's someone known as the Grabber, and your police force in this little town are trying to find out what's going on because kids are going missing, okay, And basically what happens is Phinny Blake he gets abducted by this guy and he gets locked in his basement and this killer has made the basement soundproof. But there's a phone there, but it's not hooked up to anything. And just like you know in the intro when we were talking, was said and a little bit you heard from the trailer that the phone doesn't work, but all of a sudden, supernaturally, it does. Now Finny's sister seems to be like she's a clairvoyant because she has these dreams about the killer and that once her brother goes missing. You know, they're there, close knit brother and sister, and he goes missing. So she starts having dreams about the you know, the grabber and where her brother might be located, but nobody really believes her, et cetera. Now there's there's a couple of goofs in the film. Finny uses what appears to be an led flashlight during his captivity. These would not have been around available in the nineteen seventies. They weren't actually common until you know, here in the twenty first century. Okay, so there's a couple, you know, a little faux pod there, but it's your It's almost it reminded me a little bit of Stephen King's It, but it had the classic killer mentality where oh, you know, guy's in the van and he attracts kids by magic, et cetera. There's some great songs in the movie. They take advantage of some great seventies music. Okay, basically this is some great crowd pleasing horror. You know, if you're a horror movie fan and you want something that is a cut above, it's not your B or even C list type of motion picture. This one you're gonna like the Black Phone. It takes a while to get going, so it's a little slow in the beginning, so just be patient with it. But once it does, it does deliver plenty of tense moments without a complete reliance on a lot of jump scenes, you know, the ones, you know, like the Friday the third teenth movie, the shock scenes as I like to call him. But it has a consistently unsettling atmosphere and lots of satisfying moments of setup and payoff throughout this film. Okay, Now, Mason Thames and Madeline McGraw are both terrific carrying a lot of the foam on their shoulders and basically they are rising to the task in this film. Ethan Hawk is really terrifying as the grabber. I mean he plays this great able to can a lot despite being hidden me under a mask for most of the film as well. So I mean that's that says a lot. That really does people seem to like this? I mean, if on the Internet movie database here just giving you a quick grab I mean it's got like a ninety percent rating. Let's see what Rotten Tomatoes says about it, boom, rotten to meatos as we scooch over the rotten tomatoes, gives it a where is it there? It is rotten tomatoes. We're going to scooch over the rotten potatoes. Potatoes. Rotten Tomatoes gives it an audience score of eighty eight percent. All right, eighty eight percent, which is pretty good. I mean, Rotten Tomatoes is one of those websites if you're looking for a general consensus of what the public thinks, not these stuck up movie critics who go to get to see the movie for free. That's a pretty good judge of character. And I would have to say, yeah, I would give it a good solid eighty plus percent as well. I'm gonna play another clip here from this here from the Black Phone. Just give me a second. We're gonna bring that up and play it for you. And this one's about when he meets the grabber. So let's see if we can get that to come up and play and stand tight. Here here we go. So we're getting this clip set up for you. This is another one from the Black Phone. Here for you. Stand by. Here we go. You want to go home, I'll take you home soon. This is after he's abducted. Sister, I gotta be upstairs for something's come up. What never mind what. Someone's coming well stream. If someone's upstairs, you'll hear me with the door shut. No one can hear anything down here. I soundproofed it myself. So shout if you like, you won't buy there anyone. If you're trying to touch me, scratch your face, and whoever's coming will see and ask for. This face. So there's a quick scene from the phone after Finney's been abducted, and it's you know, it's it's one of those are the tense movement moments throughout this motion picture that make it really good. There's that play between you know, Phinny's not just going to become a victim. He's not just going to roll over and say, all right, fine, you know you got me. You know, for a kid, he really expresses a lot of fortitude and a lot of willingness to survive, which is really good. And you root for him throughout the film, you really do. You're rooting for him and you want him to persevere. And I'll tell you ethan hawk like I can't speak highly enough of how good okay, how good he is in this in this movie as far as portraying the killer the Grabber because he had me hating him. I'll tell you here's another scene. I'm thinking about it. I promise he's trying to trick the Grabber. Let go. Tell me your name, Taylor. Tell the more. He holds up a newspaper, the Grabber and he knows that he gave him a false name. That was really starting to like you, Finny, I almost let you go. Now there's that's just some more psycho play in the movie there for you, because you know, you know, damn well, and Finny got let go the first plaze he was gonna run as straight to the cops and I would have too. So there's just a couple of scenes for you from this. This film definitely worth seeing. I would say if you want the theater experience with this as well, Okay, go with an audience. If you like seeing those scary movies where everyone will you know, scream, jump and. Root for him. This is one of those ones that I wouldn't mind paying a few bucks to see in the big theater with a crowd at night, as opposed to a Mattinee. It runs about an hour and forty two minutes long. It's from Paramount Pictures. So as far as I can tell, and for my personal opinion, I'm going to give the Black Phone. Big thumbs up. I'm going to give the Black Phone out of five popcorn kernels. I'm going to give it a solid a solid four for great story, great setup, great performances by the main characters in this film, the tense, suspenseful moments as well, and overall, you won't be disappointed that you spent a couple hours watching The Black Phone. Tell me what you think. If you've seen The Black Phone, are going to see The Black Phone afterwards? Just leave some comments. Down on the website at Purplepitstudios at gmail dot com, or you can email us through the website or at Purplepitstudios at gmail dot com. So until next time, my friends, I'm going to save you an alec. I'm gonna save you a little bit of popcorn and for weissan film, Terry White saying we'll see you at the movies.