The Black Phone (2021)

Director: Scott Derrickson. Cast: Stars Mason Thames, Ethan Hawke, Jeremy Davies. 103 min. Horror/Thriller.

• When we were kids in the 70's, we would see black-and-white photos on milk cartons, or posters in grocery stores ... of missing children. I was always mesmerized by these photos, and would stare: what happened to this kid? Where is he now? While my imagination never ventured beyond that, to this day I'm still disturbed by the notion. The Black Phone is based on that horror. It happens in the late 70s, and it knows exactly how it felt to be a kid, and worry about a prowler jumping out of a corner in broad daylight, for your picture to end up on a milk carton.  
• The movie takes this horror one step further: it shows you what happened to that kid, or what will eventually happen to them. Trapped by one such monster (unfortunately played by one of my favorite actors alive, Ethan Hawke), the story's young hero discovers through an ingeniously written screenplay where those other kids are - via a black phone on the wall. Without spoiling anything, let's just say the movie adds another familiar element of horror, and plays that element extremely well, to the point that you can easily suspend disbelief, and follow along with the gripping story.
• Horror movies are too numerous to count. Good horror movies are a rarity. The Black Phone is a good horror movie - of the kind that comes every five years or so. My pet peeve in movies has always been violence against children, but even with its subject matter, the film didn't cross that cross that line for me. If you're a horror buff, don't miss it. 

MoGo's rating: 8/10

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