The Black Phone Was The Best Horror Movie Of 2022 And One Of The Five Best Movies Of The Entire Year

Vibbs has been suggesting I check out The Black Phone every time I bitch about there not being many good movies that have come out in 2022 (which is at least a couple of times a week). I had been hesitant to see it because kids in peril make me more and more upset the older I get. I was pretty bored Friday night and saw it was streaming on Amazon Prime so I finally checked it out.

It was really good. I thought it was better than X, Nope or any horror movie I saw last year. The second half of X felt gimmicky and not scary enough. Nope felt too much like a rehash of Signs (which is a genuinely great movie). If Nope had made the chimp/sitcom storyline the primary one, I think that would have made for a more interesting and unique movie.

That's not to say that The Black Phone was re-inventing the wheel with having a child get kidnapped. But the supernatural element only added and never detracted from the movie. The idea that the biggest star (Ethan Hawke) is wearing a mask the entire time actually works. Part of it is because Hawke is such a great actor, he can emote with only his eyes showing. The other reason is because the mask (and variations of) is really fucking creepy.

Mason Thames was fantastic as Finn, the boy who gets kidnapped. With a weaker actor, the parts where Finn is communicating with the dead could have had the movie go completely off the rails. Instead, I was along for the ride because you couldn't help but root for the quiet kid. That's because this is a character that was written very well and what a talented actor this kid is.

This isn't a perfect movie. Madeleine McGraw as the little sister was good but the character is really poorly written. I don't believe a 10 year old girl would tell two cops to go fuck themselves. Some other performances were uneven as well but Scott Derrickson's direction never left me bored even though half the movie takes place in a basement. Like I said, this isn't a great movie but if you are looking for something scary to watch late at night, it's perfect. 

In a movie year as weak as 2022 was, that's good enough for being one of the five best movies of the year.