The Black Phone, which stars Ethan Hawke, is getting near perfect scores from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, who are claiming the movie manages to exceed 'extremely high expectations'. Watch the trailer below:
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The flick is based on a 2004 short story of the same name by Joe Hill, son of legendary horror author Stephen King, and is set to hit cinema screens this Friday (24 June).
Directed by Scott Derrickson, the film tells the story of 13-year-old Finney Shaw and his abduction by the infamous masked kidnapper known as the Grabber, who has been taking and murdering children in the area for years.
Although, it quickly becomes clear that Finney isn't the average victim as a black phone in his cell allows him to contact the killer's previous prey, who attempt to help him escape the grabber's clutches.
Derrickson, modern horror lynchpin Jason Blum and C. Robert Cargill all serve as producers on the film, which is presented by Universal and Blumhouse.
After having its world premiere at Fantastic Fest in September last year, the movie received a slew of glowing reviews and now it's been raved about on Rotten Tomatoes, earning 84 percent from critics on the tomatometer.
Empire's Ben Travis wrote: "Despite its darker-than-dark premise — Abduction! Dead kids! Imprisonment! — The Black Phone finds hope in the midst of the horror. Looking for soulful scares this summer? Answer the call."
Eric Vespe from Slash Film said the villain is a 'mask-wearing psycho' played with 'great relish and dedication' by Hawke, also praising young newcomer Thames, who 'absolutely knocks it out of the park here, carrying the movie with confidence and a sense of reality that you need in order to make the supernatural stuff hit home'.
"Derrickson and his crew took a neat little horror concept from an actually short short story and were able to expand upon it in ways that both make sense and don't feel like filler," Vespe added.
IndieWire's Marisa Mirabal said the The Black Phone is a 'sleek, stressful, and violent zeitgeist of a horror film', adding that it 'captures the audience’s emotions as quickly as the film’s antagonist kidnaps children in broad daylight'.
While Variety critic Owen Gleiberman added: "The Black Phone carries you along on its own terms — that is, if you accept that it’s less an ingenious freak-out of a thriller than a kind of stylized contraption."
The Black Phone hits cinemas in the UK and US on 24 June.
Featured Image Credit: Universal Pictures
Topics: TV and Film, Stephen King
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