Director Scott Derrickson is viewed as one of the modern experts in the horror genre, with movies such as The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sinister and Deliver Us from Evil under his belt. And apart from his demonic films, he also directed Doctor Strange, illustrating how he can blend action into cerebral cuts of suspense. It built anticipation for his adaptation of Joe Hill’s short story, The Black Phone, leaving fans stoked to see how he’d paint the claustrophobic tale of Ethan Hawke’s Grabber kidnapping and murdering kids. However, while Hawke delivered on the squeamish front, the film’s most horrific scenes didn’t even involve the main villain.
Derrickson left most of the kills up to the eye of the beholder, focusing on young Finney hatching a plan to escape captivity. He’d meet ghosts of the five boys killed prior, helping him on his journey. However, before Finney got kidnaped, The Black Phone delivered some unsettling sequences that tied into the story’s theme of abuse.
Firstly, when Gwen, Finney’s sister, spoke to the sister of one of the victims, she opened up a violent can of worms. Gwen was psychic, getting dreams of the boys getting killed, which drew the cops to her school. They wanted to know how she knew about The Grabber’s black balloons, a signature they kept secret. Gwen cussed them out, but when she got home, her abusive dad, Terrence, wailed on her because the police came to see him, too. He was a shell of himself after losing his wife, who was psychic. Unfortunately, she couldn’t deal with the visions and took her own life.
That meant hearing about dreams and premonitions triggered bad memories, with Terrence seeing Gwen as her mother. And this sequence didn’t hold back as he whipped her with a belt, leaving a tearful Finney helpless. Gwen’s screams were truly soul-searing, especially as it felt like he was conditioning her over something she had no power over. Gwen even grabbed the alcohol bottle, thinking she could barter her freedom, but when she dropped it, she lost leverage, and the drunk persisted with the abuse. He then let her go, making it clear not to rub any ointment on — he wanted her to suffer while he grieved.
And the aggression only ramped up right after, with Finney getting accosted by bullies at school. Once Robin, the kid who defended Finney, got kidnaped as well, three teens chased him and brutalized him in the streets. However, Gwen rushed in with a rock and cracked a kid in the head. But the other two punched her and kicked her face in a shocking sequence.
Gwen got dazed and sat up against the fence with a bloody mouth as the two refocused on Finney. The scary thing was her target was right next to her, concussed and bleeding out in a way that made viewers think he’d keel over any time and die. Fortunately, none of the kids suffered long-term issues, but it still reinforced how The Black Phone wanted folks to realize monsters can come from anywhere.
To see these dark sequences, The Black Phone is now in theaters.