#Hopper phone number movie#
I do want to nitpick on two things that this movie (and many movies) botch on a filmmaking level. There was also one thing that I buried my head in my hand for thinking about for like five minutes, wondering if they were giving us a foreshadowing clue turns out it wasn't even a red herring, and was just something that I stupidly was giving more meaning to than was ever intended.
The Black Phone carefully lays all the pieces of events before them and I think most of them are paid off, but definitely not all of them.
Not only that, but this movie doesn't work without those elements in place, whereas I'm going to spend some of my summer finishing my Sinister editing project that removes all the supernatural elements and works better without them. However, one thing they did well compared to Sinister was they let us know slightly early on that there would be some supernatural happenings going on, and it allowed you to buy in with and suspend disbelief for in a very natural way. Even more so, I didn't know why the movie had its title for quite a while. There are also a lot of characters introduced and questions of what subplots may be of use once the main plot takes course. Things could feel a little disjointed when we would go directly from upbeat 70s music to a chilling score, or from dark and heavy thematic elements to campy one-liners from children. I mentioned the first act being a lot of setup, and for someone who didn't see trailers or read a plot synopsis I was confused what kind of movie we were going to get. Because of this being a strength in the film, I'd say this was the right choice. They could have gone deeper into it narratively, and restraining from it let the acting play first fiddle. You're not ever really knowing what he's thinking, what he'll do next, or why/when he'll decide to wear different masks or illicit a new kind of conversation. This was of course complemented by Hawke's first ever villain role, portrayed very obscurely yet charismatically (not theatrical like V, but not animalistic like Leatherface). They had a lot to work with, and lived up to their roles. They really had to understand their element, and the main brother and sister had to show us their chemistry not just when together but also when apart. They get the most screen time, and they could have really ruined the film with bad deliveries or general annoyances that can come with the demand of an R-rated, adult-themed movie, and in the 1970s no less.
Speaking of which, the child actors in this are phenomenal. This is done by taking time in the first act of the film to lay the groundwork with the characters, setting, mystique, and having a great cast. There are clear protagonists and antagonists, and my want as an audience member for the protagonists to prosper and the antagonists to falter are delivered effectively.
The situation was certainly horrifying, as was Handsome Hawke's performance as The Grabber, but I don't think this ranks among other horror films that are genuinely unsettling. I have to be careful when I call The Black Phone "horror," because it certainly wasn't all that scary.