what is going on to all my horror fans out there and welcome back to my channel movie files elliott
back again with a brand new movie review and today we're breaking down the new scott derrickson
horror film starring ethan hawk by the name of the black phone a film i got the opportunity to check
out in theaters the other night and i'm so excited to share my thoughts with you all and i'ma let you
know about in this video if it's worth checking out in theaters all in this spoiler free review
before we get into today's breakdown if you enjoy this type of content well make sure
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well make sure you're giving the video a thumbs up and also sharing it but more importantly once
you've seen the film let's talk about it in the comments from your pros your cons your thoughts
on the direction the story the performances were you scared by the film were you disappointed by
the movie let's have all those discussions in the comments below so kicking this off with my
positives let's talk about scott derrickson the writer and director who i'm a fan of whether it be
the exorcism of emily rose i'm not the biggest doctor strange fan but i appreciate his directing
sensibilities in that movie and then my personal favorite sinister i think scott darrison does such
a great job of blending in so many different emotions especially in a horror genre he gives
you the horrific moments the thrills the chills i think he builds tension really well but also
i'm thinking about this film in particular being released in the beginning of the summer now for
me i'm a horror fan [ __ ] all year round but a horror film in the summer for me has a certain
expectations for yes thrilling scary you know all those emotions but let's also have some fun right
now this movie isn't funny or you know a straight up like fun time but it's a good time right and i
think the sense of levity that he injects in the script was really well placed so scott derrickson
writing directing really solid job let's also talk about his cast and crew talking about the
production of this film which i thought the number one camera work was on 10. i thought the way they
use the cameras film especially when it comes to creating useful and effective jump scares
blending in the ghosts in the background having the interactions with finn in the basement was
really well done again the camera work and the way that they use the creative jump scares and
creative camera work was definitely impressive but also we're in the 70s and i really thought
that the nostalgia was placed perfectly it wasn't overly used they used a perfect amount of
what our characters drink what they eat what are the programs they watch at night what are the
movies that are out during that time like texas chainsaw massacre and just the hair the makeup the
costuming which speaking of style you know i got a cool new t-shirt and i'm happy to announce the
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description of this video so getting back into the positive let's talk about the performances here
now i want to start off with ethan hawk who's our bad guy the grabbers what they call them
he's worked with scott derrickson in the past with sinister and they have a great synergy with
working together because scott derrickson brings out this very dark and sinister but also charming
and a guy with charisma in ether hog's character i thought he was really great in this film
they didn't overuse him i thought that the use of the character was really well done but also the
look and design of his mask i want to get one of those masks not to do the stuff that the character
did but i just thought the mask was really cool it's definitely scary at points but i just love
the design of the mask that the character wears but also there's a purpose in the mask and it has
something to do with how the character feels about himself which also has purpose to the film which i
appreciate it but ethan hawk especially his scenes with finn again very menacing a sense of you know
levity at points with the characters but at the end of the day a very terrifying character by the
grabber i thought ethan hall did a great job which doesn't surprise me ethan hawks a fantastic actor
in his collaborations with uh scott darrison has been two for two for me but he wasn't the shining
star of this film that goes to the young actors in this movie now being a horror fan that i am young
kids and horror can go one or two ways there's really no in between it can either go really well
like an it film and a franchise or it can go really bad and i think for this film it went
really well i thought scott darrison did such a great job of directing the young talent and shout
out to the young talent themselves because yes you can have a great director giving you great
direction but you still have to step up to the plate and i thought starting off with our main
character finn he was fantastic i really thought he was believable because there's a sense of
a beautiful arc that the character gets where he has to step up he has to become brave and kind of
get himself out of the situation but at the same time he's scared he's a little kid he's you know
he's a teenager he doesn't know what to do in a circumstance so i really enjoyed how finn was
able to build his narrative built a development and i thought that young man who had a lot to do
on his own because there's a lot of moments he's just in the basement he's trying to figure stuff
out trying to break the glass get out of the door and he really carried those emotional beats and
i thought finn was really great but uh i'm gonna have to give the mvp to a young sister by the name
of gwen she was a scene stealer i mentioned how the film is able to inject a sense of levity in
the film and she was definitely that character that did so she was very funny she had me and
everyone in the audience laughing especially with her um praying scenes i'll just say that and her
talking to adults at certain points in the film she was fantastic so even putting that aside she's
a great actress because she has some emotional moments where we're connecting her to her mother
in a particular gift or maybe some might call it a curse that she has in this film that adds a sense
of supernatural elements to the ghosts the phone dreams things that nature so i thought gwen was
definitely a scene stealer and hey if there's some spin-offs or some ways to add more to the lore i
would be four because i thought that young lady was absolutely fantastic i also want to highlight
the relationship that we have between finn and his young sister gwen because normally in these
type of films big brother hates little sister or vice versa but in this film it was the complete
opposite and the siblings care for another they love one another and in some cases little sister
play big sister in protecting her big brother so i really want to applaud and appreciate
the relationship that we have between finn and his younger sister so ethan hawke great finn gwen
great direction solid and then kind of pivoting to the story without giving too much away the
tension was there the discovery of our characters were there the supernatural elements were well was
used really well and for me being a horror fan i wouldn't say this is a straight up scare fest like
there's some useful jump scares but to me i really applauded the which again there's so many sub
genres in horror i love the thrilling elements the suspenseful elements the mystery elements those to
me really kind of stood out very much so kind of stephen king s type of narrative and it doesn't
surprise me because uh his young son uh wrote this short story that this film is based upon
so it definitely kind of gave me it vibes which i'm a fan of it and i'm a fan of this film so i
am speaking pretty highly of this movie but there were some criticisms that i want to share with you
all starting off with my nitpicks first i found the film at many many points not a lot it didn't
you know discourage my overall feeling as far as my grade i'm going to give here in
a little bit but there are a good amount of plot conveniences that are found in this film and also
some logical stuff that didn't really make that much sense for example without spoiling
it there's a character by the name of max max has some connections to our main character the grabber
and the reason why max annoyed me is they give him the he's stupid type of characteristics and
when you see the film you know what i'm talking about but i'm like come on max that didn't make
that much sense to me and again i don't want to spoil anything but you you'll know what i'm
talking about when you see the film and there's other moments too i'm like wait a minute the whole
ghost talking to our main character to get out of the situation some of this stuff just didn't
make that much sense and again i don't want to spoil it but again those little nitpicks didn't
really disturb my overall score but things that kind of stood out to me but the things that i did
kind of have as a criticism i am appreciative of mystery and not knowing everything about our
main villain but in this film the grabber there was a lot that i thought was missed in regards
to exploring more about his situation and a lot of the times the film would imply certain things
but they wouldn't show us like the grabber in the basement the grabber and the phone and the grabber
and its backstory i wish was explored a little bit more especially two and this is another criticism
the film takes a little bit to kind of pick up i think once finn is kidnapped that's when the film
really kind of picks up in his narrative and really kind of gets things going but
going back to the grabber very similar to the film sinister where scott derrickson would give us like
these flashbacks or give us like this grainy 70s look kind of like homages and in this film they're
like dream sequences but in sinister we saw the darkness of that character and how he would kill
his victims and things of that nature at points to me this film felt a bit tame where i wish
they again i know in horror it's almost better to imply things versus showing the audience but
i want to see certain things like the other past victims and how they were kind of taken
and subdued and abducted and kind of the more again i i know some people don't want to see it
but i wanted to get more into the darker elements of story which i felt the film just kind of
didn't push the envelope in that narrative and then lastly i mentioned all the performance was
really solid one's performance out to me and it's the father of our main characters finney and his
sister gwen their dad is a drunk he's abusive he has a past with his wife and i just felt like
it was forced it didn't feel as organic and it just didn't i just didn't like the performance
he was the only one that stood out to me because everyone else was so up here and he was kind of
down here so he was the only performance that i just wasn't buying into but hey those are my pros
those are my cons before i give you my score my overall thoughts make sure if you haven't to like
share comment and subscribe overall man the black phone is a horror film with a lot of heart great
emotions great character development i think our standouts with ethan hawk and finney and his
sister was fantastic scott garrison's direction was really strong it has the heart that you want
in a summer blockbuster type of horror film but also it has the thrills the chills and some good
amount of levity i really recommend you all give it a watch with that being said i'm gonna give the
black phone a solid four out of five and let me know if you all enjoyed this film when you saw it
i recommend you all check it out this weekend and when you do again let me know your pros your cons
favorite moments least favorite moments were you disappointed let's discuss all those topics in the
comments below thank you all again for watching this video before you leave make sure you like
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