The Black Phone-- My take on the movie with Spoilers!

 PLOT SUMMARY: After Finney is abducted by The Grabber, he is aided by the kidnapper's previous victims who communicate with him using a black phone.

What is it about the ring of a phone that makes us stop whatever we are doing and reach for the call?

Before mobile phones and before there was called ID, there were phones which had such a loud ring that it could be heard all over the house.

Since you didn't know if the call was important or by someone you wanted to avoid, the call was always picked up.

Even now, when the phone rings or vibrates if put on silent, who can resist that one glance at it?

It is probably because we are trained to connect with people on the phone without even realizing it that the ring is almost hypnotic.

Why bring this up?

Well, this seems to be the only reason I can think of that would explain why Finney, whose first insticnt is to run when he finds a door unlocked, stops and picks up the phone instead.

Sure, the call saves his life but he does go against all his instincts and picks up the call. And who is calling?

Ghosts, of course. It is a horror movie remember?

THE BLACK PHONE Movie Plot

The year is 1978 and everyone is at a school baseball game.

Finney is having a hard time as a pitcher and when Bruce hits a home run, he is disappointed mostly because he was trying to impress a girl called Donna.

Finney's sister Gwen is also present and she too is disappointed with the game.

As the game ends and the players meet each other, Bruce tells Finney that he almost had him. Finney feels a bit uplifted.

The next day, when the bell rings, Finney hurries out and goes to hide in the bathroom. His bullies come to the bathroom and ask him to come out. Finney should have known that's the first place the bullies would have searched.

As luck would have it, Robin, a better bully than those three comes over and saves Finney. Robin is used to fistfights and washes away the blood from his knuckles and then as an experienced fighter, expertly wraps a napkin and then tapes it all up.

That's what school is all about in the 70s. Training to be a fighter or finding better places to hide from bullies.

Things for Finney and Gwen aren't so great at home. Their mother has died and their father is abusive and a drunk. He gets angry over the littlest things.

We see Bruce cycling about when a black van comes and the next thing we see is Bruce's missing poster.

Kids are getting abducted left and right and no one suspects the black van roaming around the area.

When the police find black balloons at the crime scene they don't suspect the black van that has Abracadabra written on its side , at all.

Luckily, the town has Gwen.

Anyway, Finney's luck runs out one day and he is attacked by the bullies. As he's getting beaten up, Gwen comes over and hits one of the bullies with a rock.

The bulls gets on the side and lets the blood pour down the side of his head and onto his shirt. In any other movie, a full grown adult would have been knocked out.

But it is the seventies and the kids are tough. Girls especially.

Gwen is shown no mercy as she too is beaten up by the bullies. One of them practically kicks her in the teeth but she loses none and sits in the side with the bully she hit with a rock.

Finney is finally beaten up enough before the fight is broken up.

At school, Gwen is called to the principal's office. There are two detectives there who question her about her dreams that she told her friend about.

She apparently saw one of the Grabber's victims being taken and the black balloons. The police are taken aback because they had no revealed the info on black balloons to anybody. Gwen claims she doesn't know why she has these dreams and makes an comment about how inept the police department is.

At home, Gwen is beaten by her father because the police had come looking for her and had talked to him. Gwen's father has a problem with people talking to him.

Finney watches helplessly as Gwen is struck with a belt repeatedly. Poor Gwen cries helplessly and your heart does go out to her. Great acting here.

The next day, no one wants to pair up with Finney to cut up a frog except for Donna who hates bullies.

After school, Gwen teases Finney about his crush. Gwen then tells him it is a friday and so she is going to have a sleepover at her friend's.

Now that Finney has to walk home alone we know trouble is brewing.

Soon enough, he spots a black van, sees a man walk past it and drop all his groceries. The eggs go smashing everywhere. Finney is conflicted as to whether or not to help the man.

He turns to the van and questions him about the black balloons. The man realizes his MO has been recognized and moves quickly, spraying chemicals into Finney's mouth that makes him unconscious. But just before Finney goes out, he manages to strike the captor and make him bleed.

The Grabber isn’t amused with the wound and says so as he tosses Finney shabbily on the bed.

Finney awakens to find himself on a dirty mattress in a dirty room that looks like a basement.

The Grabber has no intention of killing him just yet. He's going to pass time for a but wearing masks and making flourishes.

Gwen is busy at her sleepover when she gets a call from her father. She learns what happened to her brother and runs out the door.

She is devastated to learn her brother has become the latest victim. But she doesn't lose hope and unknown to her father, prays every night and keeps all her religious things hidden in her dollhouse.

Gwen tries to get her dreams to help her but all she sees in Finney trapped in a house. And all she sees is a door.

Finney gets hungry and gets room service from the Grabber. It's scrambled eggs and a Sprite. Finney eats hungrily but not before the Grabber accidentally lets slip that there is someone upstairs. Before Finney can even open his mouth to scream, the Grabber tells him that he has soundproofed the basement.

Finney looks at the black phone mounted on the wall but the Grabber tells him that phone does not work.

Finney is in despair as to how to escape but sleeps. He is awakened by the ring. It takes Finney a couple of minutes before he realizes it is the black phone.

He picks it up and immediately recognizes Bruce's voice. And also Bruce makes the same remark he did at the end of the baseball game.

He assures him he's not going to let anything happen to him and that when he was held captive, Bruce had found a loose tile under which one could dig a hole.

Finney gets to work and starts to flush down all the extra dirt. The toilets in the seventies were really something. Try flushing down dirt in some of the modern toilets.

Finney digs a hole but gets tired and rests.

He also eyes the window on which there is a grill.

Meanwhile Gwen is finding it difficult to find more clues to her brother's whereabouts. She wakes up in the middle of the night and sees a house with a strange tree in front of it. She gets on her bike and rides around but doesn't find anything.

One morning, Gwen wakes up without dreams and questions her religious beliefs.

But it is when she is sleeping in school that she gets another clue. She sees herself with one of the kids who was previously kidnapped who is also in contact with Finney through the black phone. She gets some relief when she figures the house is nearby and finally sees the number of the house.

It is Billy's turn to call, another victim, and he tells Finney about a cable he hid under the space between wall and floor.

The Grabber comes for his daily visit and brings eggs and Sprite. He asks Finney his name and he lies. The Grabber drops the tray and flings the newspaper at Finney, accusing him of being a liar. The Grabber leaves in a huff and leaves the door unlocked.

Finney sees his chance but Billy calls him and warns him not to leave just yet. The Grabber likes to play a game called Naughty Boy and likes to beat up the boys before finally killing them. Basically, the Grabber justifies his killing thinking he's getting rid of naughty children.

Finney gets to work on pulling the window open  using a rolled up mat and successfully breaks it open and drop the bars on his head. But kids in the seventies were pretty tough and Finney doesn't suffer a single bruise or a bump.

We see Billy in a flashback before he was grabbed and killed. He used to be a newspaper boy. One night when the Grabber is sleeping Billy tells Finney he has a chance but that the front door has a combination lock. The combination is Billy's cycle lock combination but he can't remember. He did however scratch it on the wall using a bottle cap.

While we rely on bottle openers, people in the seventies would easily flick the caps with their thumbs in one go. We have come to rely too much on modern conveniences.

Finney finds the combination and makes it upstairs and flees the house. The Grabber gets in his van that must have the keys inside. He overtakes Finney and then punches him on the face.

Finney is used to taking punches and gets up on his feet when he wakes up.

It's time for another call and this tine he is advised to use the lid of the toilet tank and bust open the wall.

He does so, and luckily the room is sound proofed or else the Grabber would have heard. On the other side is the fridge door and there is plenty of frozen meat there.

But it is a dead end and Finney doesn't have a stove to cook the meat so he has a breakdown.

Upstairs, we find out The Grabber's brother Max lives who is trying to crack the case of the missing kids. The police arrive but think Max is just another junkie and dismiss him.

But one night Max finally cracks the case and wanders downstairs to the basement.

He opens the door just as Finney jas received his last advice to fill ip the phone with dirt. It was Robin who does that and who also trains him on how to swing the phone.

Finney no longer has to use the phone to hear Robin's instructions apparently, as he trains.

THE BLACK PHONE Ending Explained

Max is surprised to find Finney in the basement and that his brother was behind the kidnappings.

But before he can open the door wider, he is struck in the head with an axe.

The Grabber has returned and blames Finney for his brother's death.

He brings along his dog to keep watch at the door while the Grabber decides to finally get rid of Finney.

But Finney has remembered to use all the advice from the dead kids and plan a trap. He makes the Grabber chase him towards the hole covered by a mat.

The Grabber falls and breaks his foot on the bars from the window.

Finney then strikes The Grabber repeatedly on the face using the phone which has been filled with dirt. The Grabber manages to recover but Finney then uses the cord to strangle the Grabber.

The phone rings and Finney lets the Grabber hear the voices of all the dead kids before Finney strangles him to death.

Finney then makes a cool exit by throwing the piece of meat at the dog who loses interest in the boy and goes off munching.

Gwen has managed to get the police to the house and while they  have found the basement with five graves, there is no sign of Finney.

Gwen feels defeated but just then Finney emerges from the house across the street. She runs and hugs him and doesn’t let go even as the police come to help.

Again, great acting by Madeleine McGraw, the actress who plays Gwen.

Turns out the Grabber had two houses: one to bury victims and one to hold them hostage.

Now it could be that one of the houses belonged to his brother Max, or it could be that the economy in the seventies was so great that it allowed people to have two houses on a magician's salary.

When he wasn't grabbing children, he was a magician, right?

Perhaps that's how he chose victims? At birthday parties? Or was it any kid who just happened to be walking alone?

A little backstory would be great. Or maybe there might be a prequel in the works somewhere.

Anyway, Finney and Gwen's father comes to weep and apologize for being a terrible father.

At school, everyone looks at Finney like he's a hero.

Donna remarks she is glad to see him and he tells her confidently to call him Finn.

The end.

The movie was definitely engaging and a welcome extension to the short story written by Joe Hill.

It was also interesting to see kids behaving like kids and not brats like in most movies.

The emotion was real and the acting was impressive.

Scare Scale: 4/5

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Read my review of the book THE BLACK PHONE (with Spoilers)

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