The Black Phone (2021) on Netflix
In 1978, thirteen-year-old Finney Blake is abducted from his Denver suburb by a killer known as the Grabber. He wakes in a soundproofed basement with a disconnected rotary phone on the wall.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb6.9/10272,049 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes81%
Trailer
Plot summary
Finney Blake is thirteen, shy and clever, and bullies at his school single him out until his friend and classmate Robin fends them off. He lives with his younger sister Gwen and their father Terrence. In 1978 a child abductor the neighborhood knows only as the Grabber is taking boys from the streets of their North Denver suburb. Finney is taken too, and he wakes in a soundproofed basement with a black rotary phone on the wall, a phone disconnected from any line. It rings by itself, and the voice Finney hears is that of Bruce, a boy he knew from Little League.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Black Phone (2021)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Derrickson struggled to produce ideas that supplemented the short story and shifted his attention elsewhere, and the film stayed dormant until he resigned from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness over creative differences.
- Hawke generally avoided playing villains for fear of being typecast, but the story resonated with him, and knowing his face would stay largely hidden behind the Grabber's mask helped persuade him to take the role.
- The masks were built from moldings of procured life masks of Hawke's face, a task complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic, with Callosum conducting the face casting sessions in Hawke's home office in New York because the actor was not comfortable traveling.
- Derrickson designed one of the Grabber's masks with no mouth specifically so part of Hawke's real face would remain visible to audiences during some of his scenes.
- Released during a period when studios expected pandemic-era theaters to struggle with lower-budget films, it became a surprise hit, ultimately grossing $161.4 million worldwide, $90.1 million of that in the United States and Canada.
- Years after release, the film's villain, the Grabber, appears as a playable character in Fortnite during 2025's Fortnitemares, joining the game on October 16.
