The Black Phone

A delicious period piece, The Black Phone gives us atmosphere aplenty before veering into a somewhat unsatisfying middle act and later reclaiming its place among the better Blumhouse offerings with a compelling conclusion.

Siblings Finney and Gwen are navigating a dangerous home life – thanks to an abusive, alcoholic dad – and stranger danger too: youngsters and classmates are mysteriously disappearing in late 70s suburban Denver.

The only lead cops have to go on is the presence of black balloons at the scene of the abductions. And Gwen’s premonitory dreams when her bro is kidnapped by a perp who’s become known as The Grabber (this film would almost make for a great double bill with Irish pub-horror, Grabbers).

The Black Phone shows us Finney’s gumption, guile and resourcefulness in the Grabber’s basement, but bogs down the proceedings with too many phonecalls from The Great Beyond and delving too deeply into the supernatural, at least to this reviewer’s tastes. But it should come as no surprise: the source material is a short story courtesy of Stephen King’s son, Joe Hill. So you could call this film his nepo baby.

Still, The Black Phone has enough character development for a horror trilogy. The performances are fantastic, particularly Mason Thames as Finney and Madeleine McGraw as Gwen. There’s gobs of atmosphere, and dare we say a “Sinister” tone (director Scott Derrickson did that fellow Ethan Hawke-starrer too)

Mostly dynamite, so don’t hang up on this one.

***3/4 (out of 5)

The Running Man

In a dystopian future, criminals risk their lives to entertain the masses on TV. Isn’t that the present day NFL?

National Felon League jokes aside, The Running Man occupies that well-trodden dangerous game territory, occupied by the likes of Rollerball, Squid Game, Battle Royale, The Condemned…and further down the food chain, cheap and cheerful Canadian entry, No Exit AKA Fatal Combat.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is Ben, an LA tactical forces cop. When he disobeys orders to fire on innocents, he’s a running man before being captured for The Running Man, the eponymous wildly popular reality show that’s meant placate the populace in a one-party state.

In some brilliant stunt casting, oily real life game show host Richard Dawson plays The Running Man host Damon here. And he personally hand-picks Arnold to participate in the Bread and Circuses production on account of his biceps, likability and mobility.

Unfortunately for the production and its American Gladiator-like “stalkers,” Arnold, of course, mounts a considerable obstacle. And before too long…wait for it…the hunters become the HUNTED!

The Running Man is hammier than a German breakfast, and offers some Cannon-esque corniness.

Schwarzenegger blamed the tepid box office performance on the first time director. Which is a bit of a d*ck move so long after the fact.

Whatever the reason, not even Jim Brown, Jesse Ventura, Toru Tanaka or Yaphet Kotto can salvage this one, a far cry from Arnold’s best – Predator, The Terminator, etc.

Shaun of the Dead/Last Night in Soho/The World’s End director Edgar Wright is interested in retooling The Running Man, vowing to keep it closer to Stephen King’s source material. That means, us Usain Bolt-ing to the nearest cinema when it’s ready.

*** (out of 5)