Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions have revealed the trailer for The Black Phone, opening in theaters on Friday, February 4, 2022. You can watch the trailer using the player below!
Director Scott Derrickson returns to his terror roots and partners again with the foremost brand in the genre, Blumhouse, with a new horror thriller.
The phone is dead. And it’s ringing. Finney Shaw, a shy but clever 13-year-old boy, is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement where screaming is of little use.
When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer’s previous victims. And they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney.
Starring four-time Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke in the most terrifying role of his career and introducing Mason Thames in his first ever film role, The Black Phone is produced, directed, and co-written by Scott Derrickson, the writer-director of Sinister, The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Marvel’s Doctor Strange.
The film’s screenplay is by Derrickson & C. Robert Cargill (Doctor Strange, Sinister franchise), based on the award-winning short story by Joe Hill from his New York Times bestseller 20th Century Ghosts.
The cast also includes Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, and James Ransone. The film is produced by Derrickson & Cargill’s Crooked Highway and presented by Universal and Blumhouse.
Jason Blum, Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill are producers on the film, which is executive produced by Joe Hill, Christopher H. Warner and Ryan Turek.
In his review for The Black Phone, Vital Thrills’ Alan Cerny said the film “is meaningful, scary, thrilling, full of powerful performances, and when you jump — and you will — it will be because you are in the hands of a confident guide, willing to take you through dark places and bring you through them into the light outside the theater, which is where you should see this.
“This was a blast to share with an audience receptive to its power, and you will be able to experience it for yourself in January 2022.”
About Ethan Hawke’s villain, Cerny said: “Ethan Hawke’s Grabber is a terrifying creation, and not just for the Tom Savini-designed mask that he constantly wears through The Black Phone. The film doesn’t give the Grabber much backstory, but Hawke fills his character with life.
“He’s scarier in his quiet moments, but Hawke also gives us a look at the banality of his evil, which I feel is what attracted him to the part in first place.”
He added that in the movie, “each action has weight and meaning, and The Black Phone is lean but without any wasted moments. There are moments of well-placed humor, but they never overpower the tension.
“This is an incredibly well-crafted film, from the score, cinematography, and three remarkable performances.”
