MovieChat Forums > The Black Phone (2022) Discussion > I liked the way... (spoilers)

I liked the way... (spoilers)

posted 3 years ago by [deleted]
6 replies | jump to latest

...the victim ghosts helped Finney to help himself escape, to be honest:

He's told to dig a hole by a victim, but that project is halted as it would take too long.

Then another victim tells him to find a hidden cable under the wall, and even though it looks like Finney will be able to open the basement window by climbing the cable as a rope, the bars come away and he again fails.

Then he's told by another victim to break through a wall to the back of a freezer, but he can't get out of the freezer, but he does throw meat out of it so he can climb to the doors.

Finally, on the eve of his murder, his best friend victim tells him to make the black phone receiver into a weapon by putting dirt into it to make it heavier as a club, then being taught the optimum martial art move to deliver devastating blows.

And all of this comes in useful in defeating the Grabber, as:

Finney uses the cable rope to trip up the Grabber as he lunges for him, the Grabber falls into the hole that Finney dug and breaks his ankle, the receiver club comes in useful for battering the Grabber about the face and head, the cable is used again to strangle the Grabber to death as his victims taunt him over the receiver and Finney breaks his neck, and finally, the thawed meat from the freezer comes in ever so useful for distracting the Grabber's vicious dog that he brought in with him.

I thought this was a great movie for the budget, and I hope it does well in the box office.

[–] acidraindrop (3055) 3 years ago

Absolutely!

My personal reading is that I like to think Finney was imagining all of the victims. And he himself was figuring out all of this on his own. I like to think that he tried to do everything that you described initially, and then eventually synthesizes it all. I think there's the implication that Finney has always had the potential to defend himself, and to do serious damage, but he's held himself back because he doesn't want to hurt his bullies, for instance.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

I get what you're saying, but I think this movie relies on a fair amount of supernatural activity. I like it for that, especially as his sister is scared off her bike by all the Grabber's victims appearing in the road all of a sudden. It seems to be a gift they share: he can hear voices of dead people on the phone, she can see visions of dead people in her dreams.

I mean, how would Finney know the cable was there unless someone told him? It was hidden.

How would Finney know to look for the random number carved into the wall that was the combination lock to the outer door of the house?

Everything else you say is plausible, like most people in his situation would try to dig a tunnel to escape, and he would try to imitate his martial arts friend's skills to make useful weapons against the Grabber, but I guess it's all open to interpretation.

[–] acidraindrop (3055) 3 years ago

I think that the sister has paranormal ability, but from a storytelling perspective, honestly, her psychic knowledge did little to help Finney. This is probably cause in the original story, she wasn't able to help him out lol, but it also shifts a lot of the movie to Finney; his freedom is wholly his responsibility.

I know my interp is obviously a headcanon thing, but I'm okay with that because I don't think it involves stretching anything, or making up anything. I honestly feel like he could have found the cable and the number just by randomly looking around the room. I really want to think that the writer of the movie intentionally made it so it could go either way. I don't think anything he did required supernatural knowledge.

On the supernatural part though, lol it is kinda funny to think of all these dead kids trying to give Finney advice, and he's just not putting it together until the very end. I don't know if you've seen Haunter w/ Abigail Breslin but basically the movie shows the "behind-the-scenes" of a ghost trying to help a human lol, but failing miserably because it's so hard to communicate with the living world. Think "The Shining" where "Tony" thought it would be a good idea to write Murder, backwards on the mirror as a warning for Wendy/Danny.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

"I don't know if you've seen Haunter w/ Abigail Breslin but basically the movie shows the "behind-the-scenes" of a ghost trying to help a human lol, but failing miserably because it's so hard to communicate with the living world."

I haven't, sorry. But Finney communicated well with the ghosts, they told him everything he needed to do to survive, essentially.

"Think "The Shining" where "Tony" thought it would be a good idea to write Murder, backwards on the mirror as a warning for Wendy/Danny."

I know that movie well, and I think Danny was in a trance every time "Tony" took him over, he must've been frightened as well to see what he'd done.

[–] davidaja (3) 3 years ago

I'm glad I read this cause I was trying to figure out where the hell he got that hunk of meat from at the end. Must have missed that part where he got it out of the freezer. Thanks!

[–] warrior-poet (1369) 3 years ago

Nicely said. I also enjoyed how all of those elements came together in the end. Joe Hill channel's his father at times.

I miss stories like this, horror with kids at the heart of them. And the retro era was very fitting in this case without being a force-feeding of excessive nostalgia. Quite liked this one, all the way to the last line of, "Call me Finn." That kid's gonna get some later.

I also really liked that the story took some time to breath as it unfolded, with some subtle yet pivotal moments between characters, which is rare these days. And bonus! No cheap, ineffective jump scares, but instead moments of building dread.

Unfortunately, I didn't find The Grabber to be as threatening as I think he could have been, and Finn's journey could have been a bit more harrowing (it seemed to come just a bit too easy). But that's a minor quibble. In the end I was engaged by the story.
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