Parents need to know that The Black Phone is a horror movie about a kidnapped teen (Mason Thames) who gets supernatural help while trying to escape from his maniacal kidnapper. It's a solid, visceral thriller, albeit one that's full of peril and violence involving young teens.

At least it seems like there's a way out of the Grabber's clutches, and the larger message of “The Black Phone” is that perseverance, standing up to the biggest bully of them all. It's a positively quaint moral at the center of a shockingly violent and scary movie.

Derrickson explained to IGN how he combined his personal experiences with the changes he made to the original story, "The idea came to me to combine my own experiences growing up in a blue-collar, violent neighborhood in North Denver in the late '70s with The Black Phone." Cargill told Yahoo! News that he was ...

The film is produced by Derrickson & Cargill's Crooked Highway and presented by Universal and Blumhouse.

For reasons unknown, the Grabber abducts young boys and imprisons them in his basement unbeknownst to his brother. He would eventually kill the boys and bury the bodies in a house across the street. He had killed a total of 5 children, with Finney Blake's friends Bruce and Robin being his latest victims.

Just as in No Country for Old Men, The Black Phone introduces a serial killer without a past, who's scarier exactly because of that. When Finney is trapped in the Grabber's basement, there's no big revelation that could lead him to reason with the killer to ensure his freedom.

The Grabber dons several creepy masks throughout the film, each exposing different portions of his face. They were designed by legendary prosthetic makeup artist Tom Savini. Mason Thames said that the first time he saw the mask, coupled with Ethan Hawke's bone-chilling performance, he was terrified.

The movie IT is based off of the novel by Stephen King by the same name. No, it is not based off of a true story. There are no giant telepathic spider-things hibernating in caverns beneath our cities, luring children (and adults) down to become food every generation of so.

While The Grabber's motivation is never revealed, it was theorized by the creators that his mental instability and the game of "Naughty Boy" come from childhood abuse of his father making him play the same game and that the Grabber is trying to re-live these memories in a routine-type way to invoke nostalgia.

Production Companies

• Universal Pictures. (presents)
• Blumhouse Productions.
• Crooked Highway.

Blumhouse ProductionsCrooked Highway The Black Phone/Production companies

Max was The Grabber's brother and temporary roommate when visiting from Durango. He had an addiction to cocaine and a comical personality. In his free time, Max investigated The Grabber's crimes even though he unknowingly lived with the killer. He was murdered by The Grabber after discovering Finney in the basement.

Instead, The Grabber employs the mask as a sort of theater - the different Grabber mask variations each represent characters in a show he's putting on for himself and his victims. A few scenes in The Black Phone suggest yet another motivation for his mask: he uses it to hide from himself out of shame for his actions.

Joe Hill Used Real Serial Killers as Inspiration In an interview with Vanity Fair, Hill explained that, although his story drew inspiration from real serial killers of the era, The Black Phone is not based on any actual case.

For reasons unknown, the Grabber abducts young boys and imprisons them in his basement unbeknownst to his brother. He would eventually kill the boys and bury the bodies in a house across the street. He had killed a total of 5 children, with Finney Blake's friends Bruce and Robin being his latest victims.

Scott Derrickson's return to his horror sandbox, The Black Phone, is a fantastic vintage horror film that utilizes sound against its audience. Ethan Hawke continues his spectacular mid-career run in a rare villainous role.