It’s dangerous to be a kid in the American yesteryear. At least that’s the message of this week’s two new cinema releases – one a supernatural thriller and the other a moody mystery. Find out more about them below.
The Black Phone
In this adaptation of the acclaimed short story by Joe Hill, The Black Phone sees Finney (Mason Thames), a shy but clever 13-year-old boy, abducted by a sadistic killer (Ethan Hawke). Finney is trapped in a soundproof basement and all seems lost until a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, and Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer’s previous victims. All have valuable advice to help him escape. The Black Phone comes from filmmaker Scott Derrickson, who made Sinister, The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Marvel’s Doctor Strange.
Read our review for this one, which is already one of 2022’s standout horror hits.
Where the Crawdads Sing
Based upon the best-selling novel by Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing is a drama mystery centred on Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones), an abandoned girl who raises herself to adulthood in the dangerous marshlands of North Carolina in the 1950s and 60s. Isolated from the local community, resourceful Kya is nonetheless drawn to two young men from town. However, when one of them is found dead, she is the main suspect. As the case unfolds, the many secrets held by the “haunted” marsh threaten to come to the surface. Also starring Taylor John Smith, Harris Dickinson, David Strathairn, and Jayson Warner Smith.