What is up bros, I'm Caleb.
And I'm Jonathan.
And we are a couple of bros on a mission to give you guys the most detailed movie reviews
out there with as little bias as possible.
Welcome to the all bros.
This week on the podcast we have absolutely nothing to talk about other than our breakdown
this week.
So we will be getting straight into that.
Yeah, we'll be getting straight into our breakdown of the Black Phone, which we are a little
late to the game on reviewing.
That is true.
Yeah we're figuring our shit out.
Or attempting to at least.
Yeah we let you guys down.
Honestly what's new?
I mean you know, damn, you didn't give us credit.
God damnit I f'ed that up.
Why did you give us some credit?
Yeah I know.
Anyway, so without further ado let's say we just get straight into this breakdown.
Let's do it.
Hello my name is Brecker Nurse and I want to tell you about my fun horror movie podcast
called Autopsy for Horror Movie.
On my show I like to have fun dissecting out what makes a horror movie scary, what worked
for it, what didn't, what types of fears it's a playoff of.
Is it an allegory for any sort of message?
I don't know but let's find out.
Also I like to watch slashers.
I'm a big slasher guy so I'll watch a slasher and do a kill grade for it.
I will cover the kills and I will tell you how I would grade it based on shock, method,
style points, and a fourth category that is a reflection of the movie.
Besides those I will have fun with special topic episodes, commentary tracks, interviews
with guests including some shutter directors so I just like to have a fun time over here.
If any of this sounds interesting to you or you just want to come check me out please
head over to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere they listen to podcasts and search for Autopsy
for Horror Movie.
Also be sure to find me on Instagram at Brecker Horror where you get fun updates and some
cool little posts that I do.
Thanks for listening and I hope that you get to enjoy this show and I'll see you on Instagram.
Bye.
Alrighty getting straight into this week's breakdown.
If you guys are new to our breakdown system we have split movies into eight different
categories that we individually score to come to a final All Bros letter grade.
The eight categories that we score are story, writing, acting, character development, effects,
music, costumes, and then we give it our own personal score at the very end.
All of those numbers get magically added up and thrown into our algorithm.
It spits out a letter grade when we're all done.
So with that if you have not seen The Black Phone it is currently on Peacock to stream
right now.
You will have to have a premium membership which kind of sucks but this movie doesn't
so go check it out.
It's the same way for Halloween kills so not surprised.
So please do yourself the service of going to check this movie out.
Like I said it could be on Peacock.
You can probably rent or buy it from other services like Voodoo or Movies Anywhere, YouTube,
whatever.
Do you use Movies Anywhere at all along with Voodoo?
So Voodoo kind of has like a weird thing where occasionally a movie won't pop up on Voodoo.
I'm trying to think of one.
Okay so you remember that Office Christmas Party movie?
Yes.
Yeah so that one will show up on Voodoo or yeah that one will show up on Voodoo but it
won't show up on Movies Anywhere and then there's another one where it will show up
on Movies Anywhere but not Voodoo so I kind of use both of them.
Have you watched anything recently on Movies Anywhere?
Not recently no.
Just wondering if you were having any problems with playback because yeah for some reason
excuse me when I try to watch something on Movies Anywhere I will just say oh yeah this
movie is not built to watch and I'm like bitch I bought it.
So what you telling me that for?
Oh man.
So I don't know what's going on with Movies Anywhere at least for me it's not working
it's being stupid.
Yeah I haven't really at least not that I know of but I haven't watched anything on
Voodoo for a while either.
I need to go in and update that I'm a few movies behind.
Yeah you do I did buy a movie and add it to your collection last night.
Oh yeah what movie?
Nerve.
They had it on sale for five bucks.
Yeah that it's basically it's in New York and it's that game where they it's like are
you a watcher or a player and if you're a player like you can people dare you to watchers
dare people to do certain stunts.
It's with Dave Franco and Emma Roberts.
Oh okay I do remember seeing that movie that movie wasn't too bad.
Yeah right that's what I thought because I mean so I have it but I guess I never sent
you the digital code so I already knew it was expired so you know what at the five bucks
I didn't feel like pulling out my phone to watch it.
But yeah so those are the ways that you can try and watch the Black Phone but if you have
not seen it yet go check it out and then come back and listen to this episode because it
is super worth it.
So with that Rose is about to spoil the entire freaking movie for you if you have not seen
it so if you listen past this point and something gets spoiled for you it's your own damn fault.
Damn right.
All right in 1978 a serial childhood doctor named The Grabber prowls the streets of a
Denver suburb.
Siblings Finney and Gwen Blake live in the area with their abusive alcoholic father.
At school Finney is frequently bullied and harassed.
He has a friendship with a classmate Robin who fends off the bullies.
A boy from another school that Finney knew Bruce is abducted by The Grabber.
Gwen who has psychic dreams much like her mother dreams of Bruce's kidnapping when
she sees that he was taken by a man in a black van with black bullets.
Detectives Wright and Miller interview Gwen but struggle to believe her claims.
The Grabber abducts Robin as well as Finney days later.
I'm not saying that like oh I know you know how to kidnap a kid but I feel I should not
have started that sentence with that.
But I feel that he abducted these kids way too close together.
Like if he didn't do it super close together they needed to address that.
Fair.
Because what was throwing me off is like how Finney and Gwen were talking about like oh
this like Bruce's dad's putting up posters again and I'm like how long has it been like
a day or two?
So that's what I initially thought.
I was just like okay so what's the time period in all this?
Yeah that would have been nice to know honestly but what can you do?
Later Finney hears the phone ringing and answers it.
Bruce's ghost unable to remember his own name or who he was when he was alive tells Finney
about a floor tile he can remove to dig a tunnel to escape.
The police search for Finney is unsuccessful.
The grabber brings Finney's food and leaves the door to the basement unlocked.
Finney prepares to sneak out but is stopped by another boy on the phone called Billy.
He explains that it is a game that the grabber plays and he's waiting upstairs to attack
Finney with the bell if he leaves the basement.
Billy instructs him to use a cord Billy found to get out via the basement window.
While climbing Finney breaks the bar on the window preventing him from climbing back up.
Gwen dreams of Billy being abducted and confides in her father about what has happened.
Wright and Miller speak to the eccentric man called Max who is staying in the area with
his brother.
It is revealed Finney is being held in Max's basement which he is unaware of and the grabber
is his brother.
After an agitated exchange with the grabber where he tests Finney's honesty he makes it
seem as if he would have let Finney go.
Finney speaks to another one of the victims Griffin on the phone.
Griffin shows Finney a combination 2A lock and informs him that the grabber has fallen
asleep upstairs.
Finney sneaks upstairs and unlocks the door but the grabber's dog alerts him of Finney's
escape.
Finney flees down the street but is recaptured.
Despondent over his fear of the temps Finney answers the phone to hear another victim a
punk called Vance whom Finney was scared of.
Vance informs Finney of a connecting storage room he can escape through if he breaks a
hole in the wall and exits through the freezer on the other side of the wall.
Finney creates a hole with a toilet tent cover and enters the back of the freezer only to
discover that the freezer door is locked.
The phone rings one more time with Raman at the end of the line.
He comforts Finney and encourages him to finally stand up and fight for himself.
He instructs Finney to remove the phone receiver and pack it with the dirt he had dug up to
use as a weapon.
Gwen dreams of Vance's abduction and discovers the property of the grabber.
She finds the house in context right in Millen.
Max realizes Finney is being held in the house and rushes to the basement to free him but
his brother kills him with an axe.
The police rush to the house that Gwen found but find it empty.
In the basement they find the buried bodies of the grabber's victims.
The grabber attacks Finney with the axe but Finney manages to trip the grabber with the
cord causing him to fall into the tunnel Finney dug where the grabber breaks and traps his
ankle in the window bars placed at the bottom.
The ghosts taunt the grabber over the phone before Finney breaks his neck with the phone
cord, killing him.
Finney distracts the guard dog with meat from the freezer and escapes the house using the
combination he learned.
Finney exits the house across the street from the grabber.
The grave sites where he reunites with Gwen and the police rush to the property.
The siblings comfort each other as their father arrives and tearfully apologizes for his
treatment.
Back at school, the confident Finney sits next to his crushing class.
If there's anything about this story that I would call bullshit on and this is even like
applying the fact that they have this supernatural element where there's a phone on the wall
that's disconnected.
I am calling 100% bullshit that Finney was able to bust a boy sized hole in a concrete
wall with a porcelain toilet cap.
There's no way in actual hell.
I mean, you're a lot more handy than I am so I wouldn't have even guessed that but good
to know that that is highly implausible.
It's porcelain dude.
The actual shit is so freaking fragile.
It is so fragile.
I'm like to think and like not even that.
It didn't even seem like it was like actual concrete.
It looked like it was like, the best way I can explain it is like it's kind of like a
cake where it has just like one layer of like solid concrete where it's more like plaster
and then it like on the inside is dirt because he was able to like dig his way through and
I'm like, no.
And then not even that.
I thought that was the shit you're calling out.
Yeah.
Not even that, it's like how perfectly he was able to dig that hole.
Like it was a perfect square with perfectly straight lines and everything.
Like it looked like it was carved out and I'm like, no.
Like there's a lot of shit in this that they got right but this is where they just kind
of really dropped the ball.
Yeah.
And this is taking into consideration that we have a freaking witch child that can see
the future.
I will admit, it probably wasn't meant to be funny but the fact that I think it's like
after she does all of this praying to Jesus and everything, I think and when she comes
back home one day, first sentence out of her mouth, Jesus, what the fuck?
I laughed so hard.
Or does she say God?
I can't remember.
No, she's talking Jesus.
Jesus?
Okay.
Oh yeah, I laughed.
That probably wasn't meant to be that funny but that was funny.
Dude, that was really freaking funny.
I think they did some weird things with the dad.
Like he was a character that I wasn't super for.
Like obviously he's a heavy drinker and whatever and like an abusive father.
Dude, I almost started freaking crying when he was beating the sister.
That was hard to watch.
That was super hard to watch and extremely unnecessary.
Very.
Like just not even like I don't want to see that shit and like not even like that's like
not a problem.
Like if you need to beat a child for story's sake, like beat a child.
I don't care.
But it just didn't tie into the story whatsoever.
It felt so weird that he was like he was getting mad because detectives had to come talk to
him at his work.
And I'm like, so what?
Yeah exactly.
Boo hoo.
Yeah, I'm like the detectives come and like announce to everyone that your child has visions.
Like that's that'd be weird.
That'd be funny.
Yeah.
But it's just like it didn't make any sense.
I'm like they would have taken him like aside or whatever or something that wouldn't have
made it seem so like freaking public.
Or they made it sound like it was a spectacle that was made of him at work.
And so he beats the shit out of them, gets her to be like my dreams are fake.
My dreams are like dreams are just dreams.
And then they go on to the rest of the movie and then they show that he goes to that Gwen
goes to him again and talks to him about the dreams.
I'm like, you didn't need him beating the shit out of her.
Like if if truly that was like the relationship that they had where he was like that hot headed
to beat a child, she would not have gone to talk to him.
Yeah, that's that kind of it just kind of made the the whole like that conversation
about their mother seems super just out there for me.
I'm just like, there's no way she wouldn't trust him to go talk to him about that shit.
Like hey, you know that guy that beat the hell out of you last time when you brought
up visions?
Like now you're going to go have a little chit chat about it with him now.
Absolutely not.
But putting those things aside, this was a freaking solid ass horror movie.
Yeah, it really was.
Like, like, oh my God, like, I can't say enough good about how how good the story is.
Like I mean, I will say, though, you pointed out, I don't know why this just bugged me,
but just the fact that like he kidnapped these kids just so close together, there had to
be someone that would have like seen something and then like maybe someone suspicious.
Because like, is it when they're walking home, is it pointed out what kind of vehicle the
the grabber drives?
The biggest black van.
So they do mention that.
OK, I can't remember.
Remember, he's driving the van with like abracadabra on it.
It's like a big, you know, but I just didn't know if like it had gotten around to like
all the kids.
Oh, hey, this is the no, no, no.
No, they did not know what the guy drove.
I think they they just knew that there was a guy called the grabber out there somewhere.
OK.
So I don't think yeah, the kids didn't know anything about that.
Yeah.
I will say I did find it very interesting that whenever the grabber would grab his next
victim, that Finney was the only victim that we actually saw the whole struggle of the
rest.
You literally just see the white van and they're not the white van, the black van in the distance
and the kids walking towards it or like that one kid, actually two kids, I think, riding
their bike towards it.
And then it just fades into the next scene.
And loved that shit.
Yeah, that was really good.
So did the way he's not very smart about the way he goes about taking them.
No, he's not.
Like I like I knew what was coming with Finney and just the fact that he did it in like broad
daylight like, yeah, especially when like, yeah, when a bunch of other kids were walking
home behind him.
Yeah.
Dude, serious?
There had to be at least one kid that was able to get their parents' attention and the
parent come out before he left.
Someone would have seen something.
Yeah, in that situation.
But I mean, I personally would have, I could see how Finney fell for whatever the hell
was happening.
I don't know how the other kids would have, what they would have fallen for.
Because with Bruce, the first kid that we see get abducted, or supposedly, like we don't
see him like get abducted initially.
But seeing him like riding his bike and it's just the black van making a turn and kind
of cutting him off with the van.
So it's like, okay, what did he do to trick him?
Or did he just like jump out of his van and go like balls to the wall and like kidnap
him?
I mean, I'm gonna assume the latter.
And then the little Mexican fighter kid, like what the hell did, what was up with the cape?
Like it looked like he was walking towards his van to meet him up, meet up for something.
Like what was up with that?
Fair enough.
I mean, I don't know if I was a kid, I wouldn't be walking behind alleyways of stores.
But this is me.
I mean, we say that, but we rode our bikes behind stores all the time.
Fair.
I also hit a backpack behind a store one time.
That was a very stupid idea.
Do not do that kids, because you will get the cops called on you because the store will
think it's a bomb.
There's a life lesson for you kids who if kids even listen to this podcast.
Yeah, learn from our mistakes.
Yep.
Can't believe you got the cops called on you.
That's hilarious.
I know dude, like straight up.
It's like they have the bomb squad there with like the robot all out and everything and
you just like they're getting everything prepped and you just kind of like walk, grab your
backpack and walk off.
Dude at that point, if I saw like all those people there, yeah, I would have just said,
all right, F that backpack.
There was nothing special in there.
I'm going home.
Like is my name on anything in that bag?
Thankfully, there wasn't.
Yeah, dude, that's so funny.
Oh man.
But yeah, so I really, there was a lot of stuff that they did really well with this
story.
Like it was, they were able to build like the tension really strong and I'll be real,
and with the, when they came to, to Max, so the, the grabbers older brother and like we're
interrogating him and he was talking about like, oh, well these are all the locations
that the kids were grabbed and like basically doing all, like presenting his, his findings
and then it did like the pan down to Fanny.
Did you think that Fanny was in his basement?
No, I thought that was just a cool transition to the next scene.
That's what I thought too.
I was just like, okay, like Max is on to something.
Like he, like I, the way that I viewed that transition was like, Max is like right on
top of this case.
Like Max is going to be the one to fricking crack it.
And I mean, he, I wasn't completely wrong.
Yeah, he was on top of it.
Yep.
You can definitely say that.
Oh man.
I love that when he like comes down and like storms like, oh my God, I knew I wasn't crazy.
You know, I can't come upstairs so I can actually show everybody that, you know, like somebody
was actually going on down there.
I love that he doesn't first ask, are you okay?
He doesn't care about the kids will be.
Yeah, right.
Dude, that axe to the head was brutal.
Like God, that was extremely brutal, dude.
Holy shit.
What did you think?
I mean, I guess it really wasn't a twist, but like with Gwen having these visions of
a particular house and when she finally finds the house and they go in and break into the
house, the twist of the kids being like that being their grave, but then Finney's like
right across the street from them.
I thought it was a great twist.
I will say one thing.
This is what a Gacy should have done.
He did not need the help.
Fair.
I'm just saying he should have had two houses, one where he killed the kids and then another
one where he buried the kids.
Jeez, you know how much you could come you need for two homes.
Like come on.
Did you see how much he was making with his construction company?
No, because you haven't released that episode yet.
Oh, well, I'm sorry.
Oh dude, man was rich.
John Wayne Gacy actually made a very good living off of having his own construction
company.
Honestly yeah, if he would have buried the bodies at one and then killed them at the
other, it would have been perfect.
And if he ran out of space at the other one, just start burying them in the one that you
killed him in.
There we go, problem solved.
It could have gotten at least another 15, Gacy.
That's so fucked up.
I'm going to shut the fuck up now.
And Rose is about to get cancelled.
We're going back to the All Bro show here.
Yup.
So it was nice knowing you guys.
Oh man.
Anyway, I really, really liked that kind of twist because when they went in and the house
was empty, I was like, oh shit.
I thought they were going to do some sort of time travel shit where it's like she's
having all these visions and it's just like kind of too late for Finny, one of those things.
I kind of would have been pissed, honestly.
I know.
I would have too when I started thinking about it, but I'm just like, gosh, they're going
to do some time travel shit or something along those lines or maybe the grabbers actually
adult Finny and fit like, I don't know.
Like dude, I'd be out if that was the case.
It was a really implausible theory to have.
I understand that.
But nonetheless, it is one that I had.
So all right, fair enough.
It like my theory would have completely like butchered how good this movie was, but it
was so good.
It had like a super solid flow.
I would say there's maybe one or two spots where maybe it was like dragging a bit.
But other than that, it was pretty freaking good.
It really was.
So other than that, I had close to no issues.
I mean, other than the stuff that I brought up.
So where are you sitting at with the story?
I am very high.
I'm at 95.
95 shit.
I was actually just a tad lower.
Well, I would say a tad lower, but I'm sitting at like an 89.
I didn't quite crack into the 90s for me.
Fair enough.
At least just personally.
The issues that it brought up and it's just, you know what?
I lied.
My issues now that I'm thinking about it, because it's like the toilet bowl thing, like
cracking concrete and some of the other like twists and turns that they did.
I think that's more of a writing issue than a story issue.
So I'll bump up my story score to like a 92.
So I'll dock for writing.
Fair enough.
But even so, the writing on this was really solid.
The dialogue was really good.
I think my only problems are some of the stuff that I brought up in story where it's like
the dad beating Gwen.
Yeah, definitely.
That was very unnecessary.
And at least, well, you need to either eliminate one of those scenes.
You either need to eliminate him beating her or you need to eliminate her going to talk
to him about her dreams.
Yeah.
Either one of those things, if you eliminate, I think drastically improves the character
of the dad, I feel.
I think if it were my choice, I would have eliminated the talk about the dreams.
That way it's like he beats her.
They just don't talk or whatever.
He doesn't go to her and then she like goes behind his back, calls the detectives, like
does all these things and eventually finds Finny.
And they, I would say the detectives go to the dad and tell them like your daughter's
dreams are what helped find your son and then have him have that breakdown where he's like,
I'm so sorry.
Yeah, I think that would have worked a lot better.
Yeah, it's just, I think it was just lacking a little bit.
It was odd.
It was just odd.
Sorry, other than that, I can't really think of anything off the top of my head.
So what were you saying?
No, I was going to say, I feel the bet.
One of my favorite lines from this movie delivered by Ethan Hawke was when it's the scene where
he, he's asking Finny what, what's his name, you know, all this stuff.
And he's just like, why do you want to know my name?
I'm not going to tell you.
And he's like, oh, okay, that's fine.
I'll just find out in the paper.
They always give such amazing like info on you boys a lot more than what you guys would
tell me or, and I also get to see what you guys lied about.
I'm like, that's so fucked up.
It totally was.
I was like, oh shit.
And then Dan started thinking too, when he started asking that I'm like, they've waited
this long to release a newspaper about him.
And then when he pulled it out and like threw the newspaper down and be like, called him
out for being a liar.
I was like, shit.
I was, uh, yeah, dude.
Yeah.
When he froze it, I was just like, and I was just starting to like you, Finny.
I was thinking of letting you go.
I'm like, ah, I know.
Well, no, he wasn't going to let him go.
I know.
That's one of those things.
I'm like fricking stupid kid.
Just tell him your name.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
Oh man.
Dude, that was so good.
Um, gosh.
I really liked the dialogue that he had or the communications that he had with the past
victims.
Yeah.
Oh my God, dude.
Those were so, so good.
Yeah.
I like how scary they made those scenes.
Seriously.
The fricking punk rock metalhead kid that always got into fights, his like kind of scared
the crap out of me, if I'm being honest here.
Yup.
Dude, it was fricking nuts.
But like the fact that like literally Bruce had only been gone for what, like maybe a
month?
That I don't know.
Like I said, this is another thing I'm probably going to dock for.
They did not set up a timeframe very well.
Yeah, they didn't because when Bruce answers first and he's just like, oh, hey, you're
Bruce.
We played baseball together.
We were on separate teams.
He's just like, oh, so that's my name.
I had forgotten it.
I'm like, okay, how long does it take for them to forget their name?
I think that's like an instant thing.
That's an instant thing?
Okay.
That's what I gathered because it's like, okay, he knows of these kids.
Yeah.
Like he knows all of them.
So they were all abducted and killed within a period of time that he remembers.
Like the punk rock kid.
Yeah.
Like he knows of like Billy's name or Paperboy, whatever you want to call him.
Like he knows of Paperboy.
He knew or he knew and feared the punk rocker had the interaction with Bruce.
And then what was his face?
The one with the bike lock?
No, not the Robin.
Yes.
Yeah.
And then Robin was like, wait, wasn't the bike lock kid?
Billy?
No, no.
Or was that a different one?
Yeah, it was two different kids.
Okay.
Was that like a super scary kid that was like upside down?
It might have been.
Yeah.
I think you're right.
Yeah.
So what I was thinking of was Robin.
Yeah.
All of those interactions were just freaking, so he knew of all of them.
He knew all of those kids in some way, shape or form.
But what really scared the ever living shit out of me was when he was talking to them
and then they would just kind of suddenly appear.
But what was terrifying about it is that they were in like this ghostly form.
It wasn't even like ghosts.
So for those of you who haven't seen it, that I continue to listen, Finny doesn't see these
people.
It's only for us.
And their faces are usually covered by a shadow and they're just really, really dark characters.
They kind of have like a grim reaper feel about them.
But what I really liked is that when they were talking, it doesn't sound like their
normal voice.
It sounds like how you would hear them through the phone.
And somehow that made it freaking scarier.
Dude, yeah, straight up.
I'm going to add this with the effects, with the effects or the makeup that they had on
those boys, like from the blood to the dirt.
Because you could definitely tell that after seeing the other house where they were buried,
thinking back to when you saw them, you're just like, yeah, a bunch of like all of them
were covered in dirt.
You could see resemblance of dirt where they had been buried up or dug up, sorry.
It's freaking so scary.
And whichever kid was the one that was like that Finny ended up seeing, the one that was
like hanging upside down.
I know he saw him and then he also saw the paperboy.
Are we sure he didn't see them all?
I don't think he saw them all.
I think the only one that he didn't see was Bruce because he saw, oh my God, what's his
friend's name?
Robin?
Yeah, so he saw Robin, he saw the paperboy.
When did he see Robin?
That's when he, because remember Robin's like showing him the technique of like step back,
step forward and then swing of how to fight with the...
He didn't see him.
Like Robin was behind him.
Well, sorry, no, I mean like the times that we actually like see their ghosts.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Because...
Finny didn't see them like we did as audience members, but yeah, Finny never, at least he
never acknowledged that he saw them.
Yeah, that's true.
But as far as I know, the only ghost that we didn't see was...
Oh my God, what was the football player's name?
Not football, God damn it.
Baseball player's name?
Bruce.
From what I remember, he's the only ghost that we did not see.
All the other ones we do catch a glimpse of.
Yeah, that's what I'm recalling too.
Yeah, but dude, fricking nuts.
And then I will get into it with like costumes and stuff, but yeah, everything else, like
the dialogue, everything felt like really freaking solid on that.
Like we've already addressed the issues that I had.
Most of it was with the dad and maybe some of the detectives were a little like dry.
Like I think they could have made the detectives more memorable characters.
But again, that's just a writing issue.
So I think I'm going to give writing what I was originally going to give the story.
So I'm going to go in 89.
You know what, I will match you there.
Alright, next up we got acting, which we have Mason Thames who played Finny.
We have Madeline McRaw who played Gwen.
We have Ethan Hawke who played the Grabber.
So those are the main three I would say.
And then we have some lesser extras and whatnot, like including the dad, the detectives, a
couple of the boys that were victims that were killed.
So how would you rank the three, like the three main?
Number three I would give to Finny.
I thought the kid was great, loved his performance, he did a great job.
But I would actually say that I enjoyed his sister Gwen's performance just slightly more.
So you're giving her two?
Yeah I'm going to give her two because I feel it really caps off of how great this child
is as an actress is that whole beating scene.
Because you can feel the emotion in her eyes, it's so freaking heartbreaking.
Dude, oh my gosh, this doesn't happen very often but another we freaking matched up on
our top three.
Hell yeah.
Number one I'm going to give to Bruce, I'm just kidding, no.
No number one without a doubt it's Ethan Hawke.
He is incredible in this movie.
He's scary as hell and the emotion that he's able to convey behind a mask with his eyebrows
and everything when he takes off part of the mask is freaking terrifying and it's so freaking
good.
He is so freaking good.
He is definitely number one.
He is haunting and I don't know if we've ever seen him in, I mean I know we've seen him
in a villainous role before with Moon Knight but like horror wise I don't know if we've
ever seen, like he's always kind of played the more or less the victim like what the
bad stuff is happening or who the bad stuff is happening to.
I don't know if we've ever seen him like in a role like this and he just blew it out of
the freaking water.
As far as I know we haven't but yeah no absolutely great.
Blew it out of the freaking water.
Yeah he is so just a master class and like you stated with the mask like having to act
behind a mask I hear from what I've like heard actors talk about in like interviews with
them acting behind a mask is extremely difficult because you have to put in a lot of like body
language that you can't, that unless you're like trained to do it can be really difficult.
Like I know Hugo Weaving like had a really hard time with it in Viva Vendetta when he
was in a mask the entire time and it was a full face mask but he was like theatrically
trained to so he has acted behind a mask before and you kind of have to act with your body
when you're being like in a theatre because not many people can like get close-ups on
your face.
Like the only people that are going to see your face are maybe like the first few rows.
Everyone else is going to be like super far away so you have to act with your body and
he did that amazingly.
Dude and he got freaking yoked for this movie.
Yeah like damn.
Like which is weird for a horror film.
I mean I don't know when this was shot compared to Moon Knight but I'm just wondering if he
got fit for Moon Knight and he was coming off of that for this or?
So Moon Knight came out this year right?
Yes.
So this is a 2021 movie.
Oh.
So it would have been this and then he would have started working on Moon Knight.
Okay nevermind.
This is kind of weird to get yoked for a horror film.
Yeah but it worked.
Like he wasn't like chiseled or anything like for like those that don't have that frame
of reference.
Like he wasn't chiseled or nothing but he kind of had that like old-timey bodybuilder
feel where it's just kind of like a big chest and like just a strong core.
Like no abs or anything but just built.
And it was so scary to see that.
So for those of you that don't or that haven't seen it so he left the door unlocked and then
he sits at the top of the stairs in his kitchen with a freaking belt and then he's like shirtless
and so his so he's like just sitting there in the chair and he looks massive the way
that they had him sitting or shot or whatever.
He looked freaking insanely big and it was like terrifying because he's also sitting
there in his creepy ass mask and it's just like anytime they showed shit like that that's
where I was like oh this is going to be nuts.
Agreed.
So yeah freaking like just like you said master class for Ethan Hawke and then yeah I think
the actress for Gwen sold it a little bit better than Finney did.
So yeah absolutely agree with your ranking.
Where are you putting your acting?
I'm going to go 90.
That's actually exactly where I'd put it too.
Hell yeah.
Alright moving on over to character development but with this being a horror movie it's going
to be the logic.
So how did they follow the rules that they set in place?
I feel for the most part they did a great job.
I think they did too.
One thing that I kind of like began to pick up like why like did they okay when Finney
was talking to one of the boys and was talking about like oh did you guys hear the phone
and they said like we heard it ring but we couldn't hear what was on the other side right?
I started like putting together that Finney also obtained some of his mother's gift for
hearing things.
And that's why he was able to hear who was on the other side of the phone.
Oh that's a great point.
Yeah kind of like his sister.
Like his sister had like the sight and like was able to have like full blown visions but
I think with Finney he's just not quite as tuned into that kind of stuff.
So it took a situation like this for him to unlock that ability.
And yeah so they kind of had like that spooky shit.
Like supernatural wise the only thing that they have is like the phone that rings when
one of the boys like past victims wants to speak and then Gwen's visions that she has
and usually they're in dreams but she did have some full blown visions like out in the
town.
So that was really interesting to watch and she kind of was I like how when she was talking
to Finney about it and saying like oh that's not how it works, that's not how it works.
And then she was able to like hone in her ability.
Alright so anything else like did anything stand out to you that maybe wasn't quite like
on the up and up?
No not really.
Not that I can think of.
I mean I really want to know did was it ever explained why he left the black balloons at
the crime scene?
No I think it's just his thing.
That would have been interesting to see if there was more meaning behind that because
it doesn't want the detective to say like oh we found two black balloons at the scene
of the crime or some shit like that.
Yeah I think in Finney's case it was more used as like a distraction so he could like
full blown like grab him and pull him into the van.
That's fair.
I mean I feel you still got a good glimpse of the kicking legs so I feel that someone
probably could have seen that something was still wrong.
Yeah I don't think the distraction was for like anyone else.
I think it was specifically for the abductee.
Just to kind of disorientate him.
Yeah.
At least that's how I figured it.
He's like okay he uses black balloons to just kind of like get in your face because if someone
were to just take a shit ton of balloons throw them at you and then go to freaking attack
you like it would take you a second to be like what the shit.
That's a good point.
That's a very good point.
I think that's just what happened.
This is I was debating on whether or not to dock this in our logic or effects and I think
I'm going to do it in logic.
I'm going to be docking for the absolute bullshit toilet bowl thing.
Like toilets have as far as I'm aware they've always been made out of like porcelain.
Porcelain cannot break concrete.
I don't care how you hit it it's not going to break concrete.
I'm actually going to look it up real quick what they used to build.
Oh my god.
I love toilets built in the 70s.
I know that they had the bathtubs back then were mostly like built out of like cast iron.
So I mean if it was cast iron yeah there's no way in freaking hell.
Yeah cast iron toilets look completely different than porcelain toilets and that is a that's
straight up a porcelain toilet.
There's no way in living hell that he would have been able to break open a wall like that
with a porcelain toilet.
Absolutely no way and then again.
We're going to put this to the test.
Good luck.
That show is going to break or it would have broken very easily.
And seriously unless the shit was made of like a super shitty plaster but it looked
like cement.
But I mean who freaking knows because on the inside apparently it was like dirt that he
could have dug with his hand and also that he was able to crack open a hole that was
just perfect enough to frame the one thing that he needed to get into the freezer.
Like you can go to hell.
You can go to hell.
And how did how the hell do you piece together that it.
Okay I was going to say how do you piece together that there's a freezer on the other side with
the with the the outlet but a ghost told him that there was so I'll forgive that.
But I'm calling bullshit on that and I'm also calling bullshit that he was able to perfectly
like shove the the cable all the way up the the the rug.
Like because I don't know if you've ever used a cable before but that shit likes to like
twist and turn and get caught on stuff.
So yeah I'm calling bullshit on that.
Oh shit.
Other than that I think they did a pretty decent job at like everything else.
I think maybe Finny waited a little too long when he escaped the first time like with the
bike lock.
I think he waited a little too long to start screaming.
Yeah I yeah I can definitely agree with that.
Yeah so with that kind of stuff especially with how how smart he was he was doing like
the first go around I think I'm bringing that down to maybe like an 87.
Okay I'll just go up one higher than you 88.
All right moving on over to effects there was quite a bit of special effects in this
a lot of it was gore related which I don't know about you but I had very very little
issue with.
Oh yeah no same here.
I think where my issue lies is kind of what they did with the ghost children.
The the kid that was hanging up upside down and pointing at the the window.
Yes he was super scary but he didn't look super great.
Like I couldn't quite figure it like he kind of had a CGI feel about him.
At least when you initially see him other than so not too many complaints there.
Everything else like special effects wise I think the or not special effects practical
when it came to like fighting I think the fight that Robin had it first with that one
kid was a moose.
I thought that fight was like freaking brutal as hell.
Dude straight up like god damn.
I love how he points out in the bathroom.
I didn't need to you know have them bleed bleed but you know there was a huge crowd
I got to send the message so I'm like okay.
I'm like damn dude.
Dude freaking when he mentions because this takes place in 78 when he mentions oh have
you seen the Texas Chainsaw Massacre yet the whole time thinking how did they not do like
have they how did they not have them talk about Halloween instead of the Texas Chainsaw
Massacre considering that's the franchise that Blumhouse who is owned by you know that
Blumhouse who made this movie is you know caring right now.
So I don't know I feel considering that it doesn't really come up it doesn't like the
Texas Chainsaw Massacre doesn't really have anything to do with the plot like it's not
like oh if you would have seen this movie you would have been able to pick up on what
he did and it would have helped you on just me being nitpicky not nitpicky but I think
it would have been made more sense if they would have mentioned Halloween.
What year did Halloween come out?
78.
78?
Yeah.
And Texas Chainsaw Massacre came out the same year?
Let me check.
Yeah like just thinking like what like when did Halloween come out?
Okay maybe I'm wrong here because yeah Texas Chainsaw Massacre came out in 90 or 74 and
then Halloween I think wasn't released until August.
Damn it.
So by that time frame it still would have been a relatively new movie because they had
just started the school year right?
I think so.
They were fresh off of summer.
Because yeah the release date for Halloween wasn't until October 27th.
Damn.
They got you.
Sons of bitches.
I've never even seen the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre have you?
I haven't either.
I haven't even seen the new one on Netflix yet.
I can't believe it's that freaking old.
Yeah no right?
I don't know why it came out in 74.
Yeah that's crazy.
But yeah I mean it makes sense that way.
So why he would have seen it in a drive-in theater if they were playing like old scary
movies.
Good point.
Or like whatever you want to justify it there.
But yeah so I thought that fight looked super good.
A lot of the combat that they had, any fighting looked really freaking good.
Even when I felt some crazy intensity between the Grabber and Finney when they were having
that fight.
And when he kind of got home alone it fell into the pit.
Like I thought that was badass.
Like the way that he just beats the shit out of him and freaking chokes him out.
I didn't like the wiki explanation saying that he broke his neck.
And I'm like no you freaking choked his ass out.
Yeah he did not break his neck.
Oh dude when he was choking him to death I was getting a little too excited.
I'm not gonna lie.
No I feel you.
I was cheering along right with you.
I'm just like get him get him.
It was that satisfying.
Yeah so good.
So lots of props to the effects department there.
But with that where are you sitting at?
Yeah just because I literally have very little problems.
I'd say a solid 90.
Actually you know what?
91.
I'm gonna go a couple points lower than you.
I'm gonna go to like an 89.
Alright.
Like I enjoyed it and I think they did a lot right.
It's just I think some of the CGI issues that I had were just enough to bring it down a
couple points.
That's fair.
I get you.
Alright next up we got music.
Nothing too...
No it was kind of your basic horror film score.
Yeah.
Someone's saying that's bad.
Score is very good.
It's just...
No I mean it definitely worked for the film.
Just wasn't anything special.
Yeah it's no like Halloween theme or anything like that.
Yeah.
So I think six maybe.
Yeah I agree with six.
Alright next up we got costumes.
So the big one is the grabbers outfit and it's his mask.
His mask was the shit.
Seriously the fact that it was two parts too.
I love that.
Hell technically it was like four parts because he had a bunch of different like attachments
for it.
So he had like the top piece where it was like the devil horns and whatever and then
he had a smile, a frown and then from a poster that I saw I think he also had just one where
it was just blank.
I like it.
That shit was so scary.
Dude seriously though.
God that scene where Finny's just like you try to touch me I'll scratch your face up.
He's just like this face?
He's pointing to the mask.
I know it's just like.
Dude like oh my gosh just getting back into Ethan Hawke's performance on this.
He had such like a childish way of speaking.
Like a sense of innocence that just made him terrifying.
Dude straight up.
And like anytime he talked like that I'm just like ah stranger danger.
Oh shit that's funny.
Oh.
Yeah I wish that we would have got to see him in like the top hat more.
Like that you see on the cover.
Yeah I agree.
Or like the posters.
And he never wore the glasses.
The only time that he yeah well the only time that he wore the glasses that I saw was when
he kidnapped Vinny.
Okay but he wasn't even in like a mask then.
It was just nah or just that one was tough.
I think I missed that because like one you don't really see his face during the interaction
other than like a really quick moment.
So I think that's maybe why I'm not like recalling that.
That's fair.
But he freaking terrifying.
Seriously though dude.
I really liked how when he came down and like he always kind of had a different orientation
with the mask.
Like first time he comes down he's wearing just like wearing his mask and then he comes
down again and he's just wearing the smile portion of it when he's watching Vinny sleep.
Which is creepy as hell.
Very.
And then comes down again where he's just wearing the top part.
And then like after he's been like after he lies about his name he comes down and he's
wearing the full mask with the frown.
Oh shit.
Where's the like with the frown too.
Like freaking nuts.
Like I'm glad that they didn't force him to take the mask off.
Or give us that moment like he kind of.
They did kind of give us a Halloween moment.
I feel where he took.
Or Finney like kicked the mask off of him.
And then he was like like freaking out.
Okay.
Fair enough.
And I was just kind of like yeah that felt a little too.
Halloween ish.
Yeah.
Because yeah Michael's nothing without his mask.
Yeah.
Super solid.
Everyone else though kind of.
Average.
Just classic like 70s kid clothes.
Yeah.
So where are you sitting at?
I'm sitting at like an eight.
I can give you an eight.
I was leaning a little bit more towards a seven.
Just because I mean the rest of the costumes were not like anything spectacular.
That's fair.
But.
I feel Ethan Hawke's mask just boosted up just a little bit.
Yeah.
All right.
Last up we got our own personal score.
So you want to take this one?
I would love to.
So overall this is one of the best horror movies I've seen in recent memory.
I had an amazing time with this movie.
Ethan Hawke is absolutely incredible.
And the kid actors are super good as well.
I cannot recommend this horror film enough.
So I'm going to go a 91.
Yeah absolutely agreed.
Had a great time with this movie.
It filled me with genuine fear and just overall terror which I think is a hard thing for horror
movies to do for at least for me.
Like horror movies for me like they can scare me but they don't fill me with like dread.
I feel like it's always like that's what I don't like.
I don't like being like I don't like being jump scared.
And just because I like my initial reaction to being jump scared is anger.
And so like at the end of a horror movie that's just like over packed with with jump scares.
It just it brings the movie down for me.
But this movie did not do that.
It filled me with like genuine fear and terror.
And I loved every second of it.
Like this is what horror movies should be.
They shouldn't.
I don't appreciate movies that don't earn their jump scares.
And wherever there was a jump scare in this movie it was well earned.
So I mean it's hard for me to complain about like that.
Like I said being scared.
So with that I think I'm I think we're gonna give it an 89.
I had a really good time with this movie.
But anyway so to recap with our highest score category we have story leading at a 93.5 followed
by writing that dipped down just a little bit sitting at an 89.
Actings up one point higher sitting at a 90.
With the logic kind of dropped down a little bit to an 87.5.
The effects brought it back up like right back up in line with acting sitting at a 90.
Music slightly average nothing too special to talk about but it fit with the scenes.
So like I said we're sitting putting that at a six.
Costumes average out to an eight because of that incredible mask.
And our personal score averaged out to a 90.
So with all of that our final Albrose letter grade for the black phone has come to a B
plus.
Not bad.
Yeah definitely not.
It's like kind of a mid B plus.
So it's sitting at an 87.5.
So I mean it's not bad at all.
No no not at all.
Yeah I mean maybe a little lower than I would personally cared for but yeah like let's see
where it ranks.
Maybe with the other movies that we've done.
So sitting at an 87.5 puts it exactly in line with How to Train Your Dragon the first one.
So it puts it below Parasite which is at an 87.59.
Puts it below Rhea and the Last Dragon which is at an 87.81.
Puts it below The Prom which is at an 88.12.
Puts it below The Invisible Man which is at an 88.23.
And then puts it below How to Train Your Dragon 2 which is at an 88.37.
So I'm actually really glad that we got another horror movie in this.
And I would actually agree with this.
Like that Invisible Man would be higher than this one.
Oh yeah absolutely.
Yeah but anyway going the opposite direction.
It is above Freaky which was at an 87.37.
It's above Detective Pikachu which is at an 87.31.
It's above Total Recall which was at an 87.28.
It's above The Willabes which is at an 87.24.
And then finally it is above Psycho which is at an 87.1.
Not bad.
Not bad at all.
Oh and then just for shits and giggles.
It is also above the 1978 Halloween which is at an 87.06.
Alright now I'm pissed.
How dare you put this above Halloween.
Hey I didn't do shit.
We put it above Halloween so this is both of our fault.
Alright fair enough.
Yeah okay.
I was going to say it's your fault for being so harsh on Halloween but never mind.
I wasn't that harsh on Halloween.
I'm just kidding.
Oh man.
But anyway so that's where this movie ranks and I think it has a pretty decent home.
Agreed.
I think the only one that maybe you can make the argument for is Freaky but I mean the
margins are so close it's not even funny.
Are you saying you can't make an argument for that on Halloween?
Just because I'm an asshole?
No I can't.
We about to throw some fists.
Virtual fists man.
Virtual fists.
Oh man.
Okay that concludes this week's episode.
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And next week, I am not sure what we'll be doing.
Next week will be a surprise.
Yeah, so this one was depending on where it ends up.
It's either going to be nope, which might be a little difficult for me to pull off since
my wife is currently gone.
She's on a trip right now so I can't exactly go to the movie theater whenever I want because
I have the editor with me.
So yeah, probably won't be nope and we'll see if it can be Lal Singh Chadha, the basically
rebooted Forrest Gump, wherever that ends up.
Let's see where it's going to go.
No word on where that's streaming.
But if it's not going to be streaming, we'll figure something out.
So yeah, so you guys can look forward to whatever the hell we do next week.
But yeah, so with that, this has been the All Bros podcast.
I'm Caleb and I'm Jonathan and we'll catch you guys next week.
Deuces, shalom.
And I'm bad.
Thank you.