The Black Phone's Child Actors Are Its Greatest Strength

gamerant.com:

Blumhouse's The Black Phone is a riveting adaptation of the short story of the same name by Joe Hill. While much of the attention is on Ethan Hawke's villain The Grabber, who kidnaps children, keeps them in a basement, and then murders them, the child actors in the film make it the strong movie that it is.

Before The Grabber takes Finney (Mason Thames), he and his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) are shown living a sad existence, as their corner of 1978 Denver involves bullying at school and an abusive father. There are a lot of reasons why the child actors in The Black Phone are super impressive.

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The child characters in The Black Phone make the movie the impressive story that it is. They're reminiscent of The Losers Club members in Stephen King's famous book, miniseries, and movies IT. The IT remakes are split into two chapters from 2017 and 2019, and the kids are bullied and experience trauma but help each other through. The kids in The Black Phone have seen a lot of terror and abuse that no one should ever have to face, with Gwen and Finney being hurt by their father Terrence (Jeremy Davies), who misses his wife and their mother, who had visions and then took her own life.

There are three child characters who stand out the most: Finney, Gwen, and Robin (Miguel Cazarez Mora). All three have dealt with broken families and abuse, which bonds them and helps them understand each other, as they are just trying to survive their childhood, grow up, and hopefully move away, able to break the cycle and have a happier, better life. The Black Phone has scary moments and that is even before The Grabber takes Finney, as it's horrible watching Terrence yell at his children. But it's even worse