The Black Phone

Finney Blake, a shy but clever 13-year-old boy, is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement where screaming is of little use. When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer’s previous victims. And they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney.

Scott Derrickson's adaptation of Joe Hill's short story earned mostly favorable notices for its period setting and basement-set cat-and-mouse tension, but critics were genuinely split on the supernatural elements — some found they deepened the dread, while others felt they deflated it. The harshest detractors called the film repetitive and overwritten, and pacing problems in the script drew consistent criticism even from reviewers who admired individual scenes.