MOVIE NEWS – A masked killer robs kids on the Black Phone, which is called the thriller of the year and stands at a very convincing 83 percent on the Rottentomatoes critical portal.

The horrible figure of a psychopath named Raid is not born of imagination. The film is based on a short story by Joe Hill – the author’s son Stephen King – who revealed that he was modeling a killer who was dreading a small town from a real mentally ill person. John Wayne Gacy was one of America’s most infamous serial killers. Between 1972 and 1978, he abducted and killed 33 boys and young men. In her spare time, Gacy was a volunteer clown named Pogo, which is why she is wearing the Raiding Clown Mask in the short story. It’s easy to figure out the connection: Stephen King’s classic, the also-filmed IT, is also a clown-dressed serial killer starring Pennywise. (Incidentally, Gacy was entered in the Guinness Book of Records because she was sentenced to 21 times life imprisonment and 12 times the death penalty.)

The filmmakers have changed the motif of the short story, with the Raider (Ethan Hawke) threatening his victim in a wizarding mask on canvas. Hill was heavily involved in the preparation of the film and suggested that since there are too many evil clowns in modern American mass culture, the Raid should be more of a wizard. This brought out another essential motif: in the 1920s and 1940s, circus and fair productions often featured the figure of the masked Wizard, who first appeared on stage as a messenger of hell and then disappeared, and now emerges from behind the curtain without a mask. fights against him with his magical power. Of course, the filmmakers immediately twisted one on the figure, but we don’t spoiler what.

One of the many virtues of The Black Phone is that it focuses unusually not on the killer but on its victims, creating new tensions. The figure of the latest adolescent victim candidate, Finney ( Mason Thames ), is at the centre of the story. His psychology needs to be deciphered and understood, not his killer, who is just a horror, not one of whom lurks around us.

We liked the movie too; you can read our review here.

( The Black Phone – is already in theatres!)