Warning: This article contains discussions of suicide and self-harm. It also conatains spoilers for The Black Phone
Summary
The Black Phoneproved to be a major hit upon its 2021 release, garnering rave reviews and becoming a box office smash, which netted a sequel order, and also a spinoff quietly released in 2023 inV/H/S/85. Co-written and directed bySinister’s Scott Derrickson, the movie served as an adaptation of Joe Hill’s short story of the same name, centering on a teenager abducted by a serial kidnapper known as The Grabber. While trapped in his basement, the teenager finds a way to communicate with spirits of past victims via the phone, and they help him escape.
Led by Mason Thames and Ethan Hawke,The Black Phonewas a welcome return to horror for Derrickson and his longtime collaborator, C. Robert Cargill after they departedDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. After the movie’s success, Hill collaborated withDerrickson and Cargill for aBlack Phone 2, which is currently scheduled for an October 2025 release date. In the middle of that, however, Derrickson and Cargill made the short film “Dreamkill” inV/H/S/85, which served as a spinoff to the 2021 movie, and also proved to be one of the best of the found footage anthology franchise.
The Black Phone’s Story & World Explained
The Black Phonewas set in 1978 Denver, Colorado, and follows Thames' Finney, who lives with his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) and father, Terrence (Jeremy Davies). Finney, a teenager troubled by bullies, his alcoholic father, and the death of his mother sometime before the movie’s start, becomesthe latest target of Hawke’s The Grabber, a serial killer who poses as a magician and abducts young children in the area, keeping them locked up for stretches of time in his modified basement. The Grabber wears a series of Greek theatre-inspired masks, meant to both hide his face and haunt his victims.
Despite a seemingly hopeless situation, Finney finds that a disconnected telephone left on the wall in the basement allows him to communicate with the souls of The Grabber’s past victims, all of whom made attempts to escape. This includes burrowing through the wall into the freezer in the neighboring storage room, and trying to climb through the window, both of which were unsuccessful. Ultimately, Finney sets a trap with the grate that was blocking the window and a hole dug in the floor to break The Grabber’s ankle, and successfully breaks his neckwith the phone cord.
Every Victim Of The Grabber In The Black Phone
The Black Phone’s Grabber, played by Ethan Hawke, took six victims in the movie. Here’s everything we know about the six boys he grabbed.
While held captive, Gwen attempts to find her brother with her psychic abilities, in which she has prophetic dreams related to The Grabber and his victims. These dreams incur her father’s wrath, as his wife committed suicide due to having similar visions, with Terrence not wanting the same fate for Gwen. Gwen’s dreams prove beneficial, as they lead the police to where The Grabber buried his victims; a house across the street from where Finney was being held captive. Finney’s escape comes just as the police are searching the other house, with a tearful Gwen hugging her mortified brother.
How V/H/S/85’s Dreamkill Connects To The Black Phone
V/H/S/85’s sixth and penultimate segment, “Dreamkill”, was co-written by Derrickson and Cargill and directed by the former, and revolved around police detective Wayne (Freddy Rodríguez) as he investigates a series of grisly murders in town. Situated between each investigation scene is a depiction of the murders themselves, shot from the killer’s point of view in a Super 8-style fashion, akin to the home movies seen in Derrickson’sSinister. Wayne also explains that he has been receiving videotapes of the murders prior to their happening, leading him to search for the sender as he believes they’re the killer.
His search ultimately leads him to Gunther (Dashiell Derrickson), another officer’s teenage goth son, who explains that he is seeing the murders in his dreams and has been able to record them with the tape recorder at his home. Though Wayne is quick to write it off, Gunther’s father, Bobby (James Ransone), confirms the visions to be true, noting his family’s psychic proclivity. He explains that his sister committed suicide due to being overwhelmed by her visions, while his nephew and Gunther’s cousin used them to try and save her kidnapped brother.
The Black Phoneis based on a short story by Stephen King’s son, Joe Hill, in his book of short stories titled20th Century Ghosts.
With this explanation, Derrickson and Cargill’s “Dreamkill” establishes itself as a spinoff sequel toThe Black Phone, with the aforementioned niece and nephew being those of Finney and Gwen, and the deceased sister being their mother. WhiletheV/H/Sfranchisehas served as the launchpad for two spinoffs based on its segments (Siren,Kids vs. Aliens), this marks the first time in the horror anthology series that a filmmaker has instead made a spinoff of one of their prior works. In pulling from their own successful past, though, Derrickson and Cargill have also established “Dreamkill” as one of the bestV/H/Ssegments.
Why “Dreamkill” Is One Of The Best V/H/S Installments
With six installments and 32 segments, theV/H/Sfranchise has proven to be fertile ground for filmmakers to explore a wide variety of horror subgenres through the found footage format. Some of the most notable have included the first movie’s “Amateur Night”, in which a group of men inadvertently become the targets of a succubus,V/H/S/2’s “Safe Haven”, in which a documentary crew investigate an Indonesian cult the day they summon something demonic, and94’s “Storm Drain”, in which a reporter learns the very real danger of a local legend known as The Rat Man.
How To Watch Every V/H/S Movie In Order (Chronologically & By Release Date)
The V/H/S franchise is a found footage-horror anthology hybrid made up of different segments, which can make its viewing order somewhat confusing.
Derrickson and Cargill’s “Dreamkill” stands out frommany otherV/H/Ssegmentsfor a few reasons, the main one being its blend of styles. Most of the segments take a direct approach to its found footage style, situating the camera in a character’s hand and letting the horror unfold, whereas Derrickson brings his unique visual style to the format by expansion. Between the Super 8 filmings of the deaths to the final dream sequence of Bobby’s rampage at the police station being filmed in a single take with an era-appropriate camera, it proved one of the most stylish yet.
The other reason why “Dreamkill” stands out inV/H/S/85is its narrative connection toThe Black Phone. The horror franchise has always been something of a treat for fans of the genre with its melding of subgenres and tones, but with Derrickson and Cargill’s segment nicely expanding the world of their prior hit without also relying on audiences having seen the 2021 movie to enjoy it, it feels like the perfect blend of a subtle Easter egg and unique storytelling.
The Black Phone
Cast
Based on Joe Hill’s short story of the same name, The Black Phone follows teen Finney Blake (Mason Thames) after he is abducted by a man known only as the Grabber (Ethan Hawke). Trapped in a basement with only a disconnected phone, Finney begins to hear from the Grabber’s previous victims, each of which gives him cryptic clues to help him fight back against his captor.
V/H/S/85
V/H/S/85 is an anthology horror film released in 2023, showcasing a collection of five found footage segments. Each story, presented as part of a made-for-TV documentary, explores unsettling and gore-filled narratives from the dark, often overlooked corners of the 1980s.
