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THE PHANTOMS OF THE PHONELINE: ‘The Black Phone’ Review

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Sinister is one of my favorite horror movies, plain and simple. And hearing that Scott Derrickson was back with C. Robert Cargill and flying under the banner of prolific producer Jason Blum, I was optimistically skeptical of how this film would measure up against that instant classic, given all the heavy praise The Black Phone has been getting. After all, lightning rarely strikes twice.

But funny enough, it wasn’t Derrickson’s creative voice I kept hearing throughout the movie. I was laughing sitting through the credits of this film because one of my recurring thoughts during the runtime was, “Wow, this really feels like a Joe Hill story.” I was reminiscing on the likes of Locke and Key & The Low, Low Woods, unaware that the Son of King himself left his unmistakable fingerprints on this with that same creativity he always brings.

He gets a story by credit on this that I missed during the slick opening of the film, as this is an adaptation of the tale from his anthology “20th Century Ghosts”; we follow a young boy kidnapped by a child murderer, attempting to escape using advice from specters that speak through the disconnected rotary phone in his underground prison. If you’re a fan of Hill’s work, you’ll enjoy this for being the same level of moody and inventive as all his other creations are. While I may have my gripes with this film, there’s plenty to enjoy about it, and chiefly I love the novel set-up of it all being utilized to its fullest.

If there’s one aspect to this film I will praise nonstop alongside this clever premise, it’s that this has the best child actors I’ve seen in a horror movie in a long time. Most horror movie veterans know by now that there is nothing that sucks the tension out of a scene like bad child actors who can’t play fear, anger, or any of the myriad emotions that should be coursing through their tiny veins at any given moment. This movie never has that issue.

Mason Thames plays the fear, the exhaustion, and the stress of his character Finney Blake with expertise beyond his years. Every moment Thames plays opposite of Ethan Hawke’s “The Grabber” is a gem where I’m feeling disgust for the latter and terror for the former, almost entirely thanks to how compelling Thames is. Hawke’s character is admittedly nothing revolutionary, a masked psychopath with an M.O. out of a dozen F.B.I. casefiles, but his performance makes up for that. It’s the right balance of unhinged and even-tempered that keeps you on the edge of your seat, wondering if this is the scene where he explodes with fury, right up until that last scene.

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The show is stolen, however, by Madeleine McGraw, who plays Finney’s sister, the charming and plucky Gwen. She’s so entertaining, and her lines got plenty of laughs in the cinema. She’s also heartbreakingly good at playing a traumatized young girl who is perpetually going through it with a harrowing home life and a mystery about her brother’s disappearance at her heels; she makes the film for me.

In terms of the rest of the film, you get a mixed bag. Sadly, the soundtrack is mostly uninspired up until the last 20-minutes, where it feels like the budget kicked in; that final song really does buoy you with emotion, and I’m a sucker for a good closing track. The set design is all perfectly 70s and feels curated down to the last fabric of the character’s costumes. The film’s pacing is stellar, without any scenes dwelling too long and overstaying their welcome. Everything feels precisely cut and intentional, even if some of those intentions bug me.

Questionable cinematography choices are this movie’s pitfall. One VFX decision had me holding back laughter in the theatre from how silly it looked, but all in all, the effects are far and few between, so I can’t say they broke it for me. While the film grain of 70’s commercial cameras and the inclusion of organic home-video portions make up a lot of the film’s best parts (particularly the intensely executed intro credits), stylistically, the movie kind of breaks it hardest when it embraces this dreary nostalgia too much.

One sequence completely extracted me from the movie. It feels like Scott Derrickson was in the mood to do a coming-of-age film by way of The Shining, and while its enjoyable, it breaks pace with the rest of the movie and sprints away with its distractingly bright tone.

BOTTOMLINE: It isn’t perfect, not by a long shot, with a heavy-handed auteur touch that might be off-putting to some like myself. But no matter how my eyebrows might raise with certain stylistic choices, it never left me bored and had me thoroughly invested in its characters all the way to the finish line. It may not be as great as Derrickson’s previous ghostly fare, but it is still good for yanking out a few genuine scares and some great acting.

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Luis Pomales-Diaz is a freelance writer and lover of fantasy, sci-fi, and of course, horror. When he isn't working on a new article or short story, he can usually be found watching schlocky movies and forgotten television shows.

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‘Shadow of God’ Review: A Bold Indie Horror That Falls Short

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Whether they land or not, it’s hard not to appreciate how impressive it is that Shudder gives a platform to myriad independent films. While Screambox struggles to finish the race, Shudder is doing a victory lap. Even the greats trip up occasionally. Shadow of God is a film I heard minor rumblings about across the interwebs, and as someone who isn’t into exorcism-like films, it still piqued my interest enough to seek it out. Then I watched it.

Shadow of God: A Promising Premise Falls Flat

Shadow of God follows alcoholic exorcist Mason Harper (Mark O’Brien) as he travels back to his hometown following a death during an exorcism. Mason meets up with his ex-beau, Tanis Green (Jacqueline Byers), who gives him a place to stay while he’s back. The semi-happy reunion between Mason and Tanis is cut short when the dregs of Mason’s deceased father’s cult learn of his arrival. Everyone’s faith will be tested as something more sinister than anyone could imagine rears its ugly head.

It feels like there was a disconnect between writer Tim Cairo and director Michael Peterson, as Shadow of the God feels nothing more than scattered parts of better films clumped together into a heaping mess of something. While full of awful dialogue, Cairo’s script tells a compelling and somewhat unique take on the religious horror subgenre. The bones of a better film exist deep within the script. A rewrite (or three) could have helped to trim the fat and identify the elements of the story that truly work. On the other hand, Michael Peterson seems to have little to no control over whatever he was doing here.

Digital Effects Ruin Emotional Depth

The real issue with the film is the unfortunate digital effects slapped on before the final cut. Any semblance of an okay film quickly flew out the window with the slapdash effects. Nothing takes you out of a well-crafted emotional moment like a giant, badly composited white light shooting out of someone’s forehead. I was so checked out by the end that my final note written about the film simply says, “barn effects BAD.” To be completely honest, I don’t even know what I meant by that.

Not a singular solid performance graces the screen during this hour and 27-minute series of images. I get that independent films face difficult and unique challenges that larger budget films don’t. But the performances feel as if the cast were given the script seconds before the scenes were shot. Mark O’Brien was a huge sell for me with this film, as I adored him in Ready or Not, and it feels like [maybe] his agent dropped the ball on this one.

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The Potential Buried in Shadow of God

Shadow of God had the trappings of a film that could stand out from the exorcism slop that floods Tubi’s recommended feed, but ultimately failed to do anything of note. As I said, Shudder takes chances on films, and that’s commendable. There’s a need for streamers like Shudder to give a voice to filmmakers who are trying to change the game. I can see what Tim Cairo was going for here, and I think a different director could have taken this film to the next level. Shadow of the God is, sadly, a huge swing and a miss for me.
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‘Jurassic World: Rebirth’ Review: Show Me Your Teeth

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It has been just three years since Jurassic World: Dominion put the latest trilogy in the franchise on ice with the bite force of a smurf, but like any money-maker in Hollywood, no IP stays extinct for long. Universal decided to revisit the franchise’s roots, heading back to the lab to poke and prod at its barely fossilized remains in an attempt to mix up its DNA enough to warrant a reboot. Jurassic World: Rebirth promised a thrilling return to form – a journey into dino-infested waters that put the terror back in Tyrannosaur. With horror-adjacent auteur Gareth Edwards (known for Monsters and Godzilla) directing and writer David Koepp (who adapted Jurassic Park and The Lost World), returning after a nearly thirty-year absence, expectations were colossal.

What they delivered is a glossy, crowd-pleasing theme park ride into nostalgia that never fully commits to genuine horror or the deeper scientific soul of the 1993 original. It’s enjoyable for fans who love every iteration unconditionally, but it is sure to frustrate those with a more critical eye who expected something closer to a cold-blooded classic.

Jurassic World: Rebirth – A New Chapter or Nostalgic Retread?

For those needing a refresher on the events leading up to Rebirth, you can snag yourself an honorary degree in paleontology with our handy Jurassic Horror 101. After closing out the first reboot trilogy with a whimper, Universal needed to steer the narrative away from pseudo-science and half-baked existentialism toward a more visceral experience; nothing will compare to Spielberg’s masterpiece, sweetie!

The elements for success are all here: Edwards has a strong resume in titanic horror, Koepp is the man behind the original film adaptation, and the fresh faces of Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali bring star power to the tropics. Yet, whether due to studio interference or simply buckling under nine tons of pressure, they still haven’t figured out how to catch lightning in a bottle twice.

Dinosaurs, Big Pharma, and a Tropical Mission

Set five years after dinosaurs were left to coexist with humans, we learn that the prehistoric beasts are once again facing extinction, both physically and metaphorically. Unsustainable living conditions within Earth’s rapidly changing ecosystems are eliminating them faster than an ice age, and – perhaps in a nod to our apathy in a digital world – the humans around them largely do not give a damn. As dino merch turns to ash and people avoid the roaming beasts like an invasive flash mob, pharmaceutical company ParkerGenix recruits mercenaries Zora Bennett (Johansson) and Duncan Kincaid (Ali), along with soon-to-be-unemployed paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Bailey), for an adventure their wallets can’t resist.

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It seems that dinosaurs are still thriving on small islands surrounding the equator, and ParkerGenix has discovered within these surviving creatures a medical miracle that may provide a cure for heart disease. However, this being a Jurassic movie, our beautiful trio is tasked with retrieving this biomaterial from an island overrun by failed genetic experiments abandoned by the infamous company that started it all – InGen.

Rebirth’s script does touch upon the ethical dilemmas of serving Big Pharma for a seven-figure payout. Still, these moral quandaries are explored no more deeply than a child kicking at sand on the beach, hoping to uncover something shiny underneath the silt. Thematically, the franchise has painted itself into a corner since 1993. The existential wonder, quiet pathos, and scientific stakes have since been mined dry, which makes the shift toward more human-scale horror a welcome pivot. Two reboots in, we may never see a film that so effortlessly balances terror and philosophy as the original did. So, while I could continue to rip the script to shreds, why bother? Instead, let’s get to why you’re really here and tear into the horror of it all.

Does Jurassic World: Rebirth Deliver on Horror?

As is common with blockbuster films, Rebirth finds itself at odds with its behind-the-scenes talent and the studio executives at Universal. They clearly chose Edwards for his experience with films of kaiju proportions, and Koepp’s portfolio includes its fair share of bangers, including 2025’s critically acclaimed Black Bag. The marketing heavily features the newly hatched D-Rex, a “Xenorancor rex” level monstrosity that by all accounts should be the scariest thing this franchise has ever seen. However, the cold open, which includes a Final Destination-like mishap that allows the D-Rex some bloodlust, is all too brief. And that is the film’s biggest flaw: They have to let it linger, and they don’t.

A certain sense of style and cinematic flair that horror’s best know how to use is simply missing. Is this a creative misstep, or is the studio afraid to alienate families? The hallmark sequence that strands our heroes — a franchise staple — lacks the dread felt in the original’s historic T-Rex attack or even the epic trailer cliff dive from The Lost World. Since the human characters in these movies survive far more often than they should, they could at least leave us a bit shaken after such a spectacle. That said, the film does include a tense river raft sequence from Michael Crichton’s novel that fans have been begging for since the 90s, and it is undoubtedly the movie’s highlight.

CGI vs. Practical Effects in Jurassic World: Rebirth

I could overlook the lack of scares, or at least choose to politely ignore them, if they had gone back to basics and incorporated quality practical effects. Most are aware that OG’s lasting reverence is at least partly due to its extensive use of lifelike, tangible dinosaur prosthetics and robotics. In 2025, a solid combination of quality CGI and practical magic would go a long way. Backed by Edwards’ love of lighting a dramatic silhouette, the D-Rex does have some ominous and visually impressive moments as we catch glimpses of her amidst fire and fog. Then you see mother monster full frontal without the filters, and it feels like catching sight of a sweaty drag queen after a summer brunch performance.

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The editing does the film’s attempts at horror no favors either, exhibiting strange spatial logic during tense beats where dinosaurs seem to vanish between cuts and human characters appear to ignore the massive beasts that were chasing them moments earlier.

A Love Letter to Jurassic Fans

As mentioned, fans of the franchise do have a lot to love here, despite Rebirth flopping in the horror department. Instead of the over-the-top fan service found in Dominion, we are given plenty of self-referential nods and visual echoes, from mirror messages to rescue flares and raptors in the kitchen. The excellent score by Alexandre Desplat likewise resurrects a familiar tune that accompanies a sequence featuring mutated Brachiosauruses that look ripped from Annihilation, which almost brought a tear to the eye of this longtime fan. What the movie lacks in scares, it makes up for in charm, and moments like these, along with a central trio of likeable characters, are enough to keep the formulaic plot moving along.

It’s no surprise that Wicked’s Jonathan Bailey, as the eager and inexperienced Dr. Loomis, is as charming as ever. The flitters of interaction between him and Johansson’s gruffy mercenary, Zora, are endearing, and Mahershala Ali’s characterization of Kincaid rounds out the trio with enough wit to establish them as the reboot’s next generation. A paper-thin backstory helps us understand why these would-be heroes are risking their lives for the better part of two hours, leaving room for improvement in potential sequels.

There’s also a forgettable family with the personality of wet rags who get caught up in the action, serving more as catalysts for set pieces than as developed characters. Still, their scenes provide some comedic relief through Gen Z’s himbo boyfriend, Xavier (David Iacono), and a cute baby dinosaur named Dolores (could a Labubu crossover be on the way?).

Is Jurassic World: Rebirth Worth Watching?

Overall, Jurassic World: Rebirth is more entertaining than innovative. It won’t convert any skeptics into dinosaur enthusiasts, but true fans can find plenty to enjoy in this sweaty jungle romp. It’s predictable and lacks the horror elements that readers of Horror Press crave, but I had a good time despite it all. The franchise still has teeth, albeit buried deep within its gums. Hopefully, Universal will allow some creatives the freedom to yank them out in bloody glory for the next one.

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Jurassic World: Rebirth is now in theaters!

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