A warning, this episode contains discussion of child physical and sexual abuse.

In the supernatural horror film The Black Phone, Ethan Hawke plays The Grabber,

a sinister masked figure who abducts a series of teenage boys in a Colorado suburb.

When 13-year-old Finney gets grabbed, he's locked in a dank basement waiting to be murdered,

when suddenly a disconnected telephone on the wall starts to ring.

Who's on the other end and what they tell him is what this latest film from Director Scott

Derrickson is all about. I'm Glenn Weldon and today we're talking about The Black Phone on

Popculture Happy Hour from NPR. Joining me today is Kristen Mindsor, co-host of the new podcast

romance road test where she and her husband try questionable relationship hacks so you don't have to.

She's also the co-host of movie therapy with Rayford and Kristen. Welcome back, Kristen.

Hi, and nice to be back. Great to have you. And also with us is Jordan Kruciola,

a writer and producer and host of the podcast feelings seen on Maximum Fun, Hey Jordan.

Hello, thank you for having me back. Of course, let's get into this.

In The Black Phone, Mason Thames plays Finney, a shy 13-year-old kid who lives in a 1978 Colorado suburb.

He gets bullied at school by the usual cohort of middle school punks and at home by his

alcoholic father who's played by Jeremy Davies. Madeline McGraw plays his younger sister Gwen.

She starts having unsettling dreams about someone who's been abducting teenage boys.

When Finney gets grabbed, he's locked in a basement and taunted by the grabber that's

Ethan Hawke in a variety of seriously creepy masks with a series of increasingly sinister mind games.

But Finney has help in the form of phone calls from young men who claim to be the grabber's

previous victims. Meanwhile, Gwen's visions get stronger and increasingly disturbing,

signaling that Finney's time is running out. The Black Phone is based on a short story by Joe Hill

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