The Black Phone (2022) - Who Is On The Other End Of The Receiver?

 

Be very wary of the man who carries a black balloon. The black balloon is the portal to your ill-timed fate that The Grabber has already organized for you...

When peace and safety is compromised or lost, the victims of The Grabber, who stalks the suburban streets of Denver, can only turn to each other. Young Finney Blake, is constantly bullied at school, and his sister Gwen, who takes no shit, possesses an ability of precognitive dreaming. Their Father is an abusive alcoholic. The police question Gwen's psychic dreams, after Finney's friend Bruce gets abducted. Robin, one of Finney's classmates, come to his defense to ward off the bullies, and later on, the Grabber gets a hold of him too, in which he is never seen again. Days later, Finney is abducted as well. 

Finney is held hostage in a basement with a black rotary phone attached to the wall. The phone rings and he goes to answer it. "Help" is on the other end of the receiver. But "help" is dead. On the other end of The Black Phone, are:

Bruce - he can't even remember his own name. He notifies Finney of a floor tile that he can remove to dig out an escape tunnel. 

Billy - warns Finney that The Grabber is upstairs waiting for him and will attack him if he attempts to escape. He instructs him on how to use a cord to escape from the basement window.

Griffin - shows Finney a combination lock to escape, letting him know The Grabber is sleeping upstairs. Finney escapes and runs down the street. The Grabber chases him and gets a hold of him once again.

Vance - a punk who intimidated Finney, informs him of a connecting storage room, which he can escape from if he breaks a hole through the wall and exits through a freezer on the other side of the wall. Mission failed.

Robin - Finney's last call. He empowers Finney to defend himself and instructs him to remove the Black Phone and pack it up with dirt he had dug up to utilize as a weapon. 

And all this time, the biggest help to the authorities was being undermined: Gwen's psychic dreams.. She dreams of Vance being abducted and in her dream, she is being led to where The Grabber resides. She contacts the police. The Grabber's brother Max, tries to run to Finney's rescue, but his brother ends up killing him to halt his process. The police find buried in the basement, the bodies of The Grabber's victims. Finney gets into one final scuffle with The Grabber and wins the fight, with the help of the deceased victims, by breaking The Grabber's neck with the phone cord. Finney is freed and him and Gwen reunite with their Father, who apologizes to his kids for his abusive behavior.