Ever since the terrifying first images of Ethan Hawke and his evil mask began appearing online we were dying to get a heart monitor on our subject. The Black Phone (2021) is an American supernatural horror film and an adaptation of the 2004 short story by Joe Hill. Our test subject, Leah, is a mother of three boys and the perfect pairing for a thriller involving child abduction. Find out if The Black Phone caused enough stress for her to hang it up.

SYNOPSIS:

After being abducted by a child killer and locked in a soundproof basement, a 13-year-old boy starts receiving calls on a disconnected phone from the killer’s previous victims.

Where to Watch: Amazon Early Access (Subscription)

Test Subject: Leah

Age: 40

Gender: Female

Fears: Agoraphobia : Fear of being in places from which escape is difficult.

Resting HR: 60-65bpm

Walking HR: 80-85bpm

ANALYSIS:

A dark and sinister opening credit scene rolled into a nostalgic childhood backstory. The film soon fed into the fear of the stereotypical kidnapper with a creepy van. And just like the movie Jaws, the monster was not revealed immediately. Instead, the story progressed in shadows with implied horror. This resulted in lower heart rate numbers and failed to capitalize on ‘in the moment’ scares even through the eerie atmosphere.

Several uncomfortable scenes of bullying produced minor fluctuations but true moments of stress were still to come. We recorded a slow climb from our subject’s resting heart rate to above 80bpm halfway through the film. A strong willed main character and the villain’s unclear motives worked to ease our subject’s nerves. Surprisingly, it was the ringing of the phone and not Ethan Hawke which caused the most anxiety. But once the mystery of the phone was revealed, the tension tapered off. The higher heart rate numbers reflected on our scale were created by increased levels of stress during moments where the main character attempted to escape, not necessarily from violent or disturbing scenes.

CONCLUSION:

The Black Phone (2021) is an intriguing crime thriller with nightmarish visuals that ends up being a simple and predictable ghost story. Share on X Ethan Hawke’s performance along with his chilling masks are indeed terrifying but his strange persona along with a lack of motive did not help to produce extremely high heart rate numbers.  If you’re a fan of the supernatural and familiar with the 1964 episode of the Twilight Zone entitled ‘Night Call‘ then you already know the idea behind The Black Phone isn’t breaking new ground. We did note however that our subject was invested in the storyline and did enjoy the film. So if you need to call up a visually creepy movie this weekend, The Black Phone will suffice, just don’t expect it to be off the hook.

The Black Phone (2021): Burns an average of 191 Calories

Black Licorice: 140 Calories

How many Fear Calories did you burn watching The Black Phone?  Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook