Blumhouse has released some of the most well-done horror movies ever made, including The Black Phone which is currently taking the horror world by storm. It's fair to say that the adaptation of the short story by Joe Hill reminds audiences of another Blumhouse film: Sinister, which was released in 2012. C. Robert Cargill and Scott Derrickson wrote both movies, with Derrickson directing both.
It's possible to say that The Black Phone and Sinister have several things in common, and both are well-told stories with great actors, surprising twists, and satisfying storylines and conclusions.
Ethan Hawke's impressive performance
Ethan Hawke's The Black Phone villain The Grabber is horrifying and the actor also played the main character Ellison Oswalt in Sinister. In both horror films, Hawke gave an incredible performance, although for very different reasons.
As true crime writer Ellison, Hawke was smart, vulnerable, and stubborn, excited to look into murders that had taken place at his new house because he thought that he could write about them. As he got further into the mystery, he realized his mistake, as something dangerous and terrible was after him. As The Grabber, Hawke was unapologetically evil, responsible for The Black Phone's scariest moments as he kidnapped kids and killed them. Hawke has a long, varied career and was exactly the right actor for both of these roles.
A legitimately scary villain
The villains in Sinister and The Black Phone are both well-crafted and actually scary and neither is a sympathetic horror movie villain. Bughuul is an evil demon intent on killing the people who live in this home and The Grabber takes children and murders them.
Both villains are equally eerie and while Finney (played by Mason Thames) is able to kill The Grabber and Ellison can't stop Bughuul, the characters still feel tough to beat. This is important, as it makes the experience of watching each film appropriately terrifying. Sinister is the scariest movie based on science and the demon definitely falls into that category.
Child characters put in horrible situations
At the beginning of Sinister, Ellison learns about Stephanie Stevenson, who was 10 years old and who was murdered along with her family. He finds out a really disturbing secret about his new house and one of the most memorable haunted house movie quotes is when Ellison says that he was wrong to suggest moving there. The Black Phone also sees children being put in harm's way, as they live in the same neighborhood as The Grabber and some of them are unlucky and are kidnapped by him and then murdered.
Both movies understand that nothing is more terrifying than kids being put in danger, and it's heartbreaking hearing what happened to Stephanie. It's also sad witnessing Finney's kidnapping and seeing how many innocent children's lives were ended thanks to The Grabber's evil plans and desire to play his game called Naughty Boy. If the villains in both movies were focused on adults and not children, the stories would feel really different.
An incredibly creepy house
A haunted house is, of course, one of the best horror movie settings and The Black Phone and Sinister each feature a creepy home that no one would ever want to visit. The Grabber's entire character rests on how awful the place where they keep children is, and it definitely lives up to that expectation. The Grabber keeps kids in a horrible, gross and damp basement that is totally falling apart, with an old mattress and one lone window.
Ellison and his family move into a home that seems fine at first but is revealed to have been the scene of a family getting murdered. It rivals any haunted house since there's an evil demon there who will stop at nothing to get what they want. Sinister elevated the typical haunted house movie and created an atmosphere that audiences really wouldn't want to live in.
The ghosts of children
While fans have some questions after The Black Phone, the movie's strongest part is the ghosts of The Grabber's victims talking to Finney through a phone on the wall. This is reminiscent of how, in Sinister, Ellison learns a lot about Stephanie's spirit as he gets deeper into the evil and tragic past of the house where he is living.
The last scene of Sinister is an actually satisfying horror movie ending as Ellison's daughter Ashley (Clare Foley) has been taken over Bughuul and Stephanie's ghost. Ashley says she will ensure that Ellison is "famous again" and kills him using an axe, which is terrifying to watch, and she doesn't spare her mother Tracy (Juliet Rylance) either. It's impossible to forget about this haunting final image as Ashley is truly possessed.