The Black Phone: release date, cast, trailer and everything we know

The Black Phone Ethan Hawke
Is The Grabber set to be Ethan Hawke's most terrifying role yet? (Image credit: Blumhouse)

The Black Phone is a creepy new horror movie coming to cinemas soon and sees Ethan Hawke taking on the villainous role of The Grabber who kidnaps children within a Colorado town. 

It is based on a book by Joe Hill, who is the son of long-time horror writer Stephen King, so we should expect some great scares! Meanwhile, King's got another adaptation coming as Firestarter hits our screens soon.

The movie is written and directed by Scott Derrickson, who was originally working with Marvel Studios on the new Marvel film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but stepped down to make The Black Phone with his frequent collaborator C. Robert Cargill. 

With The Black Phone releasing in the summer, here's everything you need to know...

The Black Phone release date

The Black Phone releases in cinemas on Friday, 24 June 2022, after premiering at Fantastic Fest in 2021. It is not yet known if it will be released on any streaming services.

Check out our new movies 2022 guide for more films coming out soon.

The Black Phone plot

The movie centers around a serial killer called The Grabber (Ethan Hawke), who has been kidnapping and murdering children in the local area. Finney Shaw (Mason Thames) becomes his latest captive but has a chance to escape as he's contacted by the killer's previous victims.

According to the official plot: "Finney Shaw is a shy but clever 13-year-old boy who's being held in a soundproof basement by a sadistic, masked killer. When a disconnected phone on the wall starts to ring, he soon discovers that he can hear the voices of the murderer's previous victims - and they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn't happen to Finney."

The Black Phone cast

Ethan Hawke leads the cast as the terrifying Grabber, who kidnaps Mason Thames' Finney Shaw during the events of the movie. While most of the story centers around these two characters, there's a great supporting cast attached to the project too. 

Jeremy Davies plays Finney's alcoholic single dad Mr. Shaw, while Madeleine McGraw joins as his sister Gwen, who believes she's having psychic dreams that could help lead her to Finney's whereabouts.

Is there a trailer?

Yes, a creepy trailer for The Black Phone is out and it looks like it's set to scare audiences this summer. There are lots for horror fans to enjoy here such as a creepy mask, tense moments, and a yellow raincoat in the rain which looks to be an homage to Stephen King's iconic It. You can take a look below...

Lucy Buglass
Senior Staff Writer

Lucy joined the WhatToWatch.com team in 2021, where she writes series guides for must-watch programmes, reviews and the latest TV news. Now she works for our sister site TechRadar in the same role. Originally from Northumberland, she graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a degree in Film Studies and moved to London to begin a career writing about entertainment.

She is a Rotten Tomatoes approved film critic and has a huge passion for cinema. She especially loves horror, thriller and anything crime-related. Her favourite TV programmes include Inside No 9, American Horror Story, Stranger Things and Black Mirror but she is also partial to a quiz show or a bit of Say Yes to the Dress