10 Horror Movie Characters Everyone Hated (But Survived)
4. Terrence - The Black Phone
The Black Phone offers up, among other things, a startlingly believable depiction of what it's like for children to live in fear of an abusive parent.
In this case, Finney (Mason Thames) and Gwen's (Madeleine McGraw) father Terrence (Jeremy Davies) is a rage-filled alcoholic who violently beats his daughter for claiming that her psychic dreams are visions.
Not exactly Dad of the Year material, then.
Even accepting that Terrence appears to be suffering from PTSD and is clearly still wracked with grief over his wife's death, taking it all out on his children is basically the worst possible way to channel that pain.
He's enough of a traumatising presence here that, honestly, Finney and Gwen would likely be better off without him.
And really, would it have surprised anyone if he ended up dying before film's end, perhaps even sacrificing himself as an act of redemption?
But Terrence survive, and even tearfully begs his kids for forgiveness in his final scene.
And yet, director Scott Derrickson leaves the family situation crucially ambiguous, where it's entirely possible that the cycle of abuse continues again in the near-future.