The Black Phone Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs

3. Mason Thames & Madeleine McGraw Steal The Show

Though Ethan Hawke is the only marquee name here, joint MVP honours ultimately go to the film's two young stars, Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw, who play Finney and Gwen respectively.

Thames does a stellar job making the embattled Finney an easy "hero" to root for - an understandably terrified but resourceful teenager who avoids doing stupid horror movie things in order to drag the story out.

Yet even when she's trapped in her awkward aforementioned subplot, McGraw proves to be a frequent scene-stealer.

Especially in the early going, her Gwen alternates between hilariously precocious and incredibly sympathetic, the latter due to the physical abuse she suffers at the hands of her alcoholic father (a very good Jeremy Davies).

Trauma might be the big buzzword in horror these days, but Thames and McGraw make their characters feel well fleshed-out even when the script is at its most formulaic and least interesting.