‘The Black Phone’ ending, explained

Warning: This article includes spoilers for The Black Phone.

The Black Phone currently stands as one of the hottest horror films of the year – and in a year packed with a plethora of appetizing horror movies planned, that’s quite the compliment. Scott Derrickson’s horror/thriller has received plenty of rave reviews already, and one of these reasons is the thought-provoking ending that has left fans both satisfied and puzzled at the same time.

In The Black Phone, 13-year-old Finney Shaw (Mason Thames) is kidnapped in South Denver by The Grabber (Ethan Hawke) – an ominous serial killer that relies on manipulative antics to lure children to his van. When Finney is kidnapped, he finds himself trapped in a soundproof basement – where only a bed, a toilet, and a random black phone are stationed. While stuck in isolation, Finney realizes that The Grabber’s past victims — who are dead — are able to communicate with him through the phone.

And while the ending to The Black Phone might appear simple on paper, the true explanation behind the film’s ending is more philosophical and meaningful than initially expected – so much so that Derrickson changed the ending to the movie at the last minute.

Warning: Spoilers to follow.

In the film’s closing moments, Finney enacts revenge on The Grabber by beating him with the phone itself — adding weight to it by stuffing it full of dirt — and snapping The Grabber’s neck with the phone cord. Finney was able to complete this act of bravery after speaking to Robin — one of his friends from earlier on in the movie — who encourages him to “stand up for himself” and use his “mint” arm to take down The Grabber.

Before Finney’s attack, The Grabber’s brother Max (James Ransone) figures out that his brother is the one who’s been kidnapping children and killing them. And even though Max had been following the case the entire movie, what he didn’t realize was that his own brother was the perpetrator all along. More than that, Max didn’t realize that the basement that The Grabber was keeping the boys in was in the same house as Max the whole time.

When police invade The Grabber’s home after Finney’s sister Gwen leads them there with her psychic visions, the audience eventually learns that The Grabber owned two homes that were across the street from each other. In one house, the dead bodies of the boys that The Grabber kidnapped were buried in man-made graves in the basement. In the other house, Finney was being kept in the soundproof basement where the rest of the boys were trapped before they were killed. However, unlike the rest, Finney was the only boy who heard the black phone ring while stuck in the basement.

In the end, Finney finally stands up for himself when it comes to freeing himself from The Grabber’s sadistic clutches. Finney returns to school, where his persistent bullies no longer harass him, and where he finally finds the courage to sit next to his crush and speak to her without fear. And while The Black Phone has terrified audiences with its realism and perfectly-placed jump scares, the overall message of bravery is much deeper and adds an element to the horror genre that had been lacking for some time.

The Black Phone is out now in theaters.