Reviews
‘Mr. Harrigan’s Phone’ Review – Adaptation of Stephen King Novella Is an Affecting But Uneven Morality Tale
Bloody Disgusting’s review of Mr. Harrigan’s Phone is spoiler-free.
Stephen King’s work captures sentimentality and the minutia of small-town life well, effectively building the horror from the nostalgic and mundane. In Netflix‘s adaptation of Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, a novella from 2020’s If It Bleeds, a quaint coming-of-age story gets blended with the dangerous pitfalls of technology. The focus on the former and an emphasis on the details over the story or scares make for an uneven though frequently poignant journey.
Reclusive billionaire Mr. Harrigan (Donald Sutherland) hires a young boy, Craig (Jaeden Martell), to read to him a few times a week. Mr. Harrigan’s ruthless business practices in his younger years left him without friends, and his elder age means his eyesight isn’t what it once was. The pair form an unlikely bond that begins with a shared love of books that only deepens over the years. Craig even brings Mr. Harrigan into the modern world when he buys and then teaches his old friend how to use an iPhone. When Mr. Harrigan passes away, Craig discovers that some connections never fade as he’s able to communicate from beyond the grave.
Mr. Harrigan’s Phone. (L-R) Jaeden Martell as Craig and Donald Sutherland as Mr. Harrigan in Mr. Harrigan’s Phone. Cr. Nicole Rivelli/Netflix © 2022
The Blind Side and Saving Mr. Banks writer/director John Lee Hancock makes an excellent choice to helm this adaptation when exploring the tender relationship between two lonely souls. The first half of the film nurtures the details behind this central friendship. Craig lost his mother not long before crossing paths with Mr. Harrigan, and his dad (Joe Tippett) feels more lost without her than he. Then he enters the tumultuous high school age just after the turn of the century. The advent of smartphones creates a whole new layer of social complications.
Much like the source novella, Mr. Harrigan’s Phone plays out in two distinctly different halves. The first half, pre-death, adheres closer to King’s affecting non-horror stories like Stand by Me. The second slowly introduces the supernatural element, with Craig forced to grapple with the consequences of communicating with his dead friend. It’s in this back half that the story spins away from Hancock’s careful control.
Mr. Harrigan’s Phone. (L-R) Jaeden Martell as Craig and Cyrus Arnold as Kenny Yankovich in Mr. Harrigan’s Phone. Cr. Nicole Rivelli/Netflix © 2022
With Sutherland out of the equation, the film rests on Martell and a few cryptic iPhone messages to carry the weight of that central friendship. Hancock prefers to keep any supernatural rules vague and unexplored, instead opting to frame any moral lessons learned strictly from Craig’s youthful perspective. Craig contends with first crushes, high school bullies, and even more tragedy. This dovetails with a “be careful what you wish for” style of lowkey horror and a methodical unfurling of Mr. Harrigan’s past. All these various and loosely connected plot points don’t congeal nearly as neatly or cohesively as the film’s focused first half. The back half has an anemic quality as it drifts through Craig’s adolescence like a passive spectator.
Donald Sutherland winds up serving as the glue that holds this feature together. The tenured actor plays well off Martell, and both succeed in instilling emotional investment in the oddball friendship. There’s an inherent sweetness to that bond between the reclusive billionaire and lost little boy, but Sutherland balances that genuine affection with underlying cruelty. That portrayal sets up the entire back half as Mr. Harrigan imparts supernatural lessons of vindictiveness. But without Sutherland’s gravitas, Hancock struggles to convey the terrors of karma or the double-edged sword of technology. A strong start tapers off into a quiet and uneven morality fable that’s ultimately too vague to make an impact.
Netflix releases Mr. Harrigan’s Phone on October 5, 2022.
Not even death can slow Chucky in “There Will Be Blood,” the penultimate episode of “Chucky” Season 3. With the killer receiving a mortal blow in the last episode, Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) can now take full advantage of the White House’s bizarre supernatural purgatory, leaving him free to continue his current reign of terror as a ghost. While that spells trouble for Jake Wheeler (Zackary Arthur), Devon (Bjorgvin Arnarson), and Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind), it makes for an outrageously satisfying bloodbath heading into next week’s finale.
“There Will Be Blood” covers a lot of ground in short order, with Charles Lee Ray confronting his maker over his failures before he can continue his current path of destruction. Lexy, Jake, and Devon continue their desperate bid to find Lexy’s sister, which means seeking answers from the afterlife. They’re in luck, considering Warren Pryce (Gil Bellows) enlists the help of parapsychologists to solve the White House’s pesky paranormal problem. Of course, Warren also has unfinished business with the surviving First Family members, including the President’s assigned body double, Randall Jenkins (Devon Sawa). Then there’s Tiffany Valentine (Jennifer Tilly), who’s feeling the immense weight of her looming execution.
CHUCKY — “There Will Be Blood” Episode 307 — Pictured in this screengrab: (l-r) Brad Dourif as Charles Lee Ray, Chucky — (Photo by: SYFY)
Arguably, the most impressive aspect of “Chucky” is how series creator Don Mancini and his fantastic team of writers consistently swing for the fences. That constant “anything goes” spirit pervades the entire season, but especially this episode. Lexy’s new beau, Grant (Jackson Kelly), exemplifies this; he’s refreshingly quick to accept even the most outlandish concepts – namely, the White House as a paranormal hub and that his little brother’s doll happens to be inhabited by a serial killer.
But it’s also in the way that “There Will Be Blood” goes for broke in ensuring it’s the bloodiest episode of the series to date. Considering how over-the-top and grisly Chucky’s kills can be, that’s saying a lot. Mancini and crew pay tribute to The Shining in inspired ways, and that only hints at a fraction of the bloodletting in this week’s new episode.
CHUCKY — “There Will Be Blood” Episode 307 — Pictured in this screengrab: Brad Dourif as Charles Lee Ray — (Photo by: SYFY)
“Chucky” can get away with splattering an insane amount of blood on the small screen because it’s counterbalanced with a wry sense of humor and campy narrative turns that are just as endearing and fun as the SFX. Moreover, it’s the fantastic cast that sells it all. In an episode where Brad Dourif makes a rare appearance on screen, cutting loose and having a blast in Chucky’s incorporeal form, his mischievous turn is matched by Tiffany facing her own mortality and Nica Pierce’s (Fiona Dourif) emotionally charged confrontation with her former captor.
There’s also Devon Sawa, who amusingly continues to land in Chucky’s crosshairs no matter the character. Season 3 began with Sawa as the deeply haunted but kind President Collins, and Sawa upstages himself as the unflappably upbeat and eager-to-please doppelganger Randall Jenkins. That this episode gives Sawa plenty to do on the horror front while playing his most likable character yet on the series makes for one of the episode’s bigger surprises.
The penultimate episode of “Chucky” Season 3 unleashes an epic bloodbath. It delivers scares, gore, and franchise fan service in spades, anchored by an appropriate scene-chewing turn by Dourif. That alone makes this episode a series highlight. But the episode also neatly ties together its characters and plot threads to pave the way for the finale. No matter how this season wraps up, it’s been an absolute pleasure watching Chucky destroy the White House from the inside.
“Chucky” Season 3: Part 2 airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on USA & SYFY.
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