Mr. Harrigan’s Phone

While Craig ( Jaeden Martell ) is a boy suffering from the death of his mother, Mr. Harrigan ( Donald Sutherland ) is a wealthy businessman. And yet, over time, a friendship develops when Craig begins to read the old man from the numerous books because his eyes are no longer good enough for them. The student gives the eccentric senior who lives alone a mobile phone so that it is easier for him to keep in touch with the outside world. He has no idea that this connection will continue even after his patron dies one day…

Stephen King and no end. Even if the really big successes with the adaptations are now few and far between, Firestarter even flopped badly a few months ago, work is still being done diligently on adaptations. With Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, Netflix is ​​getting back into the King revival, hoping to capitalize on both the trend and the general receptivity to horror titles in the lead-up to Halloween. However, the chances of that happening are not particularly good. Because even if the film lures with big names, both in front of and behind the camera, and the scenario sounds very exciting: you shouldn’t expect a lot of horrors here. One can even argue about whether this even counts as a horror title.

There is already a supernatural element, which revolves around the eponymous phone. But by the time this is used, half the film is already there. Instead, director and screenwriter John Lee Hancock ( The Little Things, The Highwaymen ) dedicates himself extensively to the friendship between the two unequal protagonists. That’s not wrong. It is also touchingly performed by acting legend Donald Sutherland and his young colleague Jaeden Martell, who has experience with Stephen King youth dramas thanks to the two It films. Would be Mr. Harrigan’s Phone If it had only been a film about this friendship, it could have worked. The passages in which the emotionally confused Craig continues to text his deceased friend via cell phone also fit in well.