Ethan Hawke’s return to the horror genre in a villainous role, tops DVD releases for the week of Aug. 16.
“The Black Phone”: A child kidnapper called The Grabber snatches tween boys from the streets of Denver in the late 1970s in this adaptation of the short story by Joe Hill, son of Stephen King.
“There’s been a flood of throwback tween terror on movie screens and streaming services for the past few years: from ‘Stranger Things’ to the newer ‘It’ iterations, it’s been a banner era for floppy-haired pubescents in ringer tees,” writes Tribune News Service critic Katie Walsh in her review. “Scott Derrickson’s ‘The Black Phone’ fits neatly into the subgenre, but this incredibly dark kiddie kidnap horror film just hits different with a hard-R rating, going for the jugular with a surprising extremity of violence, plus a tone that wobbles between the bleak and the buffoonish.”
Also new on DVD
“Firebite: Season 1”: AMC+ series with a supernatural bent about two Indigenous hunters out to rid Australia of its last vampire colony.
“Frank and Penelope”: Written and directed by Sean Patrick Flanery, this thriller follows a man with nothing to lose who finds a reason to live, and something to die for, when he falls in love with a stripper. Starring Caylee Cowan, Billy Budinich and Kevin Dillon.
“NCIS: The Nineteenth Season”: Katrina Law and Gary Cole join the cast of the CBS procedural for Season 19 following the departures of Maria Bello and Emily Wickersham, with star Mark Harmon also taking on a reduced role.
“Sniper: Rogue Mission”: Action-thriller about a rogue CIA sniper who teams up with a former government agent and an assassin to take down a corrupt fed involved with human trafficking.
“South Park: The Complete Twenty-Fourth Season”: Released to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the show’s Comedy Central debut on Aug. 13, 1997, this set features “The Pandemic Special,” which premiered in 2020 and finds Randy trying to accept his role in the outbreak, and last year’s “South ParkQ Vaccination Special,” in which the kids return to school only to discover that everything has changed, especially Cartman.
