I Bet You Still Haven’t Seen This Chilling Stephen King Netflix Original Thriller
There are so many screen adaptations of Stephen King’s work, more than any other living author, in fact. With so many renderings of his output, some are inevitably bound to get lost in the shuffle. One such King adaptation is Mr. Harrigan’s Phone. This Netflix original feature may not be the most effective adaptation of a King story, but it’s not half bad, either. At the very least, this is a cinematic effort worth watching. At best, it’s a poignant story about an unlikely friendship complete with horror overtones.
Although the film has proved somewhat divisive with critics, many of the critiques that skew positive are quite favorable. Multiple critics praised the film for its nuanced characterizations and the impressive central relationship between the two leads. Some of the critics who didn’t connect took issue with the picture’s somewhat deliberate pace. One thing is for certain, the horror elements here take a back seat to the central relationship. If that doesn’t dissuade you, head over to Netflix and give this under-seen effort a shot.
Mr. Harrigan’s Phone melds coming-of-age tropes with horror conventions, something King has successfully done on a number of occasions. Perhaps most notably with efforts like It and Silver Bullet. Mr. Harrigan’s Phone is similarly poignant to those aforementioned efforts.
Director John Lee Hancock took point adapting the screenplay for Mr. Harrigan’s Phone from the Stephen King novella of the same name, in addition to sitting at the helm of the project. King’s story was originally published in the collection It Bleeds.
The setup for Mr. Harrigan’s Phone is this:
Craig, a young boy, befriends the elderly billionaire John Harrigan. Craig then gives him a mobile phone. However, when the man dies, Craig discovers that he can communicate with his friend from beyond the grave.
The film’s core cast includes Donald Sutherland, Jaeden Martell, Joe Tippett, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste. The late Sutherland plays the titular Mr. Harrigan and Jaeden Martell features as young Craig. Both Jason Blum (of Blumhouse) and Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story) worked as producers on this project.
So, there it is, if you need to scratch a Stephen King itch, you could do far worse than Mr. Harrigan’s Phone. Keep an eye out for more updates spotlighting overlooked offerings in the near future. If you would like to keep tabs on my comings and goings via social media, feel free to look me up on Threads.
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