Is Ethan Hawke a must-see maniac? Early reactions praise 'creepy, brutally violent' The Black Phone

A lot of people likely had some bad nightmares in Las Vegas last night which had nothing to do with losing money at poker. Attendees at CinemaCon were treated (if that's the right word) to a screening of new horror movie The Black Phone, which stars Ethan Hawke as a child-abducting maniac called the Grabber, and the film sounds like it's a must-see for horror fans.

EW's own Lauren Huff, for one, was impressed by both the film and the reaction it inspired.

"Just sat through The Black Phone and watched as a room full of grown ass adults jumped and yelped and cheered (and laughed - it has good laughs!)," she wrote on Twitter. "Bolstered by excellent performances all around but esp. the young actors. Now off to sleep in a hotel room that has a black phone."

Universal Pictures Ethan Hawke as The Grabber in 'The Black Phone'

EW's writer was not alone in her praise.

"The Black Phone is pretty great and with a few minor changes could be amazing," tweeted film critic Scott Menzel. "The film is very creepy, brutally violent & deeply disturbing. Ethan Hawke is terrifying as the grabber while Mason Thames & Madeleine McGraw are newcomers worth keeping an eye on."

Fandango writer Erik Davis was another attendee happy to report that Hawke is definitely not phoning it in.

"Really dug The Black Phone, a tension-filled '70s-set kidnapping thriller featuring a super creepy Ethan Hawke performance," he wrote. "Prepare to squirm in your seat & jump a few times. Also a good story about finding your confidence as a kid. But as a parent, I was an absolute mess!"

io9 correspondent Germain Lussier was more measured in his assessment: "Just got to see The Black Phone which I liked more as a compelling, mysterious, supernatural thriller than a scary horror movie," he wrote. "Maybe my expectations were a bit too high but ultimately I was a little underwhelmed by how it all comes together. It's a great journey there though."

Based on a short story by Joe Hill, The Black Phone concerns Finney Shaw, a shy but clever 13-year-old boy, who is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement. When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer's previous victims who are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn't happen to Finney.

The Black Phone is directed by Doctor Strange filmmaker Scott Derrickson and written by Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill. The pair previously collaborated with Hawke on 2012's chilling Sinister.

"Scott wanted me to do a part in a mask for an entire film, and all of a sudden I feel like I'm doing Greek drama; he allowed me to give a performance in the middle of a horror movie," Hawke told EW. "There's a great Bob Dylan line in that Scorsese doc [Rolling Thunder Revue] where he says that if somebody's got a mask on, you know they're telling the truth — and if they don't have a mask on, you know they're lying. That was on top of my brain; the scariest thing about [the Grabber] is that he doesn't want you to see him."

The Black Phone is released in cinemas June 24. Watch the film's trailer below.

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