Mr. Harrigan’s Phone is a 2022 drama-horror film based on a short story by Stephen King. It was written and directed by John Lee Hancock ( The Blind Side, The Founder ). It’s the story of smalltown boy Craig ( Jaeden Martell ) a boy who reads books for billionaire Mr. Harrigan ( Donald Sutherland. After his death, things get strange…
PLOT:
As a young lad, Craig would visit Mr. Harrigan, an ultra wealthy elderly man with little human contact beyond the boy. Craig would read to him in exchange for a few dollars an hour. Over the years, they grew a strong bond to each other. They considered each other friends.
Mr. Harrigan acted as a sort of Grandfather/ Mentor figure to Craig. He would council him through his various problems in life and offer his advice.
Trying to bridge the gap of generations between himself and Harrigan, Craig gifts him a brand new phone. Complete with texting and Google…and stuff. He gives off a really nice monologue about the danger of phones. Slightly hypocritical here given that I’m writing this very paragraph over my phone right now, but I still enjoyed it.
Then one day our of the blue, Craig visits his buddy Harrigan, finding him dead. After the funeral Craig receives texts and phone calls from Harrigan’s old phone. To top it off, weird things start happening. People die, Craig gets his way and inherets close to a million bucks.
I gotta be honest after Donnie Sutherland’s death the movie gets pretty confusing. To say the least. Craig moves to Boston, his teacher ( originally from Boston, yeah I’m sure that’s a pure coincidence ) dies in a car crash. The driver that killed the teacher kills himself with a bar if soap…it’s weird. It’s just weird……I don’t get it.
CONCLUSION:
Mr. Harrigan’s Phone did have it’s charm in the form of Sutherland’s acting, yet ultimately fell flat in both it’s horror elements and feel of a satisfying or even emotionally impactful ending. It really does go out on a “meh”. I appreciate Stephen King and all he’s done for both literature and cinema alike, yet I must say this is no The Shining and no Shawshank Redemption, this is simply put a mediocre King adaptation that should have stayed a short story. 5.5/10.
-Screenwriter J
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