Review by abs-ghosh

Being an ex Stephen King junky I was in the mood for some horror and gave this movie a shot. I have to agree with most of the other reviewers on here in that this is not a horror movie. It has some very mild elements but the focus is more about a boy getting past his grief of losing a valued friend and mentor.

Mr. Harrigan (Sutherland) is a wealthy, retried business leading a reclusive life in a quiet town. Having a fearsome, if somewhat cruel reputation from his venturing days, most people in town give him a clear berth except a young teen named Craig (Martell). After listening to him read at church, Mr. Harrigan hires Craig to read him old literature each week. Thus begins a budding relationship between a man at the end of his life and a kid at the start of his. Eventually the old man passes but not before Craig gifts him with an iphone which was buried with the body. Not completely over the passing of his close friend and mentor, Craig would call the buried phone and leave messages that suddenly started getting answered with deadly results.

This is another movie that wouldn't have been very watchable if it wasn't for strong acting and well written script. The relationship between Mr. Harrigan and Craig is quite charming and his input on the future of digital information is quite depthful. Martel is relative an actor I am not familiar with but does a great job to keep the movie going till the very end after Sutherland is out of the picture. For that I award it a +1 for managing to still be fairly entertaining without really having anything quite compelling. A rare feat from Netflix and a decent effort.