Stephen King is such a well-known and prolific author that it's almost a cliché that his books are adapted into movies. Netflix also joins the trend, with one of its more remote stories. It's supposed to be a horror film, but here we find more of a social drama than a scary and peaceful film.
The plot doesn't always make sense and the atmosphere is a bit condescending, but Stephen King is always a writer with interesting ideas. It deals with the favorite subject of the American writer and he is an apprentice. A young man (Jaden Martel) reads classics to a very rich, but nervous and grumpy old man (Donald Sutherland), but with a lot of money and lectures on morality and how to manage in life.
For some reason the two continue to meet, even though the grumpy old man isn't exactly the kind of guy you'd want to read bedtime stories to. The plot turns dark, when the old man passes away. The boy buys an iPhone and starts sending messages to the old man, who replies in an extreme and unpleasant way.
It's hard to call the movie "Mr. Harrigan's Phone" a horror movie. He's not really scary or particularly jumpy. It has very few parts that will make you look away, it is more in the worlds of suspense and mystery. The script is also not very interesting and apart from a superb acting performance by Donald Sutherland, there is not much of interest in "Mr. Harrigan's Telephone".
Like other Netflix adaptations, it too will find itself at the bottom of the streaming company's algorithm. Another casual adaptation for a talented writer and a plausible story, but not one that warrants a full-length film adaptation.
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