Black Box (2020)

Directed by: Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour | 100 minutes | horror, science fiction, thriller | Actors: Mamoudou Athie, Phylicia Rashad, Amanda Christine, Tosin Morohunfola, Charmaine Bingwa, Donald Elise Watkins, Troy James, Nyah Marie Johnson, Najah Bradley, Betsy Borrego, Andrea Cohen, Justin David, Scott Green, Gretchen Koerner, Han Soto

The production house Blumhouse was founded in 2000 and has since managed to convince with a number of creative and successful productions. This is especially true for various horror films from the Blumhouse stable, such as ‘Paranormal Activity’, ‘Insidious’, ‘Happy Death Day’, ‘Get Out’ and ‘The Invisible Man’. Each and every one of them films that are slightly more headstrong and more original than the average horror film and that were produced with a relatively modest budget. The production house wants to give talents plenty of room to develop their creativity, regardless of whether a film immediately grows into a huge commercial success.

‘Black Box’ is one of the films in the eight-part film series ‘Welcome to the Blumhouse’ and tells the story of Nolan, a man who loses both his wife and his memory in a car accident. The single father faces the arduous task of single-handedly running the household and raising his young daughter Ava. But that turns out to be damn hard. Nolan can remember little of the past and often misses the present due to his memory problems. For example, he repeatedly forgets to pick up Ava from school.

To restore his memory and regain control of his life, Nolan turns to renowned neurologist Lillian Banks for help. She has developed an experimental therapy that may help him recover his memories. The journey to the subconscious not only raises at least as many questions as answers; the experience increasingly turns into a terrifying quest that causes Nolan to doubt his own identity.

Although it is of course mainly a construction of the human mind, the ‘I’ is usually the anchor that keeps the self-conscious person afloat in the turbulent waves of life. But that I-person floats on memories. ‘Black Box’ shows what happens when they disappear. Reality then becomes a vast expanse of quicksand, into which the so carefully constructed and cultivated self-image sinks ever deeper. In addition, the film poses a delicate medical-ethical dilemma: how far can and should you go to bring a long-lost loved one back to life?

Thematically, ‘Black Box’ is primarily a psychological thriller with drama, science fiction and horror elements. The film has a long and slow run-up, in which we get to know Nolan and his daughter Ava in detail. The interaction between the two and the separate father-daughter relationship make for some strong scenes. Because even though Ava is still a young child, she still feels a duty of care to her forgetful father. Nevertheless, the first part of the film could have been a bit shorter.

When Nolan slowly but surely discovers more about the past and his current state, ‘Black Box’ becomes really exciting and fascinating. In his dreamlike state, Nolan is surrounded by faceless and voiceless people and chased by a crawling man, moving like a sinister crab-like creature, whose bones crack and snap in a sickeningly loud way. Although director Emmanuel Ossei-Kuffour initially carefully and skilfully builds up the tension, the proverbial monkey eventually comes up a bit too early. Too bad, because this makes the last part of the film lose a lot of power and relevance. Although ‘Black Box’ carries the horror label from a marketing point of view, the creepiness is disappointing. Apart from the creeping figure from Nolan’s subconscious, there is little that will startle the right-minded horror purist. The greatest horror is the nagging uncertainty about his own identity that gradually creeps into Nolan during the therapy.

‘Black Box’ is certainly not a bad movie. The acting is quite decent, while the story contains interesting and thought-provoking elements. But with a more balanced narrative pace and more well-developed scares, there could have been even more. The first 45 minutes are too slow, while Ossei-Kuffour reveals some mysteries a little too quickly towards the end.