Starring Donald Sutherland and Jaeden Martell

Written and Directed by John Lee Hancock based on the novella by Stephen King

Netflix, out now

Craig starts to leave messages on his deceased mentor’s cell phone, but his pleas for help don’t go unanswered.

I have a confession to make. I have been wearying of the many Stephen King adaptations populating our TV screens in recent years. I slogged my way through The Outsider, but The Stand, Lisey’s Story and Chapelwaite outstayed their welcomes and I gave up on all three before the end. So it was, I approached Mr Harrigan’s Phone with a degree of trepidation, but it’s just 106 minutes from top to toe and I had a plane journey to fill… which it did very nicely indeed.

The first thing to say, is that it isn’t in any way scary, but I don’t think it’s supposed to be, although I haven’t read the original story. There’s also little to surprise the canny viewer as the action progresses. In the early 2000s, Craig (Jaeden Martell) gives his enigmatic and slightly sinister billionaire mentor (Donald Sutherland at his most Donald Sutherland) an iPhone. The old man is wary of the device, but soon becomes addicted, whilst understanding, before most, exactly where this technology will lead. When Mr. Harrigan dies, Craig still needs the old man’s help, and it’s not at all hard to guess where the tale will take us.

So, yes, it concerns supernatural communication beyond the grave – or rather into the grave – but aside from a certain Monkey’s Paw, be-careful-what-you-wish-for narrative riff, it’s really a morality tale about the mobile phone, the internet age, and the dangers of impatient righteousness, demanding ever more instant moral gratification, and in John Lee Hancock’s assured hands it’s all done with elegance and taste.

Verdict: If you want scares you will be disappointed, but if you’re happy with a mature, well-crafted tech-morality tale, served up with a lightly supernatural garnish, then Mr Harrigan’s Phone will do the job. 7/10

Martin Jameson