Loss of Communication

Chris’s Dead Phone

A horror film without some sort of failure of technology leading to a loss of communication doesn’t exist. Technology, specifically phones, is what keep us connected to each other, it is what offers us a multitude of knowledge at our fingertips within seconds, and it is what makes help be no further than a phone call away. Taking away someone’s phone takes away their connections and their ability to reach out to anyone at a moment’s notice. Being in a scary situation with a phone offers the hero a possible way out. That’s why, it is essential for the antagonist or writer to take that ability away from the hero. This is often done through a lack of cell signal.

For Chris, this lack of communication occurs through his cell phone not having enough battery. His cell phone is essential to his survival and entire experience. He uses it, specifically the flash form its camera, to free the other black people enslaved by the Armitage’s and their white friends. He uses it to keep in touch with Rod, so Rod knows that there is something wrong. He uses it to take a picture of Logan with Rod is then able to use, along with other information and technology, to track him down and save him. It literally is what saves his life by allowing Rod to save him and waking up Walter when Walter has him pinned down.

Chris’s single tool in the entire movie is his cell phone. His strength, although continuously described as superior by the Armitages and their friends, is of little help to him against the power of Missy’s hypnotism. So his cell phone is his only source of useful strength, and he is clever enough to use it to his advantage. So it makes sense that the Armitage’s will want to take the phone away from him by draining the battery and not allowing it to recharge by always unplugging it when Chris isn’t there. By taking away his cell phone, the Armitages both take away his single tool and emphasize how easy it is to cut him off from the world with no consequences. They want no evidence of their crimes, no way for Chris to be tracked back to them and their location, no way for him to be connected to the outside world, so they know that limiting Chris’s uses of the cell phone is the way to do that.

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