Black Box Parent Guide

Following a car accident which killed his wife and left him with severe amnesia, Nolan (Mamoudou Athie) struggles to keep working and raise his daughter Ava (Amanda Christine). There might be a light at the end of the tunnel - a spot has opened up for Nolan in an unusual clinical trial run by the mysterious Dr. Brooks (Phylicia Rashad) which has the potential to restore his lost memories. But there’s something in Nolan’s subconscious that seems more intent on strangling him than helping him find his past…

Right off the bat, let me make very clear that this is not an NC-17 film. According to IMDB, this film has a “self-applied” rating of NC-17, the strongest caution given by the MPAA. Most films avoid that rating, and deliberately edit the film to go down to an “R” – movies like Pulp Fiction and the gruesome Hostel series were originally given an NC-17 and edited to be re-rated. Black Box is absolutely not that kind of movie.

Not that this is a great kid’s film – it’s still a horror movie, and still wildly unsuitable for young or sensitive audiences. But with minimal profanity, comparatively non-gory violence, and no sexual content, this is better pegged at a PG-13. If you’ve got a teenage horror fan in the house, this would be a great choice for them.

And as horror movies go, this one is surprisingly well done. The messaging about the lengths people will go to for family is genuinely touching, and the scares are just unsettling enough to get your heart rate up without being gruesome enough to bring your lunch up with it. Perhaps the biggest standout in the film is the remarkable performance by Amanda Christine as Ava – child acting usually ranges from “unbearable” to “unspeakable”, but Christine is genuinely charming and endearing.

Ratings confusion aside, this is an above-average horror flick, suitable for a broad audience, with minimal content concerns. Even more surprising is that this is a Blumhouse production – yes, those same cinematic maniacs responsible for delights like Unfriended: Dark Web, The Hunt, and Fantasy Island. With their incredibly hit-and-miss history, I’d say we got very lucky with Black Box – and even luckier still that it doesn’t merit the alleged NC-17 rating.