Even as the pandemic slogs along, there’s no stopping the independent moviemaking spirit that puts hope in focus.

Welcome to 2022! Wait, don’t run away. 

While I acknowledge there’s been some, let’s call it “unfortunate carryover” from a truly abysmal 2020, there’s still one thing we can all look forward to, even in the darkest, most pandemic-clouded of days, and that’s the movies. Indie movies, specifically. 

“The Black Phone,” June 24

Maine’s own Joe Hill (son of Maine’s own Stephen King) wrote the short story inspiring this horror thriller, about a masked serial killer (Ethan Hawke), and the young boy trying to escape his clutches with the help of a mysterious telephone that lets him communicate with the dead. Specifically, the other kids Hawke’s psycho has killed. Leave it to Mainers to make things terrifying.