The latest adaptation of a Stephen King work, Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, released on Netflix on October 5. The film, which can easily be called one of the weakest adaptations of the author’s works, is the story of a relationship between a young boy and an elderly billionaire who share an uncanny bond that goes beyond the realms of the physical world.

The central character of this film is a boy called Craig who lives with his father after the death of his mother. Craig is lonely in a small New England village, and the only excitement of his life is visiting billionaire Mr. Harrigan, for whom he reads classic novels.

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Mr. Harrigan, over the years, becomes affectionate towards Craig and gifts him lottery scratch cards on holidays like Christmas. Although these scratch cards do not bring any happy news for many years, Craig finally manages to win $3,000 one fine Christmas. With this money he decides to buy an iPhone for the aged tycoon.

Despite being impressed by the smartphone’s numerous abilities at first, Harrigan soons tells Craig that this device has the potential to damage society as we know it in numerous ways. He even suggests that a smartphone can be used to spread misinformation, something that has indeed become an issue in the modern world.

The spooky affairs in the film begin right after Harrigan’s death. Craig had secretly placed Mr. Harrigan’s phone in the latter’s pocket after his funeral services, and soon begins receiving text messages from the deceased billionaire. Craig notices that any problem he has is quickly resolved, sometimes in a violent manner, after he speaks to Harrigan about it. 

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Kenny Yankovich (Cyrus Arnold), who bullied Craig in school, is found dead in exactly the same position he had left Craig in after beating him up outside the school prom. Even the man responsible for his teacher, Ms. Hart’s death is found dead. This makes us realize that it was indeed Harrigan who was committing the murders.

One day when Craig returns to Mr. Harrigan’s house, he decides to open a closet he was not supposed to, and ended up discovering a picture of the latter’s mother, which made him realize that just like him, Harrigan too had lost his mother at a young age. This was probably the reason why he was so fond of Craig.

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At the end, Craig decides to throw away his phone with which he could contact Harrigan. This attempt was made in order to avoid any further loss of life. Craig thought he had been burdening Harrigan with tasks even after his death. Thus, in one of his last lines in the film, Craig says that when he dies and is being buried, he wants his pockets to be empty.