Black Phone 2 (2025) * * *

 

Directed by:  Scott Derrickson

Starring:  Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Ethan Hawke, Demian Bichir, Arianna Rivas, Jeremy Davies, Miguel Mora

The Grabber (Hawke) was killed at the conclusion of The Black Phone (2022), so what do we do for a sequel?  Since The Grabber's previous victims managed to contact Finney from beyond the grave via the black phone in Grabber's basement, then The Grabber can play by the same rules.  What we have is Black Phone 2, which continues the story in a suspenseful, hellish way and further illuminates the pure evil of The Grabber.  He is beyond redemption or any semblance of humanity.  

There is no question Black Phone 2 borrows its plotline from Nightmare on Elm Street as The Grabber terrorizes Finney and his clairvoyant sister Gwen (McGraw) from the depths of hell.  "Hell isn't flames.  It's ice," says The Grabber.  Gwen is tormented by dreams of a secluded camp in Colorado where it turns out her late mother worked years ago.  Why is she dreaming of the camp?  Why is she receiving calls on a black phone in her dream from her deceased mother?  Gwen is determined to find out and travel to the camp in the middle of a blizzard.   

Black Phone 2 takes place in 1982, four years after the original, and Finney is a lost soul suffering from PTSD who takes his anger out on weaker kids at school and smokes weed to self-medicate.  He goes along to help Gwen and soon finds himself answering a black pay phone at the camp which hasn't been operative for a decade.  Who is on the other end?  Well, The Grabber of course, while Gwen is dealing with visions of three missing kids from the camp who were The Grabber's first victims.  If the group can find their remains, then The Grabber's power from the beyond will be reduced or eliminated.  

Come to think of it, how was it that the remains WEREN'T found over the course of 15 years considering the location of their bodies?   Instead of quibbling over such logistics, I instead found Black Phone 2 to be a worthy sequel to the original, which was itself riveting.  This installment provides us with an icy, snowy hell and an aura which operates as one long nightmare.   It isn't just a slasher film with buckets of blood, but it was made with great care with Ethan Hawke again giving us a villain as evil as the nights are long.