Black Phone 2 (2025)
Director(s): Scott Derrickson
Writer(s): Scott Derrickson, Joe Hill, C. Roberg Cargill
Starring: Mason Thames, Ethan Hawke, Madeleine McGraw
It’s always a risk when taking on a sequel to any movie but ESPECIALLY when making a sequel to a movie where the plot really worked as a one-shot sort of deal. At this point, if you haven’t seen Black Phone then that’s on you and you shouldn’t even be reading this review until you’ve seen that wonderful gem of a flick so tsk tsk tsk, but if you have, then march forward my macabre friend! But anywhoo, what made the first flick work so well was the accumulation of paranormal events that led to our main character Finn, beat and eventually kill “The Grabber” who had him trapped in a basement throughout most of the flick. The movie was innovative in its style that utilized ghosts as a vehicle to scare the audience, yet they were the catalysts in helping the main character beat the actual evil, which was the serial killer, played brilliantly by Ethan Hawke which made the last ten minutes of the film so satisfying to watch.
Having said that, when news of a sequel came to be, first, I was not surprised since in Hollywood, once something gets a whiff of success, the talks of a sequel are inevitable, but second, the tingling rush of fear and anxiety crept in because again, the concept of the movie as a whole seem to only work as a stand-alone story. However, what this sequel did to remedy these concerns was a master class on how to approach sequels in general, ESPECIALLY on how to correctly raise the stakes of a horror flick. This movie did such a great job in keeping with what made the first movie work, while not boring the audiences with the same, tired plot line. I’m still surprised how they pulled it off, but I did not leave the theater disappointed, in fact, I was already thinking about a third movie and how they could even pull that off if they were so bold.
The movie picks up four years after the events of the first flick and Finn is still dealing with what happened to him the way most teens do; with anger, drugs and the basic being-a-dick strategy but what’s good about this flick is how it focuses more on his sister, Gwen, who in the first movie is revealed to have psychic links to ghosts in her dreams which plays a HUGE part in this movie. It was a great move to have the direction focus on both siblings this time around as they investigate what seems to be the return of The Grabber and how it may be connected to their mother who committed suicide years ago which tore apart their family. This leads them to a summer camp where their mom used to work and this is another great move from a plot perspective; it’s not necessarily original, but a great move where, and I’m trying not to spoil too much here, but you begin to understand how everything ties together, all the way from The Grabber, Gwen’s psychic abilities to their former-alcoholic father.
Not surprisingly, the violence and the stakes are much higher this time around with everyone giving high-octane performances but some of the action sequences throughout the flick had me on edge with The Grabber taking on more of a villain role rather than a traditional slasher/monster as he definitely has more of a motive this time around rather than general killing/chaos. The plot line is much more defined in this movie as both parties have specific goals that their trying to accomplish which makes this movie different from the first, which again, is what makes this sequel work; it kept the elements of the first movie with the paranormal once again being a force of driving the plot but this time around it’s different because there are clear objectives this time and our villain will stop at nothing to make sure our heroes do not meet these objectives. In a way, you can picture this movie more like a horror-themed action/adventure which for better or worse, makes it unique from the first movie and to me, that’s already a partial victory when it comes to any movie sequel.
What makes this movie victorious however is the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed this movie for the decisions it made for all the legacy characters and how they introduced new characters. No one was a filler character in this flick, everyone served a purpose and our legacy characters were fleshed out very well and had great moments, especially Gwen, who in my opinion stole this movie this time around which I believe was the intent of the writer/director, Scott Derrickson. He was very smart in expanding on her psychic abilities and incorporating it into the main plot and like I said, if there were to ever be a third movie, I suspect we may even go further down the family tree and shake it further to see what falls…I’ll leave it at that to leave it spoiler free but damn I hope we get another one of these beauties!
Life is FAR more interesting when we take interest in things that scare us.