There are few unbreakable rules in Hollywood, outside of Leonardo DiCaprio’s dating age limit. It’s pretty much down to “never cast actual teenagers as teenagers” and “a sequel is almost never lightyears better than its predecessor.” Black Phone 2 violates both. Before you start to vibrate like your ringer is on silent, please note that I gave the first movie an F-. That being said, when a below-average student manages to pass, everybody should celebrate!
The biggest fix in this sequel is that it undoes its predecessor’s gross message on violence and anger. It does so wholeheartedly and explicitly, with one of its lead characters weeping and saying “I don’t want to be angry anymore. I don’t want to be scared anymore.” Look, nobody is laying the current state of the world at the feet of The Black Phone. But it is unquestionably a good thing to disavow the terrible message that original movie sent, which was “Sometimes young men gotta man up and do what men gotta do and commit violence.”
It helps that the focus in Black Phone 2 is not a man but Gwen (Madeleine McGraw). She is the little sister of Finn (Mason Thames), who was kidnapped by The Grabber (Ethan Hawke) last time. Finn is now 17 years old and 100% not okay. Turns out that thwarting a serial killer by talking to the ghosts of dead children on the telephone will mess you all the way up. It doesn’t help that his sister has “the shining” or at least some Stephen King-adjacent supernatural powers.
Those powers lead Gwen and Finn to Alpine Lake in the Rocky Mountains. The Christian camp turns out to have been the site of some very bad events. While Gwen tries to use her dream abilities to solve a murder mystery, Finn chats on the telephone with The Grabber, who has gained ghastly superpowers during his time in Hell. Between the camp setting, a blizzard, and the Grabber going Freddy Krueger, this is basically Friday the 13th set in The Shining with Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors. That is not a complaint.
What is a complaint is a bit unfortunate. No decent person should take potshots at young performers, but McGraw’s line delivery is…let’s go with “distracting.” It also feels uncool to slag on the script from writer C. Robert Cargill and writer/director Scott Derrickson when it is so much better than the original. Cargill and Derrickson clearly worked incredibly hard to not just improve upon the source material, but to actively repair its damage.
Black Phone 2 is about redemption and healing from trauma. It also lampoons false faith while extoling the virtue of sincere belief. It “borrows” from better movies in fun ways, like when Gwen gets tossed around by The Grabber in her dreams. Only she can see him, so everyone else watches her get ragdolled by the invisible man. That’s been done before but remains an enjoyable spooky treat.
And being an enjoyable spooky treat is a fine thing to be. The visuals evoke a blissful 1980s VHS vibe, even if some of the early dialogue tries too hard with its overreliance on slang from the era. The climax is silly but in a way that works. It is a rare thing to have absolutely no desire whatsoever to see a film and to walk out mostly satisfied. “Mostly satisfied” is practically transcendental joy these days. Please don’t put “transcendental joy” on a Black Phone 2 poster in quotes with my name beneath it.
Grade = B-
Other Critical Voices to Consider
Rachel Leishman at The Mary Sue says “Yes, it is a sequel that we didn’t really need but I would also like to throw this out there: What if we just let a new generation have their Freddy? “
Murjani Rawls at Substream Magazine says “Black Phone 2 gives us more fuel to let us know we aren’t safe when our heads hit the pillow. But only if the film is as self-assured in its interpretation of a main character’s gifts and the uneasy way it feels about them, where it could have been bigger than an homage.”
Travis Hopson at Punch Drunk Critics says “While the religious themes and sweet heart-to-heart moments make for a preachy final act, it’s not enough to disrupt a sequel that hasn’t missed a beat. There’s a pretty good chance The Grabber will dial up a comeback in a few years, and when that happens horror fans will be eager to answer the call. And so will I.”