The Reel Review
Four years after escaping from and killing The Grabber, a sadistic serial killer that preyed on children, Finn joins his clairvoyant younger sister Gwen at a youth camp in rural 1982 Colorado where their late mother had worked decades prior. Gwen soon discovers that The Grabber had started his killing spree there and that he is still able to kill via dreams. Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw and Ethan Hawke all reprise their roles in this sequel to the 2021 horror/thriller.
Co-writer/director Scott Derrickson (Sinister, Doctor Strange) again deftly captures the early 80s retro vibe, as he makes Gwen the focus of this way more supernatural sequel. There is a lot more of the grainy Super 8 home video to illustrate her psychic dream sequences. The effect is chilling, aided by a fantastic performance by McGraw, whose dreamtime battles with Hawke as The Grabber are reminiscent of A Nightmare on Elm Street. There is an abundance of violence and gross-out gore for horror fans who enjoy that sort of thing, although the story itself, with the exception of the pulse-pounding dream sequences, is more disturbing than truly terrifying.
Similar to the prior film, the recurring theme in Black Phone 2 is the resilience of sibling bonds in the face of childhood trauma, an element that gets a lot more attention in the second half of the film, which is admittedly also more unevenly paced and a bit too long. Still, Black Phone 2 is a weirder, wilder horror/thriller with an intricately clever story – the rare sequel that is different from but also just as good as its predecessor.
REEL FACTS
• Miguel Mora, who played Robin Arellano in the first film, plays his brother Ernesto in Black Phone 2.
• Madeleine McGraw received a Saturn award nomination for her performance in The Black Phone. She is the older sister of Violet McGraw (M3GAN 2.0, M3GAN, Doctor Sleep). The two sisters will next co-star in the 2025 action heist comedy High Stakes Holiday.
• Texas native Mason Thames (How to Train Your Dragon) will next appear in the 2025 romantic dramedy Regretting You.
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