The phone is ringing again, and just when you thought the line was dead, “The Black Phone 2” answers with a chilling reminder: dead is just a word, fear is just the beginning. Blumhouse and Universal Pictures released the sequel to their 2022 hit “The Black Phone,” “The Black Phone 2”. This movie follows a now 17-year-old Finney Blake and his psychic 15-year-old sister, Gwen, as they track The Grabber to a Christian winter camp deep in the Rocky Mountains and realize their family’s tormentor isn’t exactly gone for good. The movie features several rising stars and popular actors including Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeline McGraw, Miguel Mora, and many others.
The movie was incredibly entertaining. However, for those who haven’t had the chance to see the first film could be confused with the origin of the Grabber’s relationship to the Blakes. There weren’t any parts of the movie that left me bored, as is typical with horror movies., What’s definitely different compared to the first film is that it was indefinitely more gory and carried more emotional resonance.
The film is nostalgic, reminiscent of vintage photographs and the era of striped baby tees, flared jeans, and The Ramones. Warm colors, film grain, and filtered light flood the screen, but the rustic ‘70s suburbia is corrupted by Derrickson’s horror.
“The Black Phone 2” is a sequel to “The Black Phone” and is based on the short story of the same name, written by Joe Hill, the son of Steven King. “The Black Phone” chronicles a suspenseful tale of The Grabber, a child killer who snatches teen boys in broad daylight. The first film was set in the 1970s, when a Denver suburb begins being terrorized by this serial child abductor and murderer. Gwen and Finney Blake live in the same area and end up face to face with The Grabber when Finney becomes the next captive, held in a soundproof basement. While in the basement Finney begins to receive phone calls from The Grabber’s previous victims through a disconnected landline. At the same time, his sister is searching for him, guided by her psychic dreams.Gwen fights back against the “non-believers” of her psychic dreams and tells the police. Robin Arellano, one of the grabber’s victims, encourages Finney to put an end to the grabber by killing him and beating him with the receiver filled with dirt.
In “The Black Phone 2,” Denver’s quiet suburbs are traded for blizzard conditions at the Alpine Lake Catholic sleepaway camp, sending wintery, frostbitten chills up our spines. Finney numbs his trauma and anger of being stalked by hallucinations of The Grabber by turning to drugs. In Gwen’s dreams she answers the ring of black phones, driven by a pursuit for answers and the opportunity to help other lost souls, specifically the first victims of The Grabber at the same Christian camp.
“The Black Phone 2” is a punk rock horror sequel. Derrickson and Cargill ripen evils instead of playing the old hits. The Grabber transforms from a kiddie-killing sicko to a devil’s reject who took ice-skating lessons. The murderous events of the first film leave both siblings rightfully traumatized, which puts a heavy emphasis on character development. We see Finney battling with his father’s rage or more-so his fear. Meanwhile, Gwen’s dreams—one of the key supernatural elements from the first film—have only gotten worse, making Gwen believe her power is a curse. While the siblings still love each other dearly, Finney has little time for his sister’s visions dealing with his own unresolved terror over what happened in that basement three years ago. Still, those dreams take the siblings and Ernesto Arellano—Robin Arellano’s younger brother and Gwen’s love interest— to Alpine Lake Youth Christian Camp, where the three teens will find themselves in the supernatural showdown of their nightmares.
There are amazing horror franchises out there and this is one of them. I wouldn’t be mad if a third movie was announced starring a ”new” grabber. Many people also have been speculating that a possible third movie would be a prequel. There are so many unanswered questions about Gwen and Finney’s mom and their family’s connection to the Grabber. This prequel has the potential to be just as successful.
Maybe we will get the next part of the story, or maybe we’ll be left with the ending we got. Either way, I’m more than satisfied. It’s a wholesome and happy ending. We can love and appreciate this movie for what it is: a masterpiece of tragedy and love.
