If the audience of Black Phone 2 leaves the theater knowing one thing, it is that “dead” is just a word. The Grabber (Ethan Hawke) decides to make a reappearance from his icy hell, after Finney Blake (Mason Thames) killed The Grabber and reunited with his younger sister, Gwen Blake (Madeline McGraw). With no clue where it might lead, this highly anticipated sequel delivers a compelling story from start to finish.
Black Phone 2 weaves religious trauma, emotional turmoil, and mental anguish into a chilling horror film. Four years after killing his abductor, Finney must live with the PTSD and survivors guilt while Gwen must learn to deal with her psychic dreams by herself. The siblings take a trip to Alpine Lake, a Christian youth camp with revelations about their mother, Hope Adler (Anna Lore), and The Grabber. The Blake siblings must work together to uncover the truths about Gwen’s dreams and deal with the trauma The Grabber left the Blake family.
One of the first things guaranteed to draw attention is the wonderful cinematography. As we see more of Gwen’s psychic dreams in play, the camera lens switches between reality and grainy dreamscapes — allowing the audience to feel immersed in the experience along with the characters. The lack of dialogue in these scenes create feelings of suspense and uneasiness. Alongside the dream sequences, most of the movie has beautiful camera work as most of the movie takes place in the dead of night on a snowy mountain range.
The story is almost entirely captivating from start to finish; although, the tone shifts come off as poor halfway through. Scott Derickson, the main writer, was able to write an enthralling horror script, but when it came to including emotional moments — it was inadequate. The sentimental scenes felt out of place and crammed into a spot in which they didn’t fit. This, in turn, disrupted many of the story’s themes and character relationships.
These poor tone shifts also resulted in subplots that were not touched on throughout the movie besides their introduction, such as the romance between Gwen and Ernesto Arellano (Miguel Mora). The relationship was hinted at the beginning of the movie, but had little to no development until the end.
With the original cast, and more, returning for the sequel, their acting has visibly grown with their age. Despite the insufficient writing for emotional scenes, Thames and McGraw are highly capable of making the audience sob. Alongside his castmates, Mora does a great job at portraying his original character’s, Robin Arellano, younger brother. Despite the character barely having an impactful role to the story, he does well in keeping up with Thames and McGraw.
In the face of death, The Grabber continues to be a prominent character in Finney and Gwen’s story. His character gains more depth as the audience learns more about him alongside the Blake siblings. What makes his character more enticing is the lack of knowledge we have about his backstory. We don’t learn much about him in the original movie, but in the sequel we learn his real name, his first victim, and more.
Compared to its predecessor, Black Phone 2 was more enjoyable than the first. It is definitely a must-watch if you did enjoy Black Phone and Blumhouse productions. The Grabber is a disturbing character and learning more about his character was intriguing to the story — definitely considering he is a more realistic horror figure.
