Johnson Thomas
A fairly distinctive supernatural horror thriller
Film: Black Phone 2 (2025)
Cast: Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Ethan Hawke, Demián Bichir, Miguel Mora, Arianna Rivas, Anna Lore, Jeremy Davies
Director: Scott Derrickson
Rating: * * 1/2
Runtime: 114 min.
Blumhouse’s “Black Phone 2” is set in 1982, a four years after Finney (Mason Thames) survived the vengeful killer Grabber (Ethan Hawke in the earlier film). One would have thought that with the villain no longer available to terrorize, franchise ambitions would lie low. But there’s no accounting for creativity. “The Black Phone” was adapted from a short story by Stephen King’s son, Joe Hill. This film though, gets inventive creating a bogie that comes entirely from mental instability.
Grabber was killed in the climax in the earlier film, but Finney Blake, now 17, in the present film, hasn’t really recovered from that trauma. He is struggling with his life after captivity. He takes out his rage on other kids, tries to numb his pain with marijuana, and attempts to ignore the ringing phones that he keeps hearing. His sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) is the one having terrifying visions featuring mutilated children sketching letters into the ice in frozen lakes, with a phone ringing in the background. Her visions get more explicit… she sees three boys being stalked at a winter camp. The siblings are determined to solve the mystery and confront the killer. But is he real or imagined?
Scott Derrickson and writer C. Robert Cargill try to create a nightmarish scenario where the villain, like Freddy Kuger from ‘Nightmare on Elm street,’ gets resurrected and becomes more powerful as his legend gets bigger. This film is a sort of homage to the aforementioned horror classic. There are quite a few savage bloody moments to horrify you here. Surreal nightmarish scenarios work their magic as a unique visual language emerges from the embers of the past.
It may not have real logic or even make any cinema sense but it does manage to creep you in unusual ways. The camerawork by cinematographer Par M. Ekberg does much of the heavy lifting with grainy sequences delineating the nightmares. It’s quite an effective capture of Gwen’s dream state which builds up a past link with Gwen and Finney’s mother who was a counselor, in the ‘50s, at the camp known as Alpine Lake. It’s also hinted that Mrs. Blake’s suicide may have driven her husband (Jeremy Davies) to alcoholism and abuse.
Gwen, Finney, and Gwen’s new boyfriend, Ernesto (Miguel Mora), head to the winter camp managed by husband-and-wife (Graham Abbey, Maev Beaty), in the middle of a blizzard.
The escalation of the supernatural as the primal force to fear doesn’t really work. There are quite a few unintentional laughable moments in the film but the acting and the overall seriousness displayed allows for feeling to creep in. The tonal shift from the grounded in the original to the flaky in this one, was not a great idea. It’s the general treatment that keeps you fairly interested here.
The dysfunctional family dynamic and repressive aspects of religion add depth to the characterizations. The atmospherics add chilling effects to the narrative. The storyline may be convoluted but the director manages to develop empathy for the lead characters. Grabber hidden behind demonic-looking masks, is a villain who has attained legend status, and gives the franchise its raison d’etre. Hawke, is superbly convincing in the demonic role, in which we see him in a series of masks and recognise him for his raspy voice.
Thames and McGraw, as the traumatized teens willing to do battle with evil, Demián Bichir as the camp’s sympathetic owner, Arianna Rivas as his spunky niece, Miguel Mora, who forms a romantic connection with Gwen, are all potent performers.
Derrickson, a past master at horror, displays a stylistic influence that gives the film an eerie underpinning. Atticus Derrickson, his son, designs a music score that will surely haunt you for hours past the movies runtime. This may not be a perfect horror vehicle but it certainly is a fairly effective one.
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