Movie: Black Phone 2
Release Date: Oct. 17, 2025
Director: Scott Derrickson
Runtime: 1 hour, 54 minutes
Genre: Horror
Rating: B-
"Black Phone 2" oozes style and has a surprising amount of substance for a horror sequel, only being let down by questionable choices in the script. Overall, Blumhouse Productions' continuation of 2021’s "The Black Phone" is a solid new story that takes the first movie’s premise and thoughtfully expands upon it.
"Black Phone 2" picks up four years after the events of "Black Phone", in which the main character, Finney Blake (Mason Thames), is kidnapped by the Grabber, a masked kidnapper played by Ethan Hawke. The first film ended with Finney escaping the Grabber’s basement with help from the spirits of the Grabber’s previous victims, aiding Finney in killing the Grabber and escaping.
In "Black Phone 2," Finney’s younger sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) is plagued with visions of more of the Grabber’s victims, buried beneath the ice of a frozen-over lake. Finney is similarly troubled over his experience with the Grabber, ignoring calls from out-of-order phone booths and drowning his traumatic memories of the kidnapping with marijuana use.
Gwen is then compelled to travel to the site of the murders, Alpine Lake Camp, after a mysterious message from her deceased mother who used to work at the camp. While traveling to the lake to solve the mystery of three victims who appear in Gwen's visions, the characters discover that the Grabber lives on as a vengeful spirit, threatening the lives of Finney and Gwen.
Fans of the horror classic "A Nightmare on Elm Street" will surely notice similarities in "Black Phone 2," with the murderous Grabber haunting and endangering the children of the movie in a very similar fashion to that of Freddy Krueger. This influence avoids feeling reductive of the classic though, keeping in line with the spiritual phenomena shown in the first film and using the Grabber’s new spectral powers for some intense action sequences and scares.
While the sharp turn in direction from the largely grounded and physical plot of the first movie may be jarring to some viewers, the stellar directing and great performances keep the stakes feeling high and the danger feeling real.
Hawke’s performance has arguably improved from the first movie despite being on screen less, with the Grabber’s gravelly voice and large physical frame being a chilling and intimidating presence. Thames and McGraw are also good, creating the emotional core of the movie in portraying a strained sibling bond that grows and mends throughout the film.
The two side characters that are the most relevant in the rest of the cast include Ernesto Arellano (Miguel Mora) and Armando (Demián Bichir). Ernesto is a love interest of Gwen's who tags along to help out, as well as being the brother of a victim of the Grabber. Armando is the supervisor of Alpine Lake Camp and hopes to bring justice to the children who disappeared at the camp and find personal peace.
Scott Derrickson’s direction is part of what keeps the stakes of the film feeling high, using the clever technique of shooting on grainy film to indicate when the characters are in the dreamy, spectral world.
The direction of the visual effects is also fantastic, and these effects are used to the fullest of their ability to surprise and shock the audience. The violent effects used in Gwen's visions are chilling, making you recoil as you see depictions of the frozen corpses of the Grabbers' victims, marked by the violence he enacted upon them.
Another highlight of the film is its score from Atticus Derrickson, the son of Director Scott Derrickson. The largely electronic score plays along well with what happens on screen, with distorted, grainy sounds alongside the grainy film of dream sequences. Atticus Derrickson also makes incredible music for the movie's emotional moments, with the song that plays during the movie's final scene feeling at the same time somber and joyful through its use of arpeggiating passages on gentle synths.
"Black Phone 2" distinguishes itself from past cash-grab horror sequels, opting to explore themes of religion, familial bonds and the effects of trauma — even if some of these themes come off half-baked. While Blumhouse could’ve easily delegated it to being a cheap shell of a movie compared to the first, there is obvious effort put into this sequel.
However, the film is not without its flaws. Its runtime drags near the middle, and the plan to defeat the Grabber came off as somewhat contrived. In addition, the expository scenes in the film dragged at best and ruined tension at their worst, never truly being able to capture and hold viewers' attention.
McGraw's excellent emotional performance as Gwen is highlighted in some amazing scenes, but her cheesy, crude and out-of-place one-liners can easily detract from her performance. While these comedic moments were no doubt meant to be campy and add levity to a very bleak plot, they end up falling flat, only serving to pull my attention away from the story and the stakes of the film.
The unnecessary and undeveloped romantic subplot with Ernesto and Gwen also came off as a strange decision to me, and was only made worse by a lack of chemistry between the two actors. While this romance could've served as a way to delve into Gwen's trauma surrounding marriage and family, caused by the death of her mother and addiction struggles of her father and brother, it never truly takes this step and only feels like padding that bloats the movie. In addition, the kiss between the two at the end of the movie feels horribly awkward in the context of what happens preceding it.
And while I appreciated the effort to include commentary on Christian hate and troubles with faith, some of the material can feel quite, ironically, preachy. Barbara (Maev Beaty) and Kenneth(Graham Abbey) are a couple on the camp's property who are devout and judgmental Christians.
Over the course of the movie, they are told by the characters that their inaction in the search for the missing children, as well as their citing of the bible as a means to separate themselves from the search are counterintuitive to the teachings of the Bible. While this social commentary is a great idea, the implementation of the commentary through stiff and awkward scenes takes away from what could've been.
Though these issues did make for some awkward and, at worst, laughable missteps, they were not enough to ruin enjoyment of the film.Overall, "Black Phone 2" is a solid sequel that, while making some mistakes, goes in a different direction than the first film and is able to find new areas to explore.