Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, and Ethan Hawke return for Blumhouse’s ‘Black Phone 2,’ out October 17.
More often than not, horror sequels are weak imitations of the original, a cheap, quick, cash grab that hits the same beats in a slightly different way. Black Phone 2 is not that. It’s a sequel that changes and elevates the original in ways you’d never expect. You learn more about the world, the characters, the killer, and by the end, it’s almost as if the original was merely a table setting for the horrors of its follow-up.
Once again directed by Scott Derrickson, based on a script by him and C. Robert Cargill, Black Phone 2 picks up four years after the original. In that film, Finney (Mason Thames) was kidnapped by The Grabber (Ethan Hawke), whom he eventually killed with the help of the ghosts of The Grabber’s other victims, and the paranormal abilities of his little sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw). Gwen’s bravery and plucky personality were highlights of that movie, but she was largely relegated to the sidelines. Here, not only do we get more of her, Black Phone 2 is basically her movie, and it’s better off for it.
The original film also killed The Grabber pretty definitively, so when Gwen starts dreaming about an old set of murders, and Finney starts getting phone calls from him, things instantly change. They’re no longer dealing with a real-life person in their neighborhood—it’s now something scarier, and with a history that goes back decades.
Black Phone 2 has a lot to establish at the start, and, for that reason, it takes a while to get going.
