“Black Phone 2” takes a gripping twist on its predecessor’s plot, offering “Black Phone” fans some chilling answers to their most haunting questions. The film is sure to have horror fans glued to the screen, and stars Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw and Miguel Mora.
Just a few years after a serial killer named The Grabber’s initial reign of terror, Gwen and her brother Finney are forced to relive their worst nightmares when they realize the killer’s hold on them has yet to be released, despite him being dead.
In the first film, Finney narrowly escaped being murdered by The Grabber thanks to Gwen’s psychic abilities.
Now, Gwen is having terrorizing nightmares and visions, and she realizes that her abilities are reawakening for a sinister reason.
Gwen is called in her dreams to return to a church camp their mother attended as a youth counselor. Gwen, Finney and Ernesto, the younger brother of one of The Grabber’s victims, all make their way to the camp during an impassable blizzard.
While asleep, Gwen sees The Grabber’s first victims asking for help with properly laying their souls to rest and providing her with clues.
Though Gwen’s nightmares are useful to her trio’s cause, they also provide an outlet for The Grabber to come in contact with her, and these interactions have real-life consequences.
Finney has tried making peace with his past, but all progress is upended when the ringing from out-of-service phones resumes. On the other end of the line is a voice he never thought he would hear again.
The Grabber is seeking his revenge.
In the first film, The Grabber had to kill his own brother for discovering Finney locked in their basement. Now, he wants to take the one person whom Finney truly loves – Gwen.
With the help of the camp director, Armando, Gwen and Finney discover the truth about their deceased mother, The Grabber’s past and what they need to do in order to save not only their lives, but the lives of everyone they love.
“Black Phone 2” plays beautifully on the fear of nightmares coming to life. During the scenes where Gwen is asleep, the film and audio become grainy, as if the movie were being recorded on an old film camera. These scenes create uneasy suspense, and had me covering my face in fear of not knowing what would come next.
Similar to the first film, there’s a lot of gore. I think this adds an extra layer of horror to the film, because the movie doesn’t just deal with evil spirits, but also sinister elements that could very well happen in real life. Most of the gory shots had the old film camera effect, which I think makes these kinds of scenes much more creepy. Though the jumpscares were slightly more predictable in this film than in the first one, I don’t think they were overdone, and they still made me jump quite a few times.
I enjoyed this movie more than the first one because the plot was much more descriptive and there were more twists. It was nice to finally get answers to questions that the first movie didn’t explain. However, I think the two films pair nicely, and I understand the first film needed to be a little less descriptive in order to set this movie up for the amazing plot that it has.
After being disappointed by other horror films that have come out this year, I was pleasantly surprised by what this movie had to offer. The second movie does a great job at creating a new storyline while still having its ties to the first movie’s plot. I love going into a horror movie and actually feeling terrified, which is exactly what this film was able to accomplish.
If you’re someone who loves horror as much as I do, “Black Phone 2” is a call to the theaters you’ll want to answer.
