Don Reviews "Black Phone 2"

Horror films have had so many iconic characters through the years.  From Jason Voorhees to Michael Meyers to Freddy Krueger, these killers have haunted their victims in both the conscious and unconscious world, but in the case of Black Phone 2, this may happen on an even crazier level.

Directed by Scott Derrickson (who also directed the first one), this cast includes Mason Thames, Ethan Hawke, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, Arianna Rivas, Miguel Mora, and Demian Bichir.  Taking place a couple years after the original film, Finn (Thames) and Gwen (McGraw) are trying to cope with what they have been through with The Grabber (Hawke) when Finn starts receiving weird calls and Gwen starts getting very realistic dreams.  They are both drawn to a winter camp at Alpine when they realize The Grabber may be physically gone, but his spirit is far from that.

This film has a lot going for it from the start: the same director and writers from the original as well as the returning lead characters.  There are also three new characters played by Rivas, Bichir, and Mora who all contribute well.  Hawke still does incredible as The Grabber, but I really liked Bichir and what he brought to the story.

The script itself is where I am conflicted: there are a lot of scenes that I did not understand the point of, but as the end credits rolled it all came together.  Patience is the key here because things DO get confusing at the start, but the way that was done in the first film helped the payoff better.  Also, since The Grabber is physically gone, he has basically a Freddy Krueger knock-off.  If they try to do a third one, I don’t think the character will carry over to make it work again.

The runtime clocks in at just under two hours but does not drag even though few scenes could have been cut.  Given that the first film was one of my Ten Best when it released in 2021, I was looking forward to this film.  Unfortunately, this film won’t: I liked Black Phone 2, but did not love it because it misses some of the magic of the original.  Given that, I will still recommend this film as a matinee screening in the theaters.