“Black Phone 2” Review: Ghosts Still Got Your Number

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4) — Continuing from the first film that centered around Finn, a boy who is abducted by a killer known as “The Grabber” (Ethan Hawke) and placed in a room with a landline rotary phone. This phone, somehow, is able to give The Grabbers’ victims a way to communicate through it to Finn, leading to his eventual escape. Now 17 years old, we see Finn still processing the events of his abduction, while his sister Gwen is having dreams and visions of three children who want her to find them in the sleepy, cold, and snowy camp known as “Alpine Lake”.

Scott Derrickson has primarily centered his career on horror films and has an impressive list of hits to reference. From “Sinister” (also an Ethan Hawke-led film), “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”, to big-budget movies with horror influences like Marvel’s “Dr. Strange”. In Black Phone 2, Derrickson releases his inner Freddy Krueger and delivers a moody, twisted, and a perfect Halloween movie for this season.

The film has such a fun ’70s style to it, jumping from the real world to the dream world by changing the visual style from crisp HD to a Super 8MM Camera that’s full of grain and mystery every time it takes over. Is it reminiscent of Derrickson’s “Sinister”? Yes, but it works perfectly for this film.

All performances from our leads, Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw, are great. There are a lot of monologue-driven scenes, specifically from Madeleine’s character, that she executes very well, especially for the story centering around her this time, as opposed to Finn. Mason Thames clearly has sprouted into a leading man with the live-action “How to Train Your Dragon,” and in this gives a powerful performance as a kid dealing with intense trauma while still trying his best to protect those he loves.

There are some creative and fun moments with The Grabber, and ultimately this is what I was wanting from this film. A fun, creepy story where we elevate this murderer to a supernatural level that is both scary and full of personality, and this team absolutely did it. It does go on a little too long, I’ve got some nitpicks with how they used the score or didn’t use it, and when the writing wants to tell a good foul-mouthed insult, it can lose its 1970s, 1980s vibe due to the writing feeling too modern.

But overall, “Black Phone 2” shouldn’t work… but boy did it for me. Twisted, tense, and just the right amount of Freddy Krueger. They brought back that ’70s nightmare and hit *69, and it is a perfect movie for this Halloween season to check out.

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