Black Phone 2 Review: This Sequel Is Dream Warriors Good [Fantastic Fest]
Scott Derrickson's 2021 horror film "The Black Phone" was a huge surprise: an adaptation of a 2004 short story of the same name by Joe Hill that hit big with general audiences, and for good reason. The movie was scary and fun, with a huge heart, big laughs, an incredible villain mask. It featured standout performances from Ethan Hawke as the terrifying Grabber, Mason Thames as his latest kidnapping victim, Finney Blake, and Madeleine McGraw as Finney's sister, Gwen. It was a movie with a clear and definitive ending, content to leave its mark and end it with an exclamation point rather than an ellipsis.
A sequel made sense, of course, from a commercial standpoint. Not only was "The Black Phone" a box office hit, but Ethan Hawke's The Grabber had such presence and strong iconography that he felt like the next big horror baddie, destined to be overdone in many sequels. Well, it's been four years, but we finally got a follow-up — one with a story good enough to convince everyone involved to return for more.
"Black Phone 2" is a fantastic sequel. It's a movie that isn't content to do the same, just bigger, but actually explores new avenues and adds to the experience of the first film in surprising ways that make the overarching story as a whole better. This has been a great year for horror, and we should add "Black Phone 2" to that conversation.
This is what dreams are made of
From the get-go, "Black Phone 2" signals to the audience that it won't be a simple repeat of the plot of the first movie. Director Scott Derrickson and screenwriter C. Robert Cargill deliver a film that's so different that it stands out on its own, while also serving as an improvement on its predecessor in almost every way.
It starts with a shift in protagonist to McGraw's Gwen, the funniest character in the first film. After the whole traumatic ordeal with the Grabber, her brother has gone quieter and more reserved, choosing to bury his trauma and feelings deep down and numb himself with weed to ignore what happened to him. Meanwhile, Gwen's visions have only gotten worse in the years since the first film. She considers her ability a curse, and it's turned her into a social pariah at school. Still, she can't fully ignore what seems to be calls for help from dead kids that appear to her in visions — visions of a snowed-in Christian camp that her own mother attended when she was young.
Determined to get to the source of her visions, and find the connection between them and her mother, Gwen decides to go to Camp Alpine Lake to investigate. Finney goes with Gwen to protect her, as her visions also cause her to sleepwalk. Accompanying them is Ernesto (Miguel Mora), the brother of Robin, one of the Grabber's victims before he took Finney.
The focus on dreams will obviously draw a lot of comparisons with the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series, and with good reason. There are clear similarities and nods to that franchise, particularly the phenomenal "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors": nightmares bleed into the real world, dreamers have some power over their own dreams, and there's a shift that takes the fight to the villain. Plus, Ethan Hawke channels Robert Englund by essentially turning the Grabber into Freddy Krueger — complete with facial scarring and abilities that let him affect both the real and the dream world.
A new nightmare
Whenever we get a dream sequence in "Black Phone 2" it's presented through noticeably grainy footage, almost as if shot on Super 8 film, which is reminiscent of Derrickson and Cargill's 2012 film "Sinister" (also starring Hawke). The visuals give the dream sequences a retro, tactile aesthetic that feels just slightly off. The sound design muffles the dialogue to make it clear this is a vivid dream — one that feels real, with very real consequences once The Grabber returns and goes on the attack — but still very much a dream.
Not content with just homaging one franchise, "Black Phone 2" also pays tribute to other '80s slasher icons. There's a very clear nod to "Friday the 13th" with the camp setting and the axe-wielding murderer hunting down teens. This is a gnarlier, at times meaner movie than the first, with horrific imagery of brutally murdered children, including one with his head sliced in half that's gorier than the first film.
The most impressive feat "Black Phone 2" pulls off is finding a way to bring The Grabber back that feels coherent and actually adds to the character. We get some backstory on the child-abductor that comes across as deepening the character rather than just answering questions that no one asked.
Much like the first film, there is a big sense of humor in "Black Phone 2," particularly when it comes to Gwen's snarky remarks to authority figures (the Christian youth camp makes for some hilariously poignant confrontations between Gwen and some very un-Christian-like Christians). But it's Miguel Mora's Ernesto that gets some of the biggest laughs, and serves as a fantastic addition to the cast. Likewise, by expanding the scope to be about several missing dead children and even Gwen and Finney's mom, the film gets quite emotional at time, with tear-jerking moments of tenderness in between the darkness and horror.
Does "Black Phone 2" signal the start of a bigger franchise? No. Does it end in a way that opens up to more? Not really. Does it make me want to see about 5 more of these, so we can get to "The Black Phone: New Phone" and The Grabber going after Ethan Hawke playing himself? Absolutely.
/Film rating: 9 out of 10.
"Black Phone 2" will be calling in theaters from October 17, 2025.