Here's The One Word The Grabber Absolutely Could Not Say In Black Phone 2 [Exclusive]

"The Black Phone" was a huge success when it came out in 2022. Not only did the Scott Derrickson-directed horror-thriller receive a positive critical reception, it also pulled in $161.4 million at the global box office against a $16-$18 million budget, making it a huge win for Blumhouse. So, developing a sequel seemed like a no-brainer from a financial perspective. Although, going off of the pretty conclusive ending of the first movie, it was baffling as to what "Black Phone 2" could even be. Recall that the movie concluded with Finney Blake (Mason Thames) outsmarting the Grabber (Ethan Hawke) by luring him into a self-made trap and breaking his neck with a telephone cord. Where do you even go from there? For Derrickson and his screenwriting partner C. Robert Cargill, it turns out the path forward was to resurrect the grounded serial killer as a Freddy Krueger-type bent on getting revenge towards Finney and his psychic sister Gwen (Madeline McGraw).

Those are pretty big shoes for Hawke to fill, considering the last official "Nightmare on Elm Street" movie came out over 15 years ago, and it's been 22 years since one that people actually liked ("Freddy Vs. Jason"). However, the Grabber can't just be winter Freddy. In an exclusive podcast interview with /Film's Jacob Hall, Cargill talked about how he wanted the "Black Phone" killer to avoid an expletive in the sequel that would immediately leave the door wide open for direct parallels:

"We're like, 'Okay, so here are the things we can play around with. Here are the sacred cows we cannot do.' There are certain things you avoid. The minute Ethan has the word 'b****' come out of his mouth, we are done. We are cooked. We're just doing Robert Englund. So, we definitely avoided stuff like that."

The way Wes Craven's sweater-wearing menace uses that word before murdering his victims is so singular that any attempt to replicate it would be incredibly distracting. Robert Englund doesn't hold a monopoly on that term, but when you're already skirting so close to the line, it helps to know the restrictions you set for yourself. Even having "Black Phone 2" take place at the Alpine Youth Camp presented its own set of challenges when it came to not ripping off another beloved horror franchise. To quote Cargill:

"We were looking for a camp that had a very particular look. So, of course, that was going to look from the same era as the 'Friday the 13th' series, as Crystal Lake. So, we just made sure we didn't take any gags that we knew from those movies, and we went in a different direction with them. We wanted to pay homage because we are making an '80s-style horror movie."

Cargill had great intentions on making those tweaks, but, unfortunately, "Black Phone 2" can't help but succumb to its assortment of horror pastiches. /Film's Rafael Motamayor compared "Black Phone 2" positively to "Dream Warriors" in his review, but while the Grabber isn't Freddy, he can't help but come across as a distracting attempt to emulate his cinematic presence. "Black Phone 2" is also so meandering and consequence free that the consistent nods to better movies stick out. There's even a sequence that pulls from "Jason Lives" in a manner that made me roll my eyes. I just don't see the Grabber, nor his mask, becoming horror iconographies that people will remember fondly, although I'd be glad to be proven wrong.

"Black Phone 2" is now playing in theaters.