The Grabber basically goes Freddy Kruger in this worthy sequel.
If you recall “The Black Phone,” Mason Thames played a kid named Finney, who was abducted by Ethan Hawke’s serial killer “The Grabber,” while his younger sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) had visions of his younger victims. Or are they really visions? That’s when we get to the sequel “The Black Phone 2,” which wants to go all “Nightmare on Elm Street” on us by having the Grabber attack Gwen in her dreams. Or are they really dreams?
As I continued to watch this sequel, which is now set in 1982, I remember mentioning in my review of “Nobody 2” about how some studies show that the stress gets transitioned from the father to the child. In this movie, Finney and Gwen’s recovering alcoholic father Terrence (Jeremy Davies) is about to be three years sober, but the son has taken after his anger and numbing. That means he beats up a freshman who doubts he killed the Grabber, and that means he can smoke pot all he wants.
Gwen has dreams of making contact with her dead mother and the Grabber’s other young victims, and believes that going to her mother’s (Anna Lore) old youth Christian camp (Alpine Lake camp) will help solve the mystery.
The camp is run by the kindly supervisor Armando (Demian Bichir), and his staff includes his niece Mustang (Arianna Rivas), and judgmental counselors: Kenneth (Graham Abbey) and Barbara (Maev Betty). The last film allowed the kids to curse, which was one of the highlights of it, and so, it would make sense that these Christian characters would be appalled at their vulgarity.
I almost forgot to mention that Finney and Gwen are driven by her love interest Ernesto (Miguel Mora), who is the brother of one of the Grabber’s victims (interestingly enough to be played by Mora the last time). Anything is better than the formula of the boyfriend being a jerk or sadistic pig. Ernesto is a match made for her.
I think “The Black Phone 2” gives the audience another horror movie lesson: if the phone booth is out of order (and these things are very rare these days thanks to cell phones), then something otherworldly is going on. And that something otherworldly is the Grabber’s spirit vowing revenge on Finney and Gwen.
This sequel isn’t as challenging as the first movie, but it still offers some good scares and the characters are able to grow and develop through whatever horrors the Grabber (in reality or spirit) have placed them in. And both movies were directed by Scott Derrickson and co-written by him and C. Robert Cargill. It’s funny, because a decade ago, they both wrote “Sinister 2,” which was totally inferior its predecessor in every sense of the word. Either they both learned from their previous mistake or they allow the dark humor and vintage cameras to help bring the sequel on the right track.
When Gwen has her dreams, they’re filled with a vintage quality. And in the real world, the screen is crisp and clean. This is easy to tell what is going on without them overlapping one another. And the Universal Pictures logo is like the one from the 70s-80s.
It might take the easy way out, but maybe it doesn’t have to sound like a way to cater to movie goers who want happy endings (I’m not sure how audiences are taking the theatrical release of “A House of Dynamite”). It can provide character development for the young characters who need to literally and metaphorically face their demons. And it works with honesty by Thames and McGraw.
I came across a movie-goer who went to see “The Strangers: Chapter 2” and shouted: “End it already!!!” I was one of the fortunate ones to skip it, and I think he should have waited to see “The Black Phone 2.” Excuse me, I have to make a phone call.
