At the end of The Black Phone, Finney Blake (Mason Thames) kills The Grabber (Ethan Hawke)-a serial child abductor/killer who had been terrorizing his Denver suburb for years-after concocting an escape plan with The Grabber's past victims who communicated with him from beyond the grave via a phone in the basement he was locked in. Finney proceeds to reunite with his younger sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw)-who has psychic visions in her dreams, and his father Terrence (Jeremy Davies) and the family uses the blessing of their reunion as a reason to turn over a new leaf and work on the issues that have torn them apart since the death of their mother years earlier. The Black Phone end up being a box office hit in the summer of 2022, and nothing revives a great horror villain faster than the opportunity to return for a sequel. That sequel has arrived in the form of Black Phone 2 and fortunately, the returning creative duo of Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill didn't just bring The Grabber back to make a few more bucks for Universal/Blumhouse.
Using the established supernatural backbone of the original, The Grabber makes his return as a ghost-like entity who begins stalking Gwen in her dreams with the intention of killing her. The Grabber's master plan brings Gwen, Finney and Gwen's friend Ernesto (Miguel Mora)-who's the younger brother of Finney's friend Robin who was killed in the first film- to a Christian Youth Camp called Alpine Lake that's run by a man named Armando (Demian Bichir) and his niece Mustang (Arianna Rivas). Alpine Lake holds more than the key to figuring out why The Grabber is hanging around in Gwen's dreams waiting to kill her, it also provides Gwen and Finney with a link to their deceased mother (Anna Lore)-who was a counselor at Alpine Lake as a teenager- that they didn't know about previously. Trapped on the snow-covered grounds of the camp squaring off against a threat that nobody who's awake can see, this ragtag group has to work together to try and stop The Grabber's reign of terror before they end up as his next victims.
While it would be disingenuous for me to say that the whole reviving The Grabber thing isn't a contrivance to justify the existence of a sequel-especially since it simultaneously provides an opportunity to further develop Finney and Gwen's late mother, it didn't bother me in the slightest since Black Phone 2 is such an effective continuation of the story that the original told. Seeing where Finney, Gwen and Terrence are 4 years after their experience with The Grabber provides a look at a family that's struggling to heal from their collective wounds despite their best efforts further builds empathy for these characters who were already in a tough place when they were introduced in the original while The Grabber using Gwen's visions as a way to seek vengeance on the people responsible for his death is a cool way to reinvent him as a different breed of killer without stepping outside of the universe's boundaries. Everything about this setup makes sense for the character's journeys and honestly, what more could you ask for from a sequel?
Solid character work and the performances that come with them (Thames again stands out with his grounded take on a young man struggling to contain his rage and pain in the wake of going through an unspeakably horrific experience while Bichir makes for a great addition to the cast with his gentle, caring performance) give Black Phone 2 a sincere emotional core that's worth investing in. However, this is a horror movie after all and the real fun of it comes with the delivery of its spooky elements. After Sinister and The Black Phone, Derrickson and Cargill have an established track of record doing good work together in this genre. Black Phone 2 shows once again that they can be counted on to make quality horror pictures.
The harsh winter aesthetic that the bulk of the film uses is an inherently awesome one to root a horror movie in, but the real genius of it is how they use the snow-covered camp as an evil playground for The Grabber's spirit to loom large over. Establishing proof that The Grabber is present at the camp early on along with the killer synth score from Derrickson's son Atticus gives things that are as routine as looking out the window at the frozen lake or going to the mess hall to get something to eat an unshakably sinister feeling. Even the way the cabins are lit with these wall-mounted coils give off the impression that an evil presence is watching over everyone as they sleep (or at least try to!). Establishing an atmosphere that's genuinely evil/unsettling is a key tenet of good horror that's pretty difficult to pull off and Derrickson is one of the best around at making it looking effortless.
Shifting more of the story to focus on Gwen and her visions further bolstered the strengths of the atmosphere since they got to utilize more of the Super 8 photography which factored into several of the eeriest moments from the first one. The super grainy look of 8mm film has a unique power to it that makes every tree branch, snowflake or shadowy figure that may or may not be a lurking serial killer it captures feel like were ripped straight out of a nightmare. For a movie that's built around the horrors of dreams being actually real, that's a cheat code that puts the viewer as close as they can possibly can to being in Gwen's shoes while The Grabber aims to kill her. On top of how much it elevates the presence of evil in film, it provides it with a beautiful, distinct look as 8mm is hardly ever used these days (the vast majority of modern movies shot on film use 35mm). It may not stand a chance of being recognized with any cinematography honors this awards season, but I certainly won't forget the brilliant work Par M. Ekberg and this camera/lighting team did to create this striking look that was so crucial to making Black Phone 2 work.
Black Phone 2 is a much-needed victory for Blumhouse after enduring a pretty lengthy stretch where the money wasn't coming in and the majority of the films they were putting out weren't living up to the quality standard they set when they took the horror genre by storm in the 2010's. Given the rules of this universe and how it's performing financially, Black Phone 3 feels inevitable and while I'm not sure how they'll make it happen, I trust Derrickson and Cargill's ability to find a hook that makes the endeavor a worthwhile one.
Grade: B+
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