Directed By Scott Derrickson

Starring – Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw

The Plot – As Finn (Thames), now 17, struggles with life after his captivity, his sister, Gwen (McGraw) begins receiving calls in her dreams from the black phone and seeing disturbing visions of three boys being stalked at a winter camp known as Alpine Lake.

Rated R for strong violent content, gore, teen drug use, and adult language.

Black Phone 2 | Official Trailer

POSITIVES

After the mainstream success of “The Black Phone”, it was only a matter of time before a sequel was greenlit, and while “Black Phone 2” doesn’t quite live up to the unparalleled heights of its scintillating predecessor, I feel that it does legitimately justify its existence as an extension on the previously established world-building, which here feels far more sentimental and elaborate than simply just the kidnapping captivity film that was that original film. For starters, the script invests much more time in its duo of sibling protagonists, not only in their respective growth into adolescence, which sees them taking on more stoicism and resiliency than their original outlines, but also the commitment to attention paid to the trauma of those characters, which so many horror sequels strangely and sadly overlook in the continuity of what transpired in their first films. Despite Finn and Gwen escaping the terrifying clutches of The Grabber, their psychologies now bare the traumas of what each of those characters experienced, and because of such we see two completely varying responses to that trauma, with Finn exemplifying anger and resentment, while Gwen conjures regret and internalized longing for a figure from her past brought to the forefront of this story, and it gives the script the same kind of underlining sentimentality that provided ample heart and levity to an otherwise somberly ominous engagement, allowing you much more time and investment to the designs of these characters, which legitimately appraise empathy and investment towards once again caring about their well-being. On top of this, the return of Scott Derrickson is vitally integral for the foundation of the franchise, especially in his unique direction eliciting a signature style and ambiance over the execution of the film, that feels like he has an influential hand in every single frame to its presentation. Like Derrickson’s previous film, “Sinister”, the director dabbles in the gloominess of super 8 shot-on-film consistencies that brought so many of its home video horrors to life, before our very eyes, and with them used here to flesh out an equally uncanny artificiality to the established dream world, which The Grabber now haunts, we get fascinatingly faded color schemes and contorted editing practices that only add to the dreading doom that is effortlessly elicited from Derrickson’s direction, giving us a much flashier and experimental sequel that values unsettling imagery, all without compromising the authentic integrity of its early 80’s setting. If this isn’t enough, Derrickson also brings back Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw back to the fold, this time with a far more registering emotional pallet to their personalities, which takes their performances miles towards conveying the tragic factors of lost time casually persisting from within them. For Thames, it involves an angsty rage that drives much of the compelling vengeance of the movie’s conflict, forcing the actor to delve deep into the kind of unbridled intensity that we’ve yet to see from rising star, but the kind that he takes ample opportunity in, while commanding the bravery and resilience that simply weren’t there in his original portrayal. However, this is definitely McGraw’s showcase, as not only does Gwen feel more thoroughly fleshed out this time around as the focus of the movie’s lead protagonist, as a result of her documented gift feeling like the key between the worlds of the living and dead that ground such a fantastical concept, but also in the aggressiveness of her take charge mentality towards some of the film’s most emotionally gratifying moments, proving impeccable dramatic range at the tender age of 16, that feels decades ahead of her limited experience in feature length projects. Ethan Hawke’s return as The Grabber also deserves a lot of notoriety, as despite being held captive behind the creepy mask of his character’s design, Hawke’s stern vocalizing initiates goosebumps to the arms of audiences, on account of the psychology firmly at play with his overpowering demeanor, and while the script does tap into some of the backstory of the character, I’m glad that it left a lot of the mystique firmly in tact, allowing Hawke the freedom to get as darkly depraved as needed for him to take the next step as memorably iconic horror movie antagonists. Lastly, the film and its production are spent articulating a far more graphically violent sequel than its predecessor, taking effective strides towards pushing the envelope of its R-rating producing a far more gruesomely grand secondary chapter to this franchise. Considering the film embraces the possibilities of the dream world, similar to “A Nightmare of Elm Street”, there’s no limitations to how far The Grabber will go to impose his will on his mostly unknowing victims of the real world, and while a majority of these gags certainly pertain to C.G blood deposits splashed sensationally at the screen, they are effective towards entailing the remorseless vendetta of The Grabber’s vengeful disposition, especially one fantastically animated sequence shown in the trailers involving Gwen spun like a rag doll.

NEGATIVES

While there’s plenty to appreciate with the efforts of a mainstream horror sequel that is undoubtedly better and more unique than most contemporaries under that banner, there is still a derivativity to Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill’s script that keep it from sampling the kind of originality to attain a lasting image of its own, particularly alongside ingredients of “A Nightmare of Elm Street” and even “Stranger Things”, which were heavily influenced throughout the engagement. Not that Freddy Krueger has exclusive licensing rights to the dream world, but I found most of the gags and concepts within this world to heavily mimic those seen in even the least exciting of Elm Street installments, and considering this is a film that noticeably tries to distance itself from the familiarities of its predecessor, it’s a shame that it runs to other franchises to satisfy its own creativity, an aspect that it pales especially in, considering the lack of a body count that condemns both the stakes and The Grabber’s impact on this new list of forgettable characters. While the original film also had very few corpses, this supernatural version of The Grabber feels far more lethally dangerous and unrelentingly uncompromising than his human version, without any kind of pursuit on those newfound outsiders, leading to a lack of influence from The Grabber, who sadly doesn’t appear until the film’s midway point, and even then is background fodder for these aforementioned forgettable secondary characters and their long-winded expositional set-ups. This is another issue with the film, particularly in its opening act, which takes far too much of the 108-minute runtime to flesh out not only a series of obvious set-ups, but also a variety of fresh faces to the proceedings, whom sadly take time away from the redemption arc of Jeremy Davies’ alcoholic father of the siblings, all in surmising a finished product without any semblance of urgency in the established conflict. If the dialogue wasn’t written as tediously long-winded and obviously-intentioned, then the first half of the film wouldn’t transition as arduously unengaging as it does, and considering the entirety of the film mostly whiffs, with regards to palpable thrills or even effective frights, on account of the sacrifice of vulnerability paid in the aging of kids to teenage protagonists, to pay off audience investment, it grounds the film’s pacing in the kind of sludgy consistency that only eases once The Grabber finally appears on-screen, resulting in a film that is ten minutes longer than its predecessor, and for all intents and purposes easily feels three times that.

OVERALL
“Black Phone 2” dials up another doom and gloom horror haunter from Scott Derrickson, whom despite not reaching the game-changing thrills or conceptual originality of his notorious predecessor, does tap into the kind of extensive lore and world-building that can prolong the lifespan of a franchise in the making. Despite its glaring flaws of derivativeness and furloughed frights, the film is aided tremendously by an ominously intoxicating atmosphere, needle-moving performances, and an underlining commitment to emotionality in reveling in the suppressed scars of its character traumas, solidifying a solid slasher of a sequel that goes long-distance with its ambition and versatility firmly in palm

My Grade: 6.6 or C