Courtesy of Universal/Blumhouse
All sequels are unnecessary if you really think about it. But a good one can deepen its characters, expand the universe, and—on rare occasions—surpass the original. Unfortunately, “The Black Phone 2” is not one of those. It’s arguably the most unnecessary sequel of the year, a hollow follow-up that takes what made the first film slick and unnerving and replaces it with a clunky supernatural twist straight out of “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” minus the fun.
“The Black Phone,” a surprise hit during the summer of 2021 as theaters were clawing their way back from Covid, thrived on simplicity. Based on the short story by Joe Hill (Stephen King’s son), it told the story of a sadistic child killer known as The Grabber, played with eerie unpredictability by Ethan Hawke. Set in the mid-1970s, it captured a nostalgic small-town dread reminiscent of “Halloween’s” Haddonfield. It was lean, tense, and chilling, a masterclass in Blumhouse efficiency that cost little and delivered big.
Now, “The Black Phone 2” feels like Blumhouse scraping the bottom of its IP barrel, joining the likes of “M3GAN 2.0” in the studio’s desperate hunt for another franchise. Director Scott Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill seems to have missed the most obvious lesson of all: not every short story is meant to spawn a cinematic universe.
The original ended cleanly, Finn (Mason Thames who, between the forthcoming “Regretting You,” last summer’s “How To Train Your Dragon,” has been everywhere lately) killed The Grabber with help from the ghosts of his past victims, bringing the story full circle. So when news broke that “The Black Phone 2” was happening, the collective response was: How? You can practically hear producer Jason Blum demanding, “Figure it out.”
Their solution? Turn The Grabber into a supernatural entity who can hop between dreams and reality through the titular black phone. It’s a gimmick that gives the film a VHS-era horror vibe but completely undercuts what made the first movie work. At one point, The Grabber mutters, “Dead is just a word,” but the line might as well describe the creative lifeblood of this “franchise.”
This time, we’re in Denver circa 1984, where Finn and his foul-mouthed sister Gwen (Madeline McGraw, once again stealing every scene she’s in) find themselves snowed in at a remote Christian youth camp. Naturally, The Grabber somehow resurfaces there. (Yes, it’s as contrived as it sounds.) The movie’s attempt to echo slasher staples like “Friday the 13th” is almost endearing if it weren’t so painfully obvious.
The setup requires so much narrative gymnastics to justify how these characters even get to this camp that by the time the movie settles in, logic has already left the building. The snowy setting adds some atmosphere, but that’s about all it brings. The rest is an overstuffed mess of filler, needless backstory, new characters who vanish as quickly as they appear (a camp counselor named Mustang gets introduced, teased as a potential love interest, and then just evaporates), and a spiritual subplot that barely makes sense.
The second half becomes a slog, bogged down by exposition dumps and pseudo-mystical mumbo jumbo about the “source” of The Grabber’s power. Every few minutes, someone explains what’s happening out loud, apparently just to make sure we’re not as lost as the filmmakers.
Ethan Hawke’s involvement feels minimal. His face is never shown, and his presence feels phoned-in, literally. You could tell me he recorded his lines from his living room between Zoom calls, and I’d believe it.
To its credit, the film’s 8mm dream sequences and frosty tone give it a certain aesthetic chill, but style alone can’t disguise the emptiness beneath. “The Black Phone 2” takes a once-tight, character-driven thriller and bloats it into a half-baked supernatural retread. It’s a sequel that has to twist itself into knots to justify its own existence, and still can’t.
Do yourself a favor: let this call keep ringing.
THE BLACK PHONE 2 is now playing in theaters.