Movie Review: ‘Black Phone 2’

Tweet
When the first Black Phone movie was released, I did not really get the hype for it. I watched the first movie at some point after it was released on streaming and thought it was okay with an interesting premise, above average acting, and enjoyable cinematography, but not too thrilling or memorable. I didn’t even realize Mason Thames was in the first movie when I saw him in the How to Train Your Dragon remake (which I enjoyed). So, had I not been given the opportunity to review Black Phone 2, I probably would have waited for streaming again while mistakenly thinking that this would be a sub-par sequel attempt.

Key word being “mistakenly”.

I very much enjoyed Black Phone 2 for its mix of horror and drama that explores the aftereffects of the trauma experienced in the first film and that still carries over from the mother’s death. I love that Ethan Hawk’s character, “The Grabber”, is now a supernatural villain akin to Freddy Krueger and I enjoyed that the other characters were genuine and had time to develop. There are a couple cheap jump scares that admittedly worked on me even when I expected them, but there is also a lot of creepiness through atmosphere and beautiful cinematography.

The film opens, after a brief flashback, about four years after the events of the last film. Finney (Mason Thames) has grown a bit and developed some coping mechanisms that include beating up new kids at school and smoking marijuana. He still gets supernatural phone calls but simply answers by telling the caller he can’t help. Meanwhile, his sister Gwen (Madeline McGraw) is having disturbing dreams, tends to sleepwalk while traversing a dream/ghost dimension, and also receives ghost phone calls. Much like Freddy and the Dream World in Nightmare on Elm Street, the Grabber uses the alternate plain of existence to cause chaos in the real world for Gwen, Finney, and a small group of people stranded at a snowed-in mountain camp.

While Finney is still a major character, this film centers more on Gwen, her dreams, and her search for answers about her mother. There are some revelations that add to, and change what was known in, the first film’s story. In addition to the horror elements, the characters must deal with their past trauma, and I think the film handles that aspect well (though I am not an expert on mental health). You could be scared for one minute and teary eyed the next.

There is a grainy visual to indicate when Gwen is in a dream which I found to be interesting and effectively disturbing. Because she sleepwalks, the transitions between the two realms are often seamless. There are also a lot of fantastic scenes that use no apparent edits while ghosts appear and disappear. In general, this movie is visually appealing.