Review: Black Phone 2
Ethan Hawke returns in Scott Derrickson's horror sequel, along with Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw, to fight The Grabber in the Universal chiller.
Set in 1982, four years after the events of The Black Phone (2021), the film tells a similar story with the same characters, but in a new location: a snowy Christian holiday camp in rural Colorado.
The narrative stays tightly focused on the elements that worked so well in the first film; the unsettling menace of a child killer and a beyond-the-grave plotline augmented with gooey special effects.
Despite the expanded setting, the film remains a superficial exercise in creepy fun, but retreading familiar ground proves to be an exercise in diminishing returns.
Black Phone 2, which premiered at Fantastic Fest, will be released globally from October 15.
Author's summary: Horror sequel with familiar plot.