'Black Phone 2' A Review

Black Phone 2 is a horror movie, a sequel to 2021's The Black Phone. Four years after the events of the first film Finney(Mason Thames) is traumatized and violent, fighting kids at school and smoking weed at night to numb out. His sister Gwen(Madeleine McGraw) has also struggled with being an outcast while her promotions and psychic insights have gotten stronger. In a vision she sees her mother as a teen at a camp in the mountains. As a result Finney, Gwen, and their friend Ernesto(Miguel Mora) go to investigate.

Both Thames and McGraw, great in the first film, are even better here and are asked(and excel at) playing even more complicated emotions incorporating the damage and the fallout of the first film into their characters behavior and development in the second. The supporting cast is all great- Mora, Demián Bichir, Jeremy Davies, Arianna Rivas, and of course Ethan Hawke who reprises his role as the Grabber but this time as a malevolent ghost rather than a flesh-and-blood serial killer and the adjustment he makes in the performance, making it more expressionistic, having more fun, is really a treat.

Visually the film is rich and goes even further than the original with extended sequences taking place in an alternate dream reality with a Super 8 style graininess. The soundtrack is incredibly effective, the sound mix really potent, just all the way around great, inspired, risky(in a good way) production design. The only fault is that there's a scene or two at the camp which is clearly green-screened but even then the performances are so good, the tension so expertly ratcheted it doesn't really matter.

A solid piece of emotionally complex horror that thrills as well as inspires. An object lesson in what small and mid-budget flicks can do when there's a solid story and a clear vision.

Currently in theaters.

See It.