BLACK PHONE 2 : Tuesday 2nd December 2025

I finally got around to seeing the MA15+ Rated 'BLACK PHONE 2' this week, and this American supernatural horror film is Co-Written for the screen, Co-Produced and Directed by Scott Derrickson and is a sequel to the 2021 film that took US$162M at the global Box Office off the back of a US$17M production budget, and was also Directed by Scott Derrickson. The film Premiered at Fantastic Fest on 20th September, was released in the US and here in Australia on 17th October, has garnered generally favourable critical reviews, and has so far grossed US$132M off the back of a US$30M production budget. 

The film opens in Alpine Lake Camp, Colorado in the winter of 1957 when extreme blizzard conditions cut off the camp. A teenage girl named Hope Blake is seen at a payphone anxiously talking to a girl on the other end, but the call ends abruptly with too much static on the line. She exits the phone booth and walks back to her cabin. We then fast forward to 1982, four years after Finney Blake (Mason Thames) was kidnapped by the Grabber (Ethan Hawke) in the basement of the house across the street from where he lived, and whom he successfully killed. His fifteen year old sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) begins having dreams where she sees murders that happened at Alpine Lake Camp in 1957. During one such dream, she receives a call from her mother Hope (Anna Lore), who at the time of the 1957 murders was having similar dreams. 

Gwen convinces Finney and her good friend Ernesto (Miguel Mora), the brother of the late Robin Arellano who fell victim to the Grabber's earlier killing spree, to travel to Alpine Lake Camp. A heavy blizzard traps them there with the camp supervisor Armando (Damian Bichir), his niece Mustang (Arianna Rivas), and two camp employees, Kenneth (Graham Abbey) and Barbara (Maev Beaty). Because of the acute snowstorm all the other employees have left, and all other groups cancelled their bookings. The three kids begin investigating what Gwen's dreams might mean.

On the second night, Finney answers a call on the camp's dead payphone, this time from the Grabber. Speaking from death, the Grabber vows revenge on his sister then on him, blaming Finney for forcing him to kill his own brother and for ending his life. Within minutes, Gwen is violently attacked in her dream while sleepwalking into the camp kitchen, by the Grabber. 

Armando, Mustang, Kenneth and Barbara all rush to her aid while hearing the commotion unfolding in the kitchen, to witness an unseen force tossing Gwen around the place like a rag doll. Finney, Ernesto, and Mustang manage to save her from being hurled into an incinerator, as the image of the Grabber slinks back into the darkness.

The shaken group gathers in the camp's chapel. Finney says that he spoke to the Grabber on the camps payphone to which Armando responds that the phone booth hasn't worked for at least the last decade. Barbara says that Gwen is possessed by the Devil, which Gwen immediately refutes. Gwen deduces that they must find the long lost bodies of the Grabber's first three victims from Alpine Lake Camp in order to loosen his power over the dream state. The group deduces that the bodies of young lads Felix (Simon Webster), Cal (Shepherd Munroe) and Spike (Chase B. Robertson), must be beneath the frozen over nearby Lake Maru.

As they investigate further, they discover that Armando, Hope, and the Grabber (back then known as Wild Bill Hicock, because he hung his tool belt low and loose around his waist like the famous Cowboy) had all known each other at the camp long ago. That night, Gwen dreams of the Grabber. He reveals to her that her mother Hope did not commit suicide and he actually killed her, staging it to look like a self-inflicted hanging in the garage of their family home, only to be discovered by her distraught father Terrence (Jeremy Davies) who has always blamed himself for her death. He then attempts to kill Gwen, with a slash to the lower arm sustained in the dream manifesting in reality. She manages to gain power in her dream and fight back against the Grabber, before being woken up by Finney and Ernesto. 

Meanwhile, Armando is searching for the boys' bodies. Later that night while Armando is alone in his office he hears the Grabbers voice speaking to him over the camp's two way radio. The lights then go out, and using a flashlight he sees the Grabbers face imprinted in snow on his office window. The next day, Terrence arrives, having borrowed a snowplough from his place of work to get there, with the thought that the four of them would head straight home. Gwen confronts both Terrence and Finney on their abuse of alcohol and drugs to avoid thinking about their traumatic pasts. Gwen says she is staying to defeat the Grabber and put the murdered boys to rest, and Finney and Terrence reluctantly agree to stay also having been told some painful home truths. 

Later, joined by Kenneth and Barbara, the group returns to the frozen lake to again search for and recover the three missing boys. Gwen prays to Jesus to keep her alive and succeed in her mission to find the boys. As night falls on the lake, an exhausted Gwen falls asleep again and is attacked by the Grabber, and who approaches on ice skates wielding his axe. The Grabber also attempts to murder Finney, Terrence, and the others present. During the ongoing struggle, Gwen locates the boys' skeletal remains in barrels beneath the ice which she pushes to the surface, so removing the Grabber's power. Finney, Gwen, and the spirits of the murdered boys attack the Grabber causing him to fall on the ice twice, and losing hold of his axe which slides to Gwen's feet. Gwen then implants his axe in his forehead, and then Finney smashes the Grabbers face hard against the ice numerous times. Gwen then uses the axe again to chop off his lower leg which is being held by the decomposed remains of one of the boys, as he is dragged into the frozen lake by Finney, and dragged down into the depths by the spirits of the three boys. The next day, as Gwen, Finney and Ernesto prepare to leave with Terrence, Gwen answers a call on the payphone, in which Hope tells Gwen that she is proud of her and her brother, that she is in a beautiful place and the three boys are by her side. 

With 'Black Phone 2' Director and Co-Writer Scott Derrickson has crafted a more than reasonable follow up to its 2021 predecessor. The frozen mountains, forests and lakes of Colorado in mid-winter is an effective backdrop to the film that makes for an engaging story with a few jump scares and well paced action sequences that take the Grabber from his suburban setting back to his very roots where his appetite for murdering young kids all began. The relationship between the teenagers is well carried through and we see more of the story arc between Gwen, Finney, their father and to a lesser extent their late mother that helps fill the gaps left after the first film. As for the Grabber, now that he has descended into the depths of Hell and returned to wreak revenge on the person who put him there, Ethan Hawke puts in a commanding performance, aided by some scene stealing set pieces. You could easily be forgiven for thinking that this is a blatant rip off of the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' franchise which sees Freddy Krueger manifest himself through your dreams, but given that over forty years has passed since that first entry into that series, I think that the team of Writers, Producers and Director can rest easy that they have made something fresh and that stands on its own two skates.

'Black Phone 2' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

A WORKING MAN : Tuesday 1st April 2025

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'A WORKING MAN' this week, and this American action thriller is Co-Written for the screen and Co-Produced by Sylvester Stallone and David Ayer and Directed by David Ayer, whose prior film making credits take in his Directorial debut in 2005 with 'Harsh Times', and which he would follow up with other titles including 'Street Kings' in 2008, 'End of Watch' in 2012, 'Fury' in 2014, 'Suicide Squad' in 2016, 'Bright' in 2017 and 'The Beekeeper' in 2024. This film is based on Chuck Dixon's 2014 novel 'Levon's Trade'. The film was released in the US last week too, has so far grossed US$36M from a production budget of US$40M and has garnered mixed or average reviews. 

Here, we are introduced to Levon Cade (Jason Statham, who also Co-Produces here), an ex-Royal Marines Commando who leads a peaceful life as a leader of a construction company in Chicago. 

He is close to the owners of the company - the Garcia family run by husband and wife team Joe (Michael Pena) and Carla (Noemi Gonzalez) respectively, together with their nineteen year old daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas) who works in an unofficial capacity completing lesser tasks while still studying. On the day of her nineteenth birthday Jenny is kidnapped from a club she was attending that night with three other girlfriends, by Russian traffickers, bundled into the back of a van and whisked away. 

The next day Levon comes into work as normal only to be greeted by a distraught Joe and Carla saying that their daughter is missing, and pleading for Levon to find her and bring her back to them. Levon declines saying that he is no longer that man, and cannot help them. 

Later, Levon visits a former colleague whom he served with and whose life he saved although he couldn't save his eyes which now leaves Gunny Lefferty (David Harbour) blind. Gunny lives in a remote cabin in the woods, and Levon tells him the story of how Jenny is missing. Gunny tells Levon what he already knew - that he would go after those who abducted Jenny and bring her back home - he just wanted to hear it from someone else. Levon later goes to the Garcia household and tells Joe that he'll bring Jenny back to them. 

Levon learns early on that the organisation who has taken Jenny is run by the Bratva (Russian mafia), led by Symon Kharchenko (Andrej Kaminsky). After Levon interrogates and kills high-ranking captain Wolo Kolisnyk (Jason Flemyng) by drowning him whilst tied to a chair in his own pool. Symon sends his sons Danya (Greg Kolpakchi) and Vanko (Piotr Witkowski) after Levon. Levon infiltrates the organisation by pretending to be a dealer to get close to Wolo's estranged son Dimi (Maximilian Osinski), who runs the trafficking side of the business. Jenny's captors, Viper (Emmett J. Scanlan) and Artemis (Eve Mauro), try to sell her to a client, but Jenny bites the man's cheek so badly he needs thirty-six stitches and is ordered to be killed, until the client changes his mind and wants to try again with her. Meanwhile, Levon is caught by Danya and Vanko, but he kills them in close quarter combat in the back of a van, eventually dumping them and the van in a river where it quickly submerges. Later as Symon is mourning the loss of his two sons laid out in a mortuary, this signals that things have got very personal between Levon and him.

Levon takes his young daughter Merry (Isla Gie) out of school for a few days to stay with Gunny and his wife after the thugs find out who he is and threaten him, having already burned down the house where Merry lives with her grandfather after Levon's wife died two years previously. Levon rescues his father-in-law, with whom he has a very rocky relationship, who at least is grateful for saving his life. Having armed up with Gunny's secret stash of weaponry, Levon later tracks down Dimi and gets him to lead him to the compound where Jenny is being held. 

Levon kills Dimi and proceeds to gun down, knife or grenade every last Russian goon in his path, including a biker gang and their leader who arrive on the scene after the initial bloodbath. Levon finds Jenny, kills the client, then kills Viper while Jenny kills Artemis. Following this second round two more of Symon's heavies arrive on the scene - Nestor (Ricky Champ) and Karp (Max Croes), with the latter machine gunning down a police squad car that arrives who are also in on the trafficking scheme. Levon then dispenses with these two before escaping with Jenny on a motorbike, while Symon looks on from outside and out of view. Symon calls his brother to tell him of this latest development but is told to leave Levon alone and that nobody in the organisation is going to help him in his crusade for revenge, and if he persists then he will be killed. Do you understand his brother asks, to which Symon responds with a yes. He hangs up and screams into the night. 

Levon returns Jenny home to her family who all embrace and rejoice her safe arrival, before he goes off to reunite with Merry and Gunny.

Penned by Stallone and Ayer and Directed by the latter, 'A Working Man' offers nothing we haven't already seen countless times before courtesy of films from the likes of Stallone, Neeson and Butler. Here, once again Statham does what he does best as the everyman trying to put his past to rest but is called upon to unleash his very particular set of skills to reign down all hell on earth on, in this case, the Russian mob through the inventive use of guns, blades, grenades, pick axes, sledge hammers, a bucket of screws and a sack of cement. And in this respect this action flick works and delivers Statham's signature brand of ass kicking, but the storyline and the dialogue is thin on the ground, and any hints at humour fall flat. This film is not up there with last years Statham and Ayer actioner 'The Beekeeper', and it delivers nothing new to an already overcrowded genre, but what you get is exactly what it says on the box. 

'A Working Man' warrants three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-