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-

THE BLACK PHONE : Tuesday 2nd August 2022.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'THE BLACK PHONE' earlier this week, and this American super-natural horror film is Co-Written for the screen, Co-Produced and Directed by Scott Derrickson whose previous feature film outings take in the likes of 'Hellraiser : Inferno' in 2000, 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose' in 2005, 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' in 2008, 'Sinister' in 2012, 'Deliver Us from Evil' in 2014 and 'Doctor Strange' most recently in 2016. This film is an adaptation of the 2004 short story of the same name by Joe Hill. The film saw its Premier screening at Fantastic Fest in late September last year and went on release in the US towards the end of June this year, here in Australia on 21st July and has so far grossed US$144M off the back of a US$18M production budget and garnering generally positive Reviews.

The film opens up with a bunch of young lads playing in a baseball competition, with thirteen year old Finney Blake (Mason Thames) pitching the ball, and Bruce (Tristan Pravong) batting. With two strikes behind him, Finney pitches his third ball which results in Bruce hitting a home run and winning the match. After the game Bruce and Finney congratulate each other with Bruce saying that Finney has got a 'minted arm'. It is 1978 and we are in Denver, Colorado. Finney lives with his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), and their abusive and alcoholic father Terrence (Jeremy Davies) in the suburbs. At school Finney is often bullied by the same gang, but is looked out for by his good friend Robin (Miguel Cazarez Mora). One day Bruce is seen cycling towards a black panel van, and is next seen on a Missing Person's poster adorning the local streets. 

Gwen, who experiences psychic dreams just as her late mother did, dreams of Bruce's abduction and sees that he was taken by a man in a black van with black balloons, known locally as The Grabber. Detectives Wright and Miller (E. Roger Mitchell and Troy Rudeseal respectively) attempt to interview young Gwen, but struggle to believe her claims. Sometime later the Grabber abducts Robin, and then within a few days Finney is also kidnapped. 

Finney comes around sometime later on a mattress in an empty soundproofed basement. On the wall is a disconnected black rotary phone that the Grabber claims does not work, and the broken cord would seem to confirm that notion. Later, Finney hears the phone ring and answers it. Bruce's spirit, unable to remember his own name or who he was when he was alive, tells Finney about a floor tile located in the corridor to the toilet, that he can remove to dig a tunnel to escape through the soft earth directly beneath the floor. 

The Police conduct door to door searches for Finney, but this proves fruitless. The Grabber (Ethan Hawke) brings Finney food and a soda. While eating on scrambled eggs the phone rings and it is another boy called Billy, who instructs him that he had hidden a length of cord behind the junction of the wall and floor and he can use it to escape through the high window of the basement. While climbing Finney breaks the bars on the window which come crashing down on top of him and so preventing him from climbing back up. Gwen dreams of Billy being abducted and confides in her father about what is happening. Finney sleeps and when he wakes up the Grabber is there in the basement having watched him sleep. The Grabber exits but leaves the door to the basement unlocked. As Finney prepares to sneak out the phone rings again and Billy tells him not to as this is a game the Grabber likes to play, as he lies in wait upstairs to attack his victims within an inch of their lives, with a belt, just as Billy was. 

Detectives Wright and Miller speak to an eccentric man called Max (James Ransone) who is staying in the area with his brother and who has been conducting his own investigation into the missing kids. It is revealed Finney is being held in the basement of Max's brothers house, of which he is unaware, and that the Grabber is in fact his brother. After a heated exchange with the Grabber, where he tests Finney's honesty, he speaks as if he would have let Finney go free. Finney speaks to another one of his victims, Griffin, on the phone. Griffin directs Finney to the combination of a bike lock scrawled on the basement wall with a bottle top, and that the bike lock secures the front door to the house. He also informs him that the Grabber has fallen asleep upstairs while waiting for him to emerge, and that if he is to get past him he must do so in absolute silence. Finney gingerly sneaks upstairs and unlocks the door after several attempts with the dial combination, but the Grabber's dog alerts him to Finney's escape. Finney flees down the street but is quickly recaptured at knife point. 

Discouraged by his failed escape attempt, Finney answers the phone to hear another victim, a punk called Vance whom Finney was scared of. Vance advises Finney of a storage room located immediately behind one of the basement walls and that he can escape through it if he breaks a hole in the wall and exits through the freezer on the other side. Finney creates a hole with the cistern lid and enters the back of the freezer only to discover that the freezer door is locked. Feeling even more dejected Finney breaks down sobbing, totally disheartened. The phone rings one more time with Robin at the end of the line. He consoles Finney and encourages him to finally stand up and fight for himself. He instructs Finney to remove the phone receiver and pack it tight with the dirt he had dug up and to use it as a weapon.

Gwen has a dream of Vance's abduction and learns the number of the Grabber's property. She cycles around the neighbourhood trying to locate the house and falls from her bike when confronted by the bloodied spirits of the Grabbers victims stood in front of her adjacent to the house. She returns home and calls Detective Wright. 

Max realises Finney is being held in the house and rushes to the basement to free him, believing that his brother is out working. Little does he know that his brother is standing right behind him on the stairs and brings down an axe right on his head killing him instantly. The police rush over to the house that Gwen found but find it empty. In the basement, however, they find the buried bodies of the Grabber's five previous victims with an open grave waiting for the sixth. 

The Grabber attacks Finney with the axe, but Finney manages to trip the Grabber with the cord, causing him to fall into the partial tunnel Finney dug, where the Grabber breaks and traps his ankle in the window bars placed at the bottom. Finney repeatedly smashes the weighted phone handset against the face and head of the Grabber. The spirits of the Grabbers other victims taunt him over the phone before Finney breaks his neck with the cord used to trip him initially, killing him. Finney distracts the guard dog with meat from the freezer and escapes the house using the combination he learned from Griffin. Finney exits the house across the street from the gravesites where he reunites with Gwen and the police rush to the property. The siblings comfort each other as their father arrives, apologises for his treatment of Finney and begs his forgiveness. Back at school, the new local hero and a now more confident Finney sits next to his crush in Science class.

With 'The Black Phone' Scott Derrickson is back in his comfort zone providing the audience with a well crafted story, combined with dramatic, emotional, super-natural and horror elements and set back in the late '70's where the aesthetic of that era is spot on and hark back to the classic horror films of the '80's such as 'The Shining', 'Poltergeist', 'Misery' and 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' and the type of story that could have easily been penned by Stephen King. The performances from Thames and McGraw as the two siblings who each have their own super-natural experiences to work through are first rate, and Hawke as the multiple child killer whose face is never fully revealed, lends his menacing machismo to solid effect. As a horror film, this film is light on jump scares and what would be described as real moments of horror tension and terror, but as a super-natural crime thriller it does deliver on the chills and spills that help elevate it above many of its current contemporaries. 

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

-Steve, at Odeon Online-