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-