Black Phone 2

In a genre saturated with predictable sequels and hollow echoes of past successes, Black Phone 2 stands out as a haunting exception. Directed by Scott Derrickson and co-written with his longtime collaborator C. Robert Cargill, this sequel to the 2021 psychological horror phenomenon The Black Phone does not seek to replicate the formula of the first film. Instead, it expands its universe thematically and emotionally, transforming what was once a confined ghost story into a reflection on trauma, faith, and memory. Scott Derrickson approaches this sequel not as an act of reproduction, but as an act of reconciliation with his own characters, the expectations of his audience, and the painful question of what happens to a survivor once the lights come back on.

Set four years after the events of the original film, Black Phone 2 shows Finney Blake (played by Mason Thames) grappling with the invisible weight of his past. The boy who once escaped the clutches of the Grabber (Ethan Hawke) now lives in a limbo of fear and guilt, haunted not by the physical presence of his captor, but by the echo of that cursed phone that refuses to stop ringing. Finney Blake, now a young man, carries his trauma like a scar that never heals, while his sister Gwen Blake (played once again by Madeleine McGraw) continues to have disturbing prophetic dreams. These dreams lead the two siblings to Alpine Lake, a remote Christian youth camp in Colorado where their late mother once worked. The shift from suburban captivity to isolation in a vast snowy landscape completely transforms the tone of the film. The basement in The Black Phone was claustrophobic; Black Phone 2 is suffocating in a different way: the silence of the freezing air replaces the concrete walls, but the feeling of confinement remains.

What sets this sequel apart is its emotional intelligence. Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill don't treat the supernatural as mere spectacle, but as a manifestation of grief and guilt. The spectral return of the Grabber, no longer flesh and blood but a demonic echo whispering through phones and dreams, becomes an allegory for the kind of trauma that haunts victims long after they've escaped. Ethan Hawke, whose performance in the first film was already unforgettable, reaches mythic levels here. His Grabber is less a man than a symbol: a grotesque specter feeding on the memories of those who survived him. His voice, filtered through static and wind, becomes a weapon of psychological warfare. Rarely has silence been used so effectively in modern horror; every time the phone rings, the audience braces itself not only for a scare, but also for the return of unhealed pain.

Visually, the film is an icy marvel. Director of photography Pär M. Ekberg gives the film a tactile, analog texture, with grainy Super 16mm images that evoke old home movies and lost memories. Snow becomes both a shroud and a mirror, hiding violence while reflecting it in ghostly tones. The use of light and shadow, particularly in scenes where Gwen Blake experiences her visions, recalls the dreamlike horror of Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street, but filtered through Scott Derrickson's deeply spiritual sensibility. The camera often lingers on small gestures—the trembling of Finney Blake's hands, the glistening of frost on a broken mask—as if searching for divinity in the debris of suffering. This attention to the sensory texture of fear makes Black Phone 2 immersive, as if the viewer is also trapped in a memory that refuses to fade.

The actors' performances have an emotional resonance rarely found in horror movie sequels. Mason Thames delivers a quietly heartbreaking interpretation of survival as a burden; his gaze conveys both resilience and exhaustion. Madeleine McGraw, meanwhile, anchors the story with spiritual fervor, embodying Gwen Blake as a believer not only in faith, but also in the power of redemption through pain. Her dynamic with Miguel Mora, who plays the brother of one of the Grabber's former victims, adds a quiet humanity to the narrative, reminding us that grief binds survivors in ways they did not choose. They are supported by Demián Bichir as the camp's enigmatic director, Father Alvarez, whose compassion and weariness reflect the film's ambivalence toward faith. His conversations with Gwen Blake about divine silence are among the film's most moving moments, grounding its supernatural horror in moral complexity.

While The Black Phone relied on the raw tension of confinement, Black Phone 2 broadens its scope by exploring how evil seeps into the spaces left vacant. The Christian imagery that runs through the film is not purely decorative; it is integral to Scott Derrickson's worldview. Known for exploring faith through darkness (The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Deliver Us from Evil), Derrickson uses Black Phone 2 to suggest that redemption is never complete, that even when the body escapes, the soul remains attached. The Grabber's line, “Hell isn't fire, it's ice,” serves as both a metaphor and a motif: hell here is memory, frozen in place, endlessly replaying its suffering. The underlying theological current gives the film an operatic grandeur, elevating its horror beyond jump scares to something almost biblical.

The technical execution reinforces this vision. Louise Ford's editing maintains a rhythm that oscillates between dream and reality without losing coherence. The transitions are so fluid that the viewer often realizes too late that they have entered a nightmare. The sound design, perhaps the strongest element of the film, transforms simple noises—the ringing of the telephone, the crackling of ice, the whisper of the wind—into vectors of terror. Composer Atticus Derrickson (the director's son) contributes a haunting score that oscillates between melancholic piano themes and haunting electronic beats, amplifying the tension without dominating it. The combination of sound and image achieves something that few horror films manage to do: create an atmosphere that lingers long after the credits roll.

That said, the film sometimes stumbles under the weight of its own ambition. In its central act, Black Phone 2 over-explains elements of its mythology that were more effective as mysteries in the original film. The attempt to rationalize the supernatural origins of the phone and its connection to the afterlife somewhat dilutes the raw terror that made the first film so compelling. However, even these moments of narrative excess are offset by the film's emotional depth and striking imagery. Unlike many sequels that attempt to think bigger by multiplying deaths or spectacular effects, Black Phone 2 expands inward, toward psychology and faith, making its few narrative flaws forgivable in light of its artistic coherence.

The final scene, set on a frozen lake under a torn sky, is both visually stunning and emotionally cathartic. The confrontation between Finney Blake and The Grabber, a battle between the living and the damned, feels less like revenge and more like an exorcism. When the ice breaks beneath their feet, it is not only a literal collapse, but also a symbolic one: the shattering of memory, the release of guilt. The poetic violence of the scene recalls the ending of The Sixth Sense, not in plot, but in emotional resolution. Scott Derrickson concludes his story not with triumph, but with quiet grace, acknowledging that some scars remain, even when the nightmare ends.

Black Phone 2 is one of the rare horror sequels that justifies its existence. Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill build on their previous work with confidence and conviction, transforming the simple terror of captivity into a haunting study of survival and spiritual consequences. Thanks to outstanding performances by Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, and Ethan Hawke, meticulous craftsmanship, and an atmosphere of grim terror, the film achieves what most sequels only promise: it deepens the myth without diluting the magic. Black Phone 2 is a frightening, beautifully crafted, and deeply human horror film with a soul, ringing one last time to remind us that some calls are never truly over.

Black Phone 2
Directed by Scott Derrickson
Written by Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill
Based on Characters by Joe Hill
Produced by Jason Blum, Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill
Starring Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, Demián Bichir, Ethan Hawke
Cinematography: Pär M. Ekberg
Edited by Louise Ford
Music by Atticus Derrickson
Production companies: Blumhouse Productions, Crooked Highway
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release dates: September 20, 2025 (Fantastic Fest), October 16, 2025 (France), October 17, 2025 (United States)
Running time: 114 minutes

Seen on October 15, 2025 at Gaumont Disney Village, Theater 3, seat A18

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