I’m not sure why I’m watching Black Phone 2. There was a lot about the first that was appealing in a retro horror kind of way. It had a, not realism, but authenticity that made it all the more frightening. The Grabber was every “stranger danger” after-school special made physical. Making The Grabber a supernatural entity doesn’t make him any more frightening. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t interesting things going on here, however.

• Directed by: Scott Derrickson
• Written by: Joe Hill. Scott Derrickson. C. Robert Cargill
• Starring: Ethan Hawke. Mason Thames. Madeleine McGraw

As with the first, Black Phone 2 puts a lot of the heavy work on its young stars. Finn is trying to recover from his trauma from the events of the first movie. Gwen has been having reoccurring dreams about bad things happening a winter Christian camp. Along with their friend Ernesto, they head to the camp to investigate the dreams and what they might mean. 

The Good

Look, I love the way this movie is filmed. Gwen’s dreams are hazy, ‘80s VHS-inspired nightmares. They communicate the brutality of the deaths of children without being exploitative or gross. There is no needless cruelty here. It all serves a narrative or artistic purpose. 

The story is, however, much more complicated than it first appears. The real issue is that both Finn and Gwen are dealing with trauma, not only from their experiences with The Grabber, but with their ability to communicate with the dead. This brings them back into The Grabber’s deadly orbit as they investigate why Gwen is suddenly having nightmares. 

Where it Goes Wrong

For all its style and successes, Black Phone 2  falls short in a couple of ways. The Grabber talks too much, and his dialogue is not great. At one point, it honestly feels like they only recorded so many lines of dialogue for Ethan Hawke and just had to reuse some of them.   He’s also big on exposition. The dialogue in general is, well we’ll call it “stylized”.  

We also get a huge exposition dump at the midpoint, all in one go. It’s the moment where all the art goes out of the movie.  So much of what happens after feels hollow and trite,  like they couldn’t quite figure out how to defeat the villain they created, so they borrowed from their starting point. 

Keeping with the ‘80s inspiration, this new version of The Grabber pulls a lot of inspiration from the O.G. child killer, Freddy Kruger.  Like Freddy, the Grabber can make dreams affect the real world.  And like in the Nightmare universe, dreams can be used against him too.  Which, sure, why not? Every girl deserves a Dream Warrior moment. The problem is it’s not entirely internally logically consistent. 

SPOILERS AHEAD

It’s established that The Grabber is getting his power from the dead children’s spirits being unable to rest. While he is attacking Gwen, the owner of the camp is in the process of finding the body of one of the boys. If it was made more visually clear that this was enough for Gwen to get to get the upper hand and escape, that would make more sense and be less jarring. 

Most of the back half of the movie had me feeling that way. I didn’t hate the twist connection back to the mother, but every part of the reveal is done so oddly. Also, I’m never going to be ok with The Grabber ice skating. This is the dumbest visual in an otherwise visually impressive movie.

The end result is a weird, disjointed mess, where there could have been an impactful story about trauma, grief, and the need to resolve the past.  

It’s so important for a movie to end well, and that’s where Black Phone 2 really lets the viewer down. It tries hard to pull out some last-minute emotional resolution, but with a disaster of a third act, there’s not much that can be done here. 

What Would Have Made This Better?

Not trying to so obviously remake A Nightmare on Elm Street would have been a start. The grounded authenticity went out the window when Gwen went flying around the kitchen. It doesn’t feel like the third act was well thought-out in comparison to the rest of the movie.  The events generally unfold with the camp crew racing to locate the bodies of the two victims that had yet to be found. The ghostly Grabber shows up, skating again, to attack the group and stop them from finding the bodies. Gwen falls asleep because she’ll be able to find the bodies easier that way.

I guess this makes sense because she’s learned how to control dreams now. She doesn’t have to worry about things like cold water or breathing, even though she did before.   The final fight with The Grabber is fine I guess, but it lacks tension. The Grabber isn’t a credible threat in this movie, and that’s the issue. As a dead man, he’s not managed to do anything other than look spooky. Yes, he harmed Gwen in her dreams but overall, his success rate is stunningly low.  A movie is only as good as its villain. Here The Grabber isn’t scary anymore and that’s a shame.

I get that thematically this was about taking power away from those who hurt you. But first and foremost it’s also a horror movie. Or it’s marketed like one. The Black Phone 2 plays more like a drama.

The Grabber needed to actually kill someone in this movie to establish that he was as big of a threat dead as he was alive.  There were definitely a couple of characters who didn’t need to make it to the credits. 

Final Thoughts 

Black Phone 2 has a great first half filled with tension and interesting camera techniques. It loses steam and fumbles the landing hard. I still enjoyed it more than I expected, but I can’t fully recommend it.  I’m just not sure what it was all about.

The Black Phone 2 is available on streaming