Black Phone 2 (2025) Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0kqkRZHqk4

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Sometimes, you have to dig a little deeper to put the past behind you.


PLOT


2025’s Black Phone 2 takes place in 1982, four years after Finney Blake defended himself from child killer, The Grabber, who he killed after being abducted by him. Although he’s respected at school for what happened, he’s chosen to cope by acting out at school and keeps answering pay phones that are supposably out of order. As for his sister Gwen, she’s befriended Ernesto, the younger brother of the deceased Robin, and has been having dreams of murders that happened in 1957 at Camp Alpine Lake, hearing the voice of her mother Hope who had similar dreams before she died. With her sleepwalking getting so bad that she ends up walking into the Grabber’s abandoned home, she tells her brother of her dreams. Both siblings go to the camp with Ernesto under the guise of the former’s now sober father Terrence thinking they’ll work as summer counselors in training. In the snowy camp, they would work for the supervisor Armando and his niece Mustang, working with fellow employees Kenneth & Barbara, a married couple who are devout Christians and run the office together. The rest of the staff left before the storm got worse and . On the first night does the camp get haunted because Finney would answer another nearby telephone meant to be out of order and this time, hears the voice of the Grabber’s spirit. As that happens, Gwen has another nightmare of the three boys that were murdered there (Felix, Cal & Spike [Simon Webster, Shepherd Munroe & Chase B Robertson]) and her burns in her dream become real once she’s waken up by her brother. By morning, Mando asks why they applied to be counselors, which the Shaws admit their mom used to be there. Mando recognizes Hope by Gwen’s picture and gives condolences of her death. Finney would hear the phone ring again and instead hears the voices of the murdered boys begging for help. Second night at camp occurs and he hears the Grabber’s spirit vow revenge for his death, also blaming him for killing his brother Max (James Ransome). As Gwen dreams of Hope actually contacting the boys’ spirits the last time she was at the camp, she officially gets attacked by the Grabber within her dream. Everyone awake sees the paranormal attack occur at the camp’s kitchen and they wake her up before the deceased slasher can kill her. Regrouping at the chapel, the kills explain their true intentions to Mando who recognizes him from an old picture. Though not remembering his government name, the man who used to work at the camp as maintenance worker and was nicknamed Wild Bill Hickok for how he dressed. This adds up on Gwen’s end because the boys left her a clue of initials ‘WBH’, engraving it in the frozen Lake Maru. Realizing they were the Grabber’s earliest of victims took place in the camp, Gwen deduces the bodies need to be put to rest by retrieving them from the lake. Just as Mando vows to head there by dawn, the Grabber contacts him next vowing to stop him from his intentions. It is after that haunting where he tells Finney he has his back and the best way he can protect his sister is by facing his fears like he did before. After a day of drilling through the lake, Finn gets honest with Ernesto and tells him how Robin’s voice was part of why he was able survive his abduction. As Gwen sleeps again, the Grabber shows he is responsible for Hope’s death, hanging her personally and staging it as a suicide when she started connecting the dots of his actions in the neighborhood at the time. Just when she wakes back up, Mando is able to avoid the Grabber’s intent to drown him. Terrence would soon arrive via snowplow, wanting to bring his kids back home due to the storm getting worse. Instead, Gwen tells him and Finn what she discovered, as further motivation to find the boys’ bodies. As she calls out both of them for using substance abuse to hide from their problems. As Finn admits how haunted he’s been since his abduction, Terrence would agree to help find the bodies. With the snow plow making more progress in drilling through the frozen lake, Gwen falls asleep and has one more confrontation. Simultaneously, he attacks the whole group that are awake, but Gwen is able to defend to defend herself when sleeping.  Once all three barrels containing the bodies are out, the Grabber loses his spiritual power, resulting in both Shaw siblings to beat him down before allowing the boys to drag him back down the lake. In relief that the terror is over, Gwen celebrates by kissing Ernesto. By morning, Mando reports the bodies to authorities. As everyone else leaves once the storm stops, the film ends with Gwen hearing the payphone ring instead of her brother and this time, she hears her mom tell her how proud she is of her and sends a message to Finn that Robin says hi.


THOUGHTS


I’m game for a resurgence in slashers as long as the people to kickstart with the first outing get to stick around for the sequel. Damian Leone is on a roll with Terrifier, so I expect nothing less from Scott Derrickson who held it down the first time around and delivers second in a row in terms of an intense experience. For a much different setting, you know we have to see the Grabber is nothing like the tone you’re familiar from Freddy Krueger since the number one thing they have in common is killing children. Making the former one who is attacking from beyond the grave is a hard catch because the similarity does catch on some more, but there is still a separation in the end. What is it exactly? That grainy aesthetic that occurs when Gwen’s asleep and Ethan Hawke still portraying the villain as pure evil as his past actions is never explained and continues filling the room with dread. It’s the 2020s and we’re still scared of seeing someone get tossed around like they’re levitated just like Krueger did the first time around in ‘84. The bonus of him getting scarier goes to his jawless depiction thanks to makeup effects done by Francois Dagenais. Hell, even seeing him skiing with an axe was the craziest thing to occur in the climax. The fact he still wears a mask in his spirit form does imply he still hides in guilt in my opinion since he refuses to let people see true face knowing how indeed of a monster he is. He does create a double standard on himself since he doesn’t take accountability for killing his brother and because of that, it still makes his second comeuppance satisfying. When having a villain that redefines nightmare fuel the way Art the Clown has, you’re sure gonna need protagonists that’ll excite you in a road to triumph. Mason Thames & Madeleine McGraw return as the beloved sibling pair of Finney & Gwen are what sell the lesson how resolving the past will always be the absolute of true peace. Both of them have their different traumas that still made them feel misplaced when they were first introduced and they were unsure if they were really brave enough to face their fears again. Ironically, it was a trip to the past that helped them get where they wanted to be. Had Hope not been so determined to uncover a truth as portrayed by Anna Lore, Gwen would’ve never continued to have that in her. And once she figured out she never gave up the way she believed, that further drove her to extract justice. That becomes a domino effect itself because if Gwen doesn’t know the truth, she wouldn’t have inspired her remaining family to do the same to put the past behind them. I definitely got to give a shoutout to Jeremy Davies portraying Terrence as a dad who actually does put an effort in wanting to be better by putting in the work that is showing concern and trying to talk it out rather than let his anger get to him like before. Because of that, he’s willing to hear his daughter out and help in the climax. It was even cool for Robin’s actor Miguel Mora return to play his brother Ernesto and have his own 180. Instead of being instantly tough as nails, the latter is more eager to have connection due to his grief and that is the very reason he gets along with the Shaws to the point of falling for Gwen. Whatever happens to them when returning home, I hope they have more than a fling as adults. Going into the new supporting cast, it was cool seeing Demián Bichir as Armando who shares that feeling of warmth as a leader due to having his own determination in finding a resolution for the dead boys. The guy went out of his way to buy the camp to make sure no one would stop thinking about them as if never happened. Gwen may have called out Finn for being afraid, but he was the one who gave the right instruction upfront about how he can be a protective brother without the need to be critical, which indeed went a long way. Arianna Rivas does also share that big heart as Mustang which makes her courageous enough to defend the Shaws while her coworkers were rightfully afraid. Graham Abbey & Maev Beaty do make that aspect believable as Kenneth & Barbara respectfully which comes from their decision to be closed-minded for so long. They definitely get off on the wrong foot with the Shaws since they choose to be a bit rebellious by cursing without a second thought but thanks to Mustang pointing out their own cowardice since they don’t have trauma compared to the kids, they do the right thing helping as well in the climax. With the boys out to rest, it’s safe to assume the camp can officially have a new era of happy memories. This sequel generally does work out fine on its own, but there are still some things that don’t make much sense upon rewatching. It’s definitely scary knowing the Grabber can multitask in how he targets people awake and asleep, but if he doesn’t want Gwen to find the bodies of his earliest victims, he should’ve just killed her and Finn immediately because they were the only ones that would’ve helped Armando find them to begin with. Then again, did he know who Finn & Gwen were by the time were at the time he killed Hope? If he does, that does back up why he abducted the former in the first movie, but the fact there isn’t a legit implication makes it harder to confirm. It then feels dumb the police didn’t bother looking at the frozen lake to find the boys after looking everywhere else. That’s basically asking for a true crime podcast to drag your ass out for mismanagement. If you can ignore these few things, then you’re still set for a bloody blast. In short, Black Phone 2 is a slasher sequel that has visible inspiration and still succeeds in making the tropes their own. If that’s the formula you dig as a horror fan especially after enjoying the first one, see this as soon as you can.