BLACK PHONE 2 (2025)

Genre: HorrorThriller
Director: Scott Derrickson
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Demián Bichir, Arianna Rivas, Miguel Mora, Jeremy Davies, Maev Beaty, Graham Abbey 
Runtime: 1 hr 54 mins
Rating: M18 (Violence and Gore)
Released By: UIP
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 16 October 2025

Synopsis: Four years ago, 13-year-old Finn killed his abductor and escaped, becoming the sole survivor of The Grabber. But true evil transcends death … and the phone is ringing again. Four-time Academy Award® nominee Ethan Hawke returns to the most sinister role of his career as The Grabber seeks vengeance on Finn (Mason Thames) from beyond the grave by menacing Finn’s younger sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw). As Finn, now 17, struggles with life after his captivity, the headstrong 15-year-old Gwen begins receiving calls in her dreams from the black phone and seeing disturbing visions of three boys being stalked at a winter camp known as Alpine Lake. Determined to solve the mystery and end the torment for both her and her brother, Gwen persuades Finn to visit the camp during a winter storm. There, she uncovers a shattering intersection between The Grabber and her own family’s history. Together, she and Finn must confront a killer who has grown more powerful in death and more significant to them than either could imagine. 

Movie Review:

Picking up four years after its predecessor, ‘The Black Phone 2’ sees the serial child-killer ‘The Grabber’ reach out from the depths of Hell to continue his torment of Finney (Mason Thames). Those who have seen the earlier film should at least remember that Finney had bested the killer with the help of the ghosts of his previous victims, as well as his sister Gwen’s (Madeline McGraw) psychic visions; and thankfully, rather than resurrect The Grabber, director Scott Derrickson and his co-writer C. Robert Cargill decide to take their sequel the way of ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’, turning The Grabber into a Freddy Krueger-like nightmare that haunts both Finney and Gwen.

Whereas the former was a tight, tense escape-room horror, this latest expands the plot significantly to intertwine both past and present. To be more precise, there are two sets of pasts here – one with the apparent suicide of the kids’ late mother (Anna Lore), who like Gwen, was a psychic; and the other with the disappearance of three young boys from Alpine Lake, a Christian camp located in the Rocky Mountains, which we learn early on had been killed by The Grabber but whose bodies remain undiscovered. It is no secret that both truths will emerge by the end of the movie, but the road to that final destination is somewhat unnecessarily convoluted.

Clocking at just under two hours, Derrickson takes his time to build atmosphere throughout the movie, with close to the full first hour spent laying out the troubling visions that Gwen has been having, before we hit Alpine Lake where her visions intersect menacingly with reality. There is also a lot more exposition here compared to before, not just with the scene-setting, but also with Christian theology around the existence of Heaven and Hell, especially with the pair of officious husband-and-wife camp employees (Graham Abbey and Maev Beaty). What this means is there is much more time around the setpieces, which is likely to frustrate those simply looking for the sequel to replicate the same sort of thrills as its predecessor.

Even though the wait is longer, Derrickson fortunately doesn’t lose the denouement. The setpieces are delivered with blood-soaked flair – as a case in point, in one of Gwen’s visions, a boy’s head is sliced in half on a windowpane, leaving one half sputtering and twitching and the other in a pool of blood on the floor. The Grabber himself has lost none of his viciousness, and even though no longer present in the physical realm, still is able to project his powers into the real world. Casting Ethan Hawke in the role of The Grabber also proves to be yet another stroke of genius, with the actor – in his third collaboration with Derrickson – fully relishing the opportunity to unleash the darker side of his persona.

To his credit, Derrickson leans fully into his conceit with utter conviction. Wearing its stylistic influences proudly on its sleeve, the movie deliberately plays up its references to 80s classics such as ‘The Shining’, ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ and of course ‘Friday the 13^th’.  Like the previous movie, as well as his earlier ‘Sinister’, Derrickson makes use of grainy Super 8 film to create an effective aura of supernatural menace. He also finds good help from his son Atticus, whose synth score effectively amps up the exhilaration especially when The Grabber unleashes his wrath.

Does this sequel live up to the expectation of its predecessor? Probably not – but then again, it would do well to appreciate what it didn’t have the luxury of doing, given where the last movie had ended off. All things considered, Derrickson has fashioned a sequel with its own style and definition that stands on its own merits. It may not possess the same straightforward thrills, but ‘The Black Phone 2’ is a chilling (pun not intended) and occasionally thrilling blend of unease, intrigue and unhinged vengeance. We’re not sure if it will sustain a franchise, and if there is any reason we’re rooting for it to be, it’s to see Hawke get his Freddy Krueger on once more.

Movie Rating:

(Lacking the immediate thrills of its predecessor, this sequel nonetheless revels in a lingering atmosphere of dread, unease and intrigue)

Review by Gabriel Chong