Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill are a match made in hell, a devilish duo responsible for Sinister (once declared the scariest movie of all time), The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and The Black Phone. With The Black Phone, they crafted their own creepy villain deemed worthy of a franchise. Now, the Grabber is back in the bizarre new sequel Black Phone 2, which had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2025. And while a few of the big swings connect, the sequel falls short of a home run due to overwrought dialogue and a newfound focus on the power of faith.
Four years after the events of the first film, Finney Blake (Mason Thames) and his sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), are trying to keep living after the trauma. But Finney isn’t doing so well. He’s starting fights and secretly smoking weed in the backyard after everyone’s asleep. He wants to forget the Grabber’s basement and move on. But it’s never that easy.
Meanwhile, Gwen is starting to have dreams about Alpine Lake Youth Camp, a winter camp for Christian youth in the Colorado mountains. But these dreams feel more like visions as dead boys write letters in ice as Gwen sleepwalks around the neighborhood. She decides it’s time to head to Alpine Lake to discover the truth about these boys. Joining her is Finney and Robin’s (a victim of the Grabber in The Black Phone) younger brother, Ernesto (Miguel Mora), as they head off into a snowstorm to discover the truth hiding beneath the ice.
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It takes awhile to get going, but once the film commits, it goes absolutely wild in a way that only a supernatural slasher can. The premise is akin to a later-years Nightmare on Elm Street sequel in terms of just gonzo Derrickson was allowed to go with a studio horror film. Supernatural ice skates? Yes, please. The Grabber attacking and hurting kids in their dreams? Neat! It’s so radically different from the first film, it’s hard not to be at least a little impressed.
But before the film commits to its uniquely bizarre tone, Black Phone 2 is imbued with a weirdly Christian after school special energy, especially when Gwen reprimands her older brother for smoking weed and ruining his life. These moments of dialogue feel forced and inauthentic, a means to an emotional end. There is a genuine moments where a teenage boy earnestly says to Gwen, “I think it’s hot you speak to Jesus.” Plus, Gwen’s characterization as Christian-lite superhero is off-putting, with the young girl cursing like a sailor but also quoting scripture. It feels like it’s part of a larger societal push to make religion look young and cool.
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This doesn’t mean that all faith should be demonized or that faith should be ignored. But in an era where Christian beliefs are being used to justify atrocities against marginalized communities, it’s crucial to interrogate how faith functions in contemporary media, especially media geared at younger audiences and created to draw in massive crowds.
It doesn’t help that Derrickson shared during the Q&A that he was converted to Christianity in middle school at a winter camp like the one here. While Black Phone 2 is never as overt as, say, The Conjuring, there’s still an insidious undercurrent of pushing the power of Jesus Christ in the face of evil, which importantly wasn’t present at all in the first film. It’s a strange thematic shift, to say the least.
On a technical level, Derrickson continues to utilize the 35 mm aesthetic that’s become his stylistic calling card. Here, it’s again used to depict when Gwen is the dream world, giving that setting a hazy, eerie glow. It’s contrasted with the snow-covered camp setting that’s rendered a little too heavily through CGI.
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The cherry on top of this supernatural slasher is a score by Atticus Derrickson, son of Scott Derrickson. His sonic landscape creates a thick layer of tension that falls over the film like snow, smothering every surface with an oppressive sense of dread.
Black Phone 2 is part after-school special, part gonzo A Nightmare Elm Street sequel set in the snow. While it’s never boring and finally commits to the insanity in the last act, Black Phone 2 ultimately suffers from cheesy dialogue and a surprisingly pro-Christian message that feels deeply uncomfortable in our current cultural moment.
Summary
While a few of the big swings connect, ‘Black Phone 2’ falls short of a home run due to overwrought dialogue and a newfound focus on the power of faith.
Categorized: Reviews