By: Jesse Striewski
I’ve been very vocal as of late on the decline of modern horror films these days, but every once in awhile there’s a needle in a haystack that sticks out among the ever-growing lists of latest of low brow imitators (the likes of this year’s Clown in a Cornfield reached new lows of stupidity for sure).
2021’s The Black Phone was one such exception that gave us “The Grabber,” a serial child killer in the late ’70s menacingly played by Ethan Hawke, who is outsmarted by his final would-be victim, Finney (Mason Thames) who communicates with The Grabber’s past victims’ spirits via a telephone in the basement he is confined in (sounds a bit far-fetched on paper, I know).
Four years later in 1982, Finney’s kid sister Gwen (Madeline McGraw) is now experiencing visions and receiving messages from the grave, which eventually leads to the two of them, along with Finney’s friend Ernesto (the brother of one of the first film’s victims, played by Miguel Mora) heading to the nearby Alpine Lake Camp where Gwen and Finney’s late mother Hope (Anna Lore) worked once upon a time, to investigate these strange occurrences from beyond further.
Turns out that not only did their mom work there in the late ’50s, but so did The Grabber, who just so happened to also claim his first few victims there, and slowly but surely the trio begin putting the mysterious connections together along with the help of the camp’s current staff, lead by supervisor Armando (Demian Bichir), and realize The Grabber is very much there to enact his revenge on them.
Using similar techniques of isolation found in early ’80s horror classics such as 1980’s The Shining and 1982’s The Thing while combining it with the slasher surrealism of 1984’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (The Grabber is far more deserving now to be put alongside the likes of horror icon Freddy Kruger than say the modern Pennywise from It, at least in my book), the film instantly sets the tone with its eerie atmosphere and never quite lets up.
Aside from the occasional cringe-worthy dialogue and one or two cookie cutter characters, Black Phone 2 is indeed one of those few exceptions where the sequel truly outshines the original, and gives me a silver of hope in the horror movie world; I look forward to seeing where the series goes from here.
Rating: 4/5 Stars
