Black Phone 2: Better than the First?

This review contains spoilers for the first Black Phone movie, as well as light spoilers for Black Phone 2

Hello all! It’s been a while since I wrote an article, so I thought as I start again, I shouldn’t rush into a deeply philosophical review as I like to do, but rather just go back to the fundamentals and review a fun movie I saw this month. In the spirit of spooky season coming to a close, this month, I will be reviewing Black Phone 2, a sequel to 2021’s The Black Phone, starring Mason Thames and Ethan Hawke. Without further ado, let’s discuss!

Taking place four years after the first Black Phone, this film follows Finney Blake (Mason Thames) and his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) as they recover from the trauma-inducing events that transpired in that film. Unfortunately for the two teens, however, their problems have evidently not all gone away, as Gwen begins having dreams (which are more akin to visions) again, this time taking place at Alpine Lake Camp.
In the first film, Finney was kidnapped by The Grabber (Ethan Hake), a notorious serial killer. Early on into this movie, it becomes evident that The Grabber is still haunting Finney from beyond the grave, and that the dreams that Gwen is experiencing are a result of souls not being laid to rest. Upon discovering that their late mother went to Alpine Lake Camp, the subject of Gwen’s dreams, the siblings, alongside friend Ernesto (Miguel Mora), decide to go up to the camp themselves to put The Grabber down for good, once and for all.

When I heard that we were getting a sequel to The Black Phone, I was skeptical; I didn’t know if they had enough material to expand on what was already a solid and complete story. But over the course of this film, I found myself enjoying the direction that director Scott Derrickson went with limited options. By the end of the movie, there was no doubt in my mind that the creation of this sequel was warranted.

The best thing about this film, by far, was the dream sequences. Every time we cut to Gwen dreaming, which was shot on (or at least made to look like) old 8mm film, we were in for some of the best horror of the entire film, which elicited a feeling almost akin to YouTube analog horror, a genre I’ve always loved.

Perhaps the best part of these sequences, though, and maybe even the best part of the film as a whole, is Madeleine McGraw’s acting as Gwen. Simply through her body language and facial expressions in these scenes, she hits it out of the park in playing the role of a scared but driven young woman.

Compared with the first Black Phone, I think each movie excels in some regards compared to the other. First, the sequel is a lot more creative, and features better cinematography. While the first movie was a pretty standard slasher, the sequel felt more like high-concept horror. On top of this, the sequel also had the added benefit of giving us more character development. Still, Black Phone 2’s dialogue is outright bad pretty consistently, and the plot dragged at certain points. In comparison, the first film was a lot more concise and felt a lot more focused.

Overall, I think I’d give Black Phone 2 a slight edge over the original as we got to see the young cast grow into their roles, all while having some very strong horror dream sequences. Still, both films are enjoyable enough, and this franchise has cemented itself in modern horror lore. 7/10