The Black Phone was a pretty big hit for the horror genre in 2021. Directed by Scott Derrickson (Sinister) and based on a short story from Stephen King's son Joe Hill, the Ethan Hawke led supernatural serial killer story wound up grossing over $160 million worldwide on a small budget, marking one of the few financial successes amidst the pandemic. Now four years later we have its follow up with Black Phone 2, a film I didn't think we needed but upon seeing it am very glad we have.
Black Phone 2 is set four years after the events of the first film. Finney (Mason Thames) is still struggling to come to terms with his kidnapping at the hands of The Grabber, isolating himself and getting high as a means of shutting out the memories that haunt him. His sister Gwen (Madeline McGraw), whose psychic dreams helped find Finney, begins having visions of dead children hidden under a frozen lake. Her visions get stronger and stronger, leading them to a camp in the snowy woods where their mother once worked as they try to find the truth behind the missing kids.
I really liked the first film, in general I tend to enjoy Scott Derrickson's style and The Black Phone offers a good blend of the scares from Sinister and fun of a Joe Hill/Stephen King story. Black Phone 2 is a massive step up though, delivering maybe the most pleasant surprise for me this year outside of Final Destination: Bloodlines. I was pretty skeptical as to how Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill would follow up a story that seemed to be fully wrapped up, but the touches of the supernatural present in the original allow for the story to continue in a way that feels authentic and unforced. There are moments with a bit more exposition that I'd like and some elements are connected more than they need to be, but all in all I really loved how this expanded the already fascinating lore from the first film.
What worked the most for me was the style on display. The first film looks good, but this is filled with visual ideas that I found absolutely intoxicating. There's one massive jump scare that I knew was about to come but I genuinely didn't want to miss a moment of the visual feast Derrickson has crafted here. He brings back the grainy dream sequences from the first film, and something about the way he captures things in that grainy film style just unsettles me. Part of that is likely thanks to how effective shadows can be with the lower film quality, and there's one moment where The Grabber emerges from the blackness of a scene in one of the coolest shots I've seen in a horror movie. The sound design is also a huge asset in creating the uncomfortable tone of these grainy dream sequences, making it really feel like an out of body experience where anything could happen.
Along with the terrific style on display, a big piece of what makes this work is how much you care for the characters. It has been great to see Mason Thames really breaking out this year and this might be the best I've seen from him. You can clearly see the Finney we know from the first film, but Thames brings this shield to the character as he struggles through his trauma. The sibling dynamic between him and McGraw was one of its best elements, and here we see their bond still strong but somewhat strained due to Finney's desire to put everything behind them and Gwen wanting to help the kids in her visions. Despite being somewhat at odds you can still feel their connection, thanks almost entirely to how strong the chemistry of these two is. There are times where the script limits McGraw, but she gets a more prominent role this time around and I think she delivered remarkably well. One big change in the film's characters is that the dad doesn't suck this time around. He still struggles a bit to understand Gwen amidst her supernatural abilities, but at this point in the story he is nearly three years sober and no longer abusing the kids which is nice. Gwen does throw his past back at him at one point though in a pretty damn powerful moment.
Ethan Hawke is great as always, playing The Grabber now as almost a mythic figure now even more intimidating in death. I love Hawke and seeing him play someone so rooted in evil is wild, but he commits both physically and emotionally and the results are arguably the decade's best horror villain. We also get the addition of a new iconic actor in Demian Bichir as the owner of the campgrounds. I figured he would just be a small side character, but he was honestly stealing the show at points, delivering a performance filled with grief and a desire to do right that I really loved. I also have to shout out Miguel Mora as Ernesto, the brother of Finney's friend Robin who was killed by The Grabber in the first film. His character has a huge crush on Gwen and it makes for a lot of funny moments but also some very heartwarming ones. We also get some flashbacks of Gwen and Finney's mom, played very well by Anna Lore of Final Destination: Bloodlines fame.
I don't know what else to say, this hit on pretty much all cylinders for me. Some script deficiencies limit it from going to the upper echelon of horror sequels, but I found this to be an unexpected step up from an already good first film. Beyond impressed with the visuals, and I am growing to love this cast. I don't know if there are plans for another film, but after this I'm not against seeing more. 4/5
Comments
Post a Comment