In today’s horror cinema, a large number of films lack the most important cinematic ingredient. To craft a proper mood that unnerves and scares an audience, atmosphere is key. Beginning with his 2005 horror/courtroom thriller, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and especially his 2012 creep fest Sinister, writer-director Scott Derrickson proved he understands how to craft a proper atmospheric tone. With the creepily effective Black Phone 2, the filmmaker greatly improves on his weak adaptation of writer Joe Hill’s The Black Phone from 2022.
Hill’s short story about a masked child killer named “The Grabber” was disturbing and emotional in equal measure. Derrickson tried hard to translate it into a feature length film. Unfortunately, The Black Phone was not the director’s finest hour. While Ethan Hawke’s performance as The Grabber and Tom Savini’s mask designs were terrific, the film failed to scare and the screenplay was overwritten in its human drama. The film was a success and The Grabber became an instant favorite amongst the horror communities, but Derrickson didn’t have a tight grip on the material and the film didn’t work as a whole.
Black Phone 2 has a screenplay (written by the director and his co-writer, C. Robert Cargill) that will never draw comparisons to T.S. Elliott, but this vastly superior sequel is a more focused and atmospherically richer horror experience.
Ramping up the supernatural aura, the picture is set in 1982 and finds the now teenage Finney (Mason Thames) and his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) three years after the events where the former “killed” The Grabber (Ethan Hawke). Finney is now a troubled teen who is trying to process his trauma by smoking weed and constantly getting into fights. Gwen is having disturbing visions of three young boys who were murdered at a Christian youth camp in the 1950s. Located in the Rocky Mountains, the camp is called Alpine Lake. This is the camp where the siblings’ mother worked as a counselor when she was in her teens.
Guided by a message from their long dead mom, Gwen is drawn to a dark mystery at Alpine Lake. Along with her new suitor Ernesto (Miguel Mora, doing clever double duty playing the brother of his character from the first film), and a reluctant Finney, Gwen makes her way to the camp, where a mountain blizzard will find them all stranded.
At the camp, the three teens are snowed in with camp supervisor Armando (Demián Bichir, slumming but still solid), his niece Mustang (Arianna Rivas, giving a good performance in an underwritten role). There are also a couple of terribly written devout Christian workers, who aren’t pleased with Gwen’s vulgar vocabulary. The young teen’s near-constant foul-mouthed insults are ridiculous, as Gwen spouts strange combinations of curse words that sound completely phony. No teenager speaks in such a manner.
Ethan Hawke returns as The Grabber and gives an even darker portrayal of the child killer. Of course, Finney killed the character in the first film, but big box office and hungry horror fans demanded a sequel. Hawke’s performance is a full-on macabre delight. This time out, the actor is constantly hidden behind the now (somewhat) iconic mask yet manages to use his piercing eyes and vocal tones to create a presence that is truly scary. The Grabber is brought back by a screenplay logic that is illogical, but Hawke’s intensely committed work helps it succeed as he leans into a sadistic and darkly entertaining performance. When the murderous entity refers to himself as “a bottomless pit of sin” (the film’s best line), we believe him.
The important takeaway for The Black Phone 2 (and a good lesson for any filmmaker wanting to make sequels) is that the film isn’t a mere cash grab. There is a story to tell. Derrickson finds an interesting way to continue the stories of these characters and incorporates another level to The Grabber’s lore, while adding his ode to 80s Horror movies. The script leans heavily towards many aspects of the third Nightmare on Elm Street to the point where this film could bear the moniker, The Black Phone 2: Dream Warriors. But that’s okay! Derrickson doesn’t “rip-off”, but fuses his ideas with some of the films that shaped his desire to make movies.
Derrickson even borrows from his own films, specifically Sinister. Gwen’s nightmarish visions are represented in the scratchy pops and the washed out film stock of Super 8 movies. The crafting of these moments successfully completes the film’s desire to blend reality and nightmares into a chilling symmetry of terror. The director’s son, Atticus, compliments the disturbing imagery with an unnerving synth score that adds to the 80s horror throwback by creating pulse-pounding compositions that pay homage to the legendary film scores of John Carpenter.
Scott Derrickson has spoken of how he grew up in a church-going family and this film’s screenplay has a heavy religious undercurrent. At times, the film veers close to being strangely faith-based, but there is nothing pious. Derrickson draws from his own experiences for Gwen’s character development and the religious elements work well, save for a couple of moments and a final “heavenly” reference that is quite silly.
Although the final product is successful as a whole, the film’s screenplay has some rough patches. Jeremy Davies returns as Finney and Gwen’s father. In the first film, Davies gave a strange performance of over-acted mannerisms, but is quite good here, showing a mellow restraint. The actor’s good work is unfortunately sidelined by a script that doesn’t really know what to do with him.
The camp counselors are terribly designed. Bichir does his best to find some truth to his character, but becomes the victim of being charged with an underwritten role.
After creating a film that is effective in its desire to creep out the audience, the filmmakers seem to get lost in the finale. An overreach for emotion fails to hit and the final shot tries for a happy ending vibe that falls flat.
Problems aside, Scott Derrickson’s sequel is fueled by an inventive drive, two fine performances from Madeline McGraw and Mason Thames, a palpable horror ambience, and a viciously beguiling turn from Ethan Hawke.
Creepy and effective, Black Phone 2 works.
Black Phone 2
Written by C. Robert Cargill & Scott Derrickson (Based on characters created by Joe Hill)
Directed by Scott Derrickson
Starring Madeline McGraw, Mason Thames, Ethan Hawke, Miguel Mora, Demián Bichir, Arianna Rivas
R, 114 Minutes, Blumhouse Productions
