Film Review: Black Phone 2

Welcome back to the blog readers. As you know by now, and it is pretty well-documented over the last few years, I have had a contentious relationship with horror films. 2025 has been the best year for horror I have ever seen (coming from someone who does not see a whole lot of them), and I am hopeful we can end on a high note after a few misses. I really enjoyed The Black Phone (2022), the first film in this "new" franchise, and got both excited and nervous at the prospect of a sequel. Would this film crash and burn, or succeed and spawn a new solid franchise? Stick around to find out.

Black Phone 2 was directed by Scott Derrickson from a screenplay by Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill, based on characters created by Joe Hill. The film stars Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, Demian Bechir, and Ethan Hawke. In the film, set four years after the events of The Black Phone, Finney and Gwen are still haunted by their experiences with the Grabber when Gwen's visions lead them to a youth camp that hosts a dark secret related to the Grabber.

Like I mentioned in the introductory paragraph, I am a pretty big fan of the first film in this franchise, so much so that I put it as my sixteenth best film of 2022. The concept of a sequel kind of scared me because I did not know how you could tell another story when that first film felt a bit final. And then we throw in a bit of a Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) vibe, and you get a film that is pretty confusing to me. While I do think this film is brilliantly acted by Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, and Ethan Hawke, the film feels as if it has lost its identity a bit, and I am kind of disappointed.

I want to start by talking about the performance of Mason Thames. Back in my very first post on this blog (when I ranked my 20 favorite films of 2022), I called the performances of Thames and McGraw in the first film the best child performances of the year. I stand by that wholeheartedly, and Thames (who is in the middle of a breakout year between this, How to Train Your Dragon, and the upcoming Regretting You (both 2025)) kills it yet again as Finney. The fact that he is now eighteen allows for Thames to tap into more visceral emotions and more visceral actions, and Thames absolutely delivers when he needs to. He was the heart of the first film, and he is the heart of this film as he taps into emotions like guilt, past trauma, and the cycles of violence.

I next want to talk about the performance of Madeleine McGraw. McGraw has been involved in some lowkey projects, including Ant-Man and the Wasp, Pacific Rim Uprising (both 2018), Toy Story 4 (2019). and The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021). But her turn as Gwen in The Black Phone was the first time I really noticed her and what she can be capable of as an artist. And it suffices to say that she completely killed it in the first film. Nothing changes this time around, as she becomes the focal point of this film and totally nails the character that becomes the vessel from the real world to the dream world so to say. She has developed such a confidence and a charisma as this character and she makes watching this character succeed so fun.

And finally, what is there to say that has not already been said about "Handsome Hawke?" A four-time Academy Award nominee (two for acting with a potential third coming up, and two for screenwriting) and has been nominated for many other awards, and one of the nicest people in the business. So when he took on the role of the Grabber in The Black Phone, I was fascinated with the heel turn, and with the level of charisma he was able to bring to the role. He absolutely does it again and even is able to have a little more fun with this character, even if the lore that the character is given is not very good in the end. I only care about what he brings to the role, and he brings that charisma only he has to the role. I cannot see them doing a third film, but he needs to come back because he is my MVP.

Two more paragraphs, and I promise I will let you guys go. I want to talk about the themes of this film first, because I am more positive on them. When the first film came out, there was not really much in the way of themes since it was an adaptation of a short story. Now that we do get a second film to continue to flesh out our characters, I absolutely noticed themes of post-traumatic stress and guilt from a character like Finney, I noticed a level of acceptance of flaws in the character of Gwen, and in the father of the children, I noticed regrets and guilt over the past. And watching these character evolve over the course of the film was pretty joyous to watch in my opinion.

But finally, I do have a negative aspect of this film. And this negative is enough of a drag down to where the quality of the whole film suffers as a result. This negative has to do with the shift in tone between the two films. Now, this is not a total shift like with what happened with M3GAN (2023), which was a horror comedy, and M3GAN 2.0 (2025), which was an action comedy, but going from a pure psychological horror film (even though it was marketed as a supernatural horror) to pure supernatural feels tonally different, and it kind of loses a good chunk of the charm and swagger the first film had. I mentioned the high highs of this film, but this is enough of a low to drag the quality down a bunch.

In conclusion, Black Phone 2 features a tonal shift from the first film that cannot save brilliant performances from being lost within itself. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.