Black Phone 2: A chilling sequel

The months of fall are infamous for the arrival of a variety of different horror movies; this October, “Black Phone 2” arrived in theaters. Fans from the first movie, such as myself, could not wait longer for the sequel to “Black Phone,” which continues the plot from the original movie, but with a twist.

“Black Phone 2” is centered around Finny Blake’s (Mason Thames) younger sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw). As viewers know from the first movie, Gwen has psychic powers that helped her find where Finny was being held captive. Where her powers originated from is expanded on throughout the movie as she gets haunted by nightmares filled with three boys being hunted down at a winter camp. Curious to know the source of her visions, Finny, Gwen, and Gwen’s friend Ernesto (Miguel Mora) travel to the camp in search of the source. Oblivious to their situation, Finny and Gwen are met with The Grabber (Ethan Hawke) once again.

After a great introduction into the “Black Phone” movie franchise, “Black Phone 2” was an adequate sequel to the first one. The first one holds a special place in my heart; it's one of those movies that I can watch over and over without getting bored. I couldn’t say the same for the second movie, though.

In my eyes, “The Black Phone” would be placed in the genre of psychological thrillers; it’s one of those horror movies that makes you truly think of everything that's going on. “Black Phone 2” has more horror and spiritual aspects. Going into the second movie, the audience knows that The Grabber is dead. The way they’ve incorporated The Grabber into this movie so he could still star as the main villain is very creative.

The acting from Mason Thames and Madeline McGraw in this movie is phenomenal. Mason Thames has been taking over Hollywood this past year by starring as main characters in popular movie franchises. With the release of “How to Train Your Dragon” in June, to “Black Phone” and to his latest release “Regretting You,” Mason Thames deserves all the fame and recognition coming his way for his amazing acting and understanding of the characters he's portraying.

My takeaway from this movie is how the plot felt very dragged on. With the movie being almost two hours long at 1h 54m, I assumed that there would be a lot of buildup to the climax, and I was correct. A majority of the buildup was necessary to achieve the climax, but some parts (such as their searching the lake) felt repetitive.

Overall, I would give this movie a 4.5/5. Even though it isn’t as good as “The Black Phone,” “Black Phone 2” is a good enough sequel to the original that doesn’t feel like they are completely dragging out the plot. Although, if they plan on making a third movie, the plot might start losing its purpose.