Written by Sam Clark
Certificate: 18
Running time: 114 minutes
Director: Scott Derrickson
I wish my relationship with Blumhouse was better than it actually is. Whilst I recognize and realize that their catlalogue of horror is wildly successful with mainstream audiences, I have never been a fan. I find their type of horror to have no lasting effect on me or prove to be anything memorable, and worst of all, I don't find them scary. I have enjoyed some of their work in the past, but the negatives outweigh the positives.
Well, hallelujah and hoorah, we finally have a Blumhouse I can get on board with, the last one having been Leigh Whannel's Wolf Man. I had some homework to do prior to seeing Black Phone 2 as I hadn't seen the first, but was aware of the fact it was well received upon release. I liked it far more than I thought I would and proved to be a refreshingly creative little slice of horror, with it's fair share of well executed jumps and violence. Has the sequel been able to live up to it? Scott Derrickson (Sinister, Doctor Strange ,The Gorge) returns to write and direct here alongside frequent collaborator C Robert Cargill. Both films are based off a short story from Joe Hill, and many reviews from the first pointed out the similarities to Stephen King. Well, as it turns out, he is King's son which I was not aware of but which makes all the sense in the world - no pressure.
Image credit: IMDb/Universal Pictures
Black Phone 2 takes place in 1982, a few years after the events of the first. Both films centred around a masked kidnapper known as ''The Grabber'' (Ethan Hawke) who hunted children. Mason Thames returns as Finney Blake, a high school student who was kidnapped by The Grabber and not only survived, but killed him in the process. Finney is still suffering from these events. His younger sister Gwen (Madaleine McGraw) is also back. Gwen can best be described as psychic who has dreams and visions of children being taken by The Grabber, and who came to the rescue the first time around.
Gwen begins to see images of three boys in her sleep at a remote winter camp called Alpine Lake who were also victims. Finney is desperately trying to move on and insists these are just dreams, desperately trying not to revisit the past. He reluctantly agrees to travel with her to the camp to investigate. Her visions begin to intensify and they realize The Grabber may still be lurking in a supernatural realm, continuing to taunt them. The siblings also come to discover a connection and link to their deceased mother who they believe took her own life, but things are not as they seem.
Image credit: IMDb/Universal Pictures
I went into Black Phone 2 with a fair amount of trepidation, not only because I was more of a fan of the first than I thought I would be, but the sequel's trailers appeared to have some bite - which the first also delivered on. However, this time round we had an 18 certificate as oppose to 15 which is always a good thing in my book, and the film certainly capitalizes on that with some nasty moments and good jumps. I loved Black Phone 2 as the film was able to pull off something most horror sequels fall flat on their face doing. What we have here is a continuation that is able to be more stylish (as all sequels must) but at no point compromises any of the quality, which is rare. The last example of this I can recall was Smile 2 which was able to get away with going completely mad and off the wall, I struggle to imagine many things that will be able to do what that did ever again. For my money, this is the best horror sequel ever made, and I'm still gutted Naomi Scott did not receive an Oscar nomination.
The worst you can say here is that there is an strong and inevitable whiff of ''sequel syndrome'' in that we follow the same formula of not only horror sequel, but every sequel. The film is naturally flashier in every regard and whilst that is bound to happen and some films suffer from it, I loved what this was able to do. From what I have gathered, I'm the only one whose taken this strongly to Black Phone 2, and reminded me of when Alien: Romulus came out, which I absolutely loved (so much so in fact that I even prefer it to the first...).
Being the film score lover I am, I watched the first from a laptop and was really impressed by the thumping and electronic soundtrack. The sound in my screening for this was genuinely some of the best I've ever heard, and since I liked the music the first time around, the full whack of the speakers was even better here. Hats off to composer Atticus Derrickson (I'm not sure what connection he has with director Scott Derrickson). Music can be the sole thing that elevates a film and that's what happened with Black Phone 2., and partly the reason I enjoyed myself so much. After some flimsy horror as of recent and coming off the back of what summer had offered, this is the improvement I want and have been looking for. Mainstream horror is such a slippery slope for me, some I love and some I hate, but if most can aspire to be more like Black Phone and others recently, you have my money.
Black Phone 2 is in cinemas now.
