Anyone who’s anyone knows that it’s virtually impossible to keep a masked serial killer down for good if the box office receipts are healthy; but even so, it seemed that the Grabber had most definitely ceased to be at the end of Scott Derrickson’s superlative The Black Phone. Crafting a perversely fascinating antagonist in the form of Ethan Hawke theatrical child murderer who emotes almost entirely with a mask with changeable facial expressions, the film also laid upon us an intriguing new lore about the afterlife when the ghosts of previous victims conspire to help young Finney Blake escape the killer’s lair via the titular phone.
The result was arguably the best film of Derrickson’s career (sorry, Sinister), the best adaption of a story from Joe Hill (sorry, Horns) and a refreshing return to more R rated thrills from the PG-13 bating Blumhouse Pictures; but with a sequel taking a noticable step deeper into the supernatural with the Grabber seemingly taking some post-death slaughter tips from Freddy Krueger, can Black Phone 2 manage to stay on the line?
Four years after the child killing spree of the sinister Grabber was halted by his most recent victim-to-be, we find Finney Blake still struggling to deal with his experiences. Getting abducted by a serial murderer was one thing, but being guided to escape by the ghosts of previous victims has been enough to send Finn spiraling into a state of denial and while he attempts to smother his trauma in marijuana smoke, his frequent bouts of rage has led him to be barely one step away from being a classic bully. Meanwhile, Finn’s endearingly gutter-mouthed sister, Gwen, is still wrestling with her prophetic dreams and after having a vision of her late mother ringing her from a phonebox in 1957, she realises that something is once again amiss in the world of the supernatural. Dreams in where she’s approached by three mutilated boys and results in her sleepwalking seems to be heralding that something terrible is about to occurring and after putting together some of the facts, both she and a wary Finn realise that the answers could lie at Alpine Lake, a Christian youth camp where their mother worked as a teen.
However, when Gwen, Finn and the brother of one of the previous victims, Ernesto, reach the camp undercover as counsellors in training, a blizzard sweeps in to trap them and the staff of the camp there alone, but as they quiz the supervisor, Armando, about the history of the place, Gwen’s dreams start to get progressively more violent. Soon a phone call to Finn from a busted phone confirms their worse fears and it seems that the Grabber has returned from burning cold of Hell to get even by killing what he loves most in the world – Gwen. Drawing from the power he gets from his first trio of undiscovered victims, the Grabber has managed to pierce the boundaries of both the afterlife and dreams to affect the real world and if the gang doesn’t pull together and figure things out, the ghostly killer will grab a most terrible revenge.
While the first movie felt like an attempt to put a pretty original spin on the serial killer/ghost movies, there’s a sense that with Black Phone 2, Scott Derrickson is trying to overtly emulate the movies that inspired him. Anyone who doesn’t think the concept of a child murdering killer coming back from the other side to murder from beyond the grave sound incredibly familiar obviously haven’t watched a horror movie made before 2010 and the central setting of a camp buried under a ghostly white snow storm brings both Friday The 13th and The Shining instantly to mind. But while on the surface it may sound like Derrickson is dangerously low on ideas, the Kruegerfication of Hawke’s masked lunatic actually proves to scratch a few itches I’d forgotten that I had. Essentially, it’s pretty obvious that The Black Phone is trying to unsubtly move in on Elm Street territory as the whole dream killer vibe is fairly tough to disguise – but when you consider that the last time Freddy stalked the multiplexs, Barack Obama was still in office, it was feeling long overdue that someone, anyone, should try to be picking up the mantle after that awful remake seeningly put the razor-gloved one six under for good. Speaking as a former Freddy fan, there’s something that feels so terribly right about Black Phone’s reconfiguring that the finished result not only feels like it’s rectifying a past wrong, but it feels like a loveletter the the series in general. Take it from me, the fact that Demián Bichir’s character looks remarkably like Wes Craven surely can’t be a coincidence.
However, beyond managing to do justice to franchise that was torpedoed by its own remake, does Black Phone 2 manage to do right by its own predecessor? Well, as the change in threat necessitates some rather noticeable shifts in the tone, for the most part Derrickson manages to craft a worthy continuation that keeps a lot of the stylish flair, but alters the way it was originally used. For example, the grainy, dreamy, dream sequences are back in full force (Jeez, Derrickson, if you love old film stock so much, why don’t you marry it), as is the sight of the mutilated ghosts of young boys trippily trying to communicate (a lot of disturbing milage is gotten from a tyke with a bisected face), but without the ticking clock of young Finney having to stay alive while at the mercy of the Grabber, the sequel is forced to lose a lot of the tense, claustrophobia that made the first film so gripping. Similarly, while the movie has a lot to say about Mason Thames’ lead trying to grapple with PTSD and Madeline McGraw’s Gwen steps into more of a final girl mode as she learns to accept her gifts while now being the Grabber’s main target – but again, now that the brother and sister have more of a support group around them this time, the sense of threat is lessened slightly.
However, while the sequel is technically the lesser of the two installments, that’s now to say that Black Phone calls collect. Visually speaking, Derrickson goes to town by making the setting a snowed-in campsite and those crackly dream-visuals are are jarring as ever – but while we technically get less of Hawke’s Grabber than before, the supernatural glow up of the killer proves to add some funky new details. As Hell is more ice than fire, the Grabber now comes with a dusting of frost and boasts feet utterly encased in burning ice (that also double as handy ice skates), but beyond that, his face is practically coming apart under that trademark mask and his attacks in the real world have the same impact as Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man or, yes, the original Nightmare On Elm Street.
So in essence, what we’re dealing with here is something of a trade off. In its attempts to deliver something new, Black Phone 2 often is forced to ditch some of the better ideas from the original in order to make this continuing adventure work. However, how often does a horror franchise get the chance to switch tracks and take its memorable villain into bold, supernatural areas while still sticking with the same universe? As a result, the second coming of the Grabber may bewilder those not down with the rules of an 80s fantasy killer (everyone jumps on the supernatural killer explanation incredibly quick), but if a third Black Phone got dialled up, I’d answer the call and no mistake.
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