‘Black Phone 2’ proves scarier isn’t always better
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I've always held Stephen King in pretty high regard. I grew up in Maine about an hour from where the thrill master lived. I remember one Halloween, some college friends and I drove by his Addams Family-esque house to see if it was a truly spooky sight.
I remember it being very dark and sinister.
I also recall being blown away when attending a UMaine baseball game on campus and King sat down in the row behind me. He was cordial to those who recognized him - I'm not sure how you couldn't.
Over the years, I've read a few of his best-sellers and watched his movies. Sitting down for my screening of "Black Phone 2," I'll admit I wasn't entirely certain what to expect other than this sequel promised some major "Nightmare on Elm Street" vibes. King took to social media to share his thoughts, and honestly, that proved to be enough to get me in the door.
"It's not as good as the first one," said King, who, for transparency sake, is the father of author Joe Hill. "It's better."
Memorable horror villains aren't exactly a rarity these days, but still aren't something I'd take for granted. So even though I wasn't convinced "Black Phone 2" needed to exist, given the first film adapted a standalone short story from Hill, I was still more than excited to see Ethan Hawke's depraved killer The Grabber back on the big screen.
King was also pumped for the upcoming horror movie and shared a short-but-glowing review that I hoped to agree with. Sadly, I didn't.
King is known to share his many pop culture opinions, movie takes and TV show praise with his social media followers, and it wasn't exactly surprising that he would be chiming in on "Black Phone 2," considering its legacy connections.
How is it that Halloween couldn't give us a better horror movie than "Black Phone 2?" I'm not shocked that a Halloween horror movie is a disappointment, but I'm shocked that we didn't get anything better this year.
This year has been a banner year for horror with "Sinners," "Weapons," "Final Destination: Bloodlines" and "The Conjuring: Last Rites" being blockbusters.
For Halloween, we got "Black Phone 2," a movie that barely raked in $64.2 million at the domestic box office. With Halloween over, the film is unlikely to wind up a blockbuster or make more than the 2022 original.
The film takes place in 1982 - four years after the original - where teenager Finney Blake (Mason Thames) killed serial child murderer The Grabber (Hawke) by talking to the past victims using the mysterious Black Phone.
Now, Finney and his sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), are trying to move on with their lives despite him living his trauma and her unable to stop having violent psychic visions. She thinks they need to go on a mission of some kind.
Their journey takes them to a snowed-in Christian youth camp that their mother attended 25 years ago. Gwen's visions start to intensify, and she has severe nightmares and sleepwalks.
Also, despite the camp's director (Demián Bechir) insisting that it's closed, Finney gets calls on the camp's pay phone. Some calls are from scared children Finney has never met, but Gwen has seen in her dreams. One call is from The Grabber. Somehow, he can still make things happen from beyond the grave, and one of the things he wants to make happen is revenge.
The early stages of the film are promising. We don't know exactly what tools the dead Grabber has at his disposal, so we don't know how he can affect the characters and the world around them. He could do something shocking.
As the film goes along and he shows his hand more and more, he gets less and less scary. By the end, he's basically a less-smart Freddy Krueger. It's disappointing and makes for an average movie, at best.
Rating: R
Runtime: 114 minutes
Grade: C
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Greg Williams is a reporter and Weekend Editor for The Sentinel. A Mifflin County native, he has been writing for The Sentinel since 1991.