Anna Lore, Arianna Rivas, Black Phone 2, Demian Bichir, Denver, Ethan Hawke, Graham Abbey, horror, Jeremy Davies, Madeleine McGraw, Maev Beaty, Mason Thames, Miguel Mora, movies, reviews, Scott Derrickson, The Black Phone
October 16, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Scott Derrickson
Some language in Spanish with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in the Denver area, the horror film “Black Phone 2” (a sequel to “The Black Phone”) features a white and Latin cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: Four years after teenager Finney Blake killed the serial murderer The Grabber who kidnapped him and other boys, The Grabber comes back to haunt Finney and his younger sister Gwen, who has psychic abilities.
Culture Audience: “Black Phone 2” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the first “Black Phone” movie, and the short story on which the movies are based.
“Black Phone 2” is a suspenseful sequel with very good performances. However, this horror franchise has officially run out of unique ideas, now that it’s imitating the “Nightmare on Elm Street” Freddy Krueger concept for chief villain The Grabber. “Black Phone 2” is not a terrible movie, but it’s lost a lot of the original terror impact that was in 2022’s “The Black Phone.”
“The Black Phone” and “Black Phone 2” have the same team of director Scott Derrickson, screenwriter C. Robert Cargill (who co-wrote both movies with Derrickson) and producer Jason Blum. Both movies are based on “The Black Phone” short story in author Joe Hill’s 2005 collection “20th Century Ghosts.” (Hill is the son of horror master Stephen King.) Both movies take place in the Denver area. “Black Phone 2” was actually filmed in Ontario.
Is it necessary to watch or know what happened “The Black Phone” before seeing “Black Phone 2?” Yes, because so much of what happens in “Black Phone 2” depends entirely on what happened in “The Black Phone.” Trailers for “Black Phone 2” already announce what would normally be spoiler information: At the end of “The Black Phone” (which takes place in 1978), teenage protagonist Finn “Finney” Blake (played by Mason Thames) killed the serial murderer nicknamed The Grabber (played by Ethan Hawke), a magician who kidnapped Finney and several other boys in Denver. The Grabber’s real name is not revealed in “The Black” phone movies.
“Black Phone 2” takes place in 1982. Finney, who now goes by the name Finn, is a frequently angry 17-year-old who’s addicted to smoking marijuana to numb the emotional pain and trauma of his experiences with The Grabber, who kept the kidnapped boys in his basement that had a disabled black phone in the room. Because Finn is known in the community for killing The Grabber, he sometimes gets teased and harassed about it by other young people, and Finn usually gets into physical fights over it. Finn’s younger sister Gwen Blake (played by Madeleine McGraw), who is about 15 years old, has psychic abilities and was instrumental in helping find a kidnapped Finn in “The Black Phone” movie.
Finn has psychic abilities too, but they’re not as strong as Gwen’s abilities. In “The Black Phone,” Finn received psychic phone calls on a black phone located on a wall in The Grabber’s basement. The phone calls were from boys who were murdered by The Grabber. Gwen can see the past and present through dreams and visions. She can also communicate with dead people in these dreams and visions.
Hope Blake (played by Anna Lore), the mother of Finn and Gwen, died seven years ago in a reported suicide. The siblings live with their father Terrence Blake (played by Jeremy Davies), who was an abusive alcoholic in “The Black Phone.” Terrence—a former police officer who currently works for Rocky Flats Nuclear Facility—turned his life around after Finn was rescued. Terrence is now a sober and responsible parent.
The story in “Black Phone 2” is fairly simple: Finn, Gwen and their schoolmate friend Ernesto, nicknamed Ernie (played by Miguel Mora), decide to get a job by joining a training program for camp counselors at Alpine Lake, which is a Rocky Mountain-area camp for Christian youth. Ernie has a crush on Gwen, and the feeling might be mutual. At the camp, the three teens and other people are targeted by the ghost of The Grabber.
The three teens travel to Alpine Lake during a snowstorm and find out that the winter session for the camp has been canceled due to the snowstorm. Finn, Gwen and Ernie are told that that they were the only counselors in training who couldn’t be reached in time about the camp session being canceled. (Remember, this is 1982, before cell phones and the Internet existed. Many people also didn’t have answering machines in 1982.) The roads are now closed because of the snowstorm, so the teens have to stay at the camp until the snowstorm makes it safe to travel on the road.
Gwen has been having dreams and visions about three boys being trapped underneath an icy lake and using their fingers to scratch certain letters on the ice while trapped and before they drowned. Gwen finds out later that three boys were named Felix (played by Simon Webster), Spike (played by Chase B. Robertson) and Calvin, also known as Cal (played by Shepherd Munroe), who all died at Alpine Lake. She’s also been seeing The Grabber in her dreams.
The beginning of the movie shows a flashback to 1957, when a young woman (later revealed to be Hope) is seen talking on an outdoor black pay phone in a snowy area. Hope is telling someone on the phone that she also saw boys trapped in the icy lake, but Hope saw the boys carving numbers, not letters. The seven numbers that she saw were the digits of the phone number she called on the pay phone.
“Black Phone 2” later explains where Hope was and the context of Hope’s phone conversation that was shown in the beginning of the movie. As already revealed in the “Black Phone 2” trailers, that same black pay phone is at Alpine Lake. The movie has several scenes of a phone ringing and Finn picking up the phone, saying, “I can’t help you,” and then hanging up the phone,
“Black Phone 2” is essentially a chase movie where The Grabber hunts down Finn and Gwen, who are the only people in the movie who can see The Grabber. Somehow, the Grabber’s ghost is still able to do physical damage in the present day, just like dead serial killer Freddy Krueger of the “Nightmare on Elm Street” horror movie franchise, which has Freddy Krueger appearing in people’s dreams. With The Grabber dead but still being able to kill people in “real life,” the “Black Phone” franchise has backed itself into a corner and is now copying what the “Nightmare on Elm Street” movie series has been doing since the first “Nightmare on Elm Street” movie was released in 1984.
In “Black Phone 2,” the people who help the teens in trying to stop this rampage are Alpine Lake owner Armando, nicknamed Mando (played by Demián Bichir), who is kind and compassionate; Alpine Lake horse wrangler Mustang (played by Arianna Rivas), who Armando’s friendly and brave teenage niece; and a married religious couple who are Alpine Lake’s office managers: Kenneth, nicknamed Ken (played Graham Abbey), and Barbara, nicknamed Barb (played by Maev Beaty), whose names obviously are satirical of Ken and Barbie dolls. Not surprisingly, Ken and Barb are the most sanctimonious and judgmental characters in the movie. Terrence also conveniently shows up because he was able to get a snow plow, even though the roads to Alpine Lake are supposed to be closed.
“Black Phone 2” succeeds in immersing viewers in the sinister and frightening aspects of the movie. (The cinematography for Gwen’s dreams and visions are shown in a grainy tone that resembles a creepy home video filmed on Super 8 film.) There’s also a plot reveal about Hope that is very intriguing and puts a new twist on The Grabber’s backstory. And the performances—particularly from Thames, McGraw and Hawke—are effective. The sibling relationship between Finn and Gwen also shows some meaningful evolution.
However, the contrivance of a ringing outdoor pay phone in the middle of a snowstorm becomes a bit ridiculous after a while. And it’s not a new concept to set the terror in a kids’ camp in a remote wooded area. That’s been a horror cliché that started with 1980’s “Friday the 13th.” The “Black Phone” franchise is in desperate need of a more innovative way to keep The Grabber story alive. Otherwise, the “Black Phone” franchise is going to turn into the “Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise, with the quality of each movie getting worse, and the chief villain becoming a parody of himself.
Universal Pictures will release “Black Phone 2” in U.S. cinemas on October 17, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on November 4, 2025. “Black Phone 2” will be released on Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD on December 23, 2025.