The Grabber is back, well at least his ghost is, and it looks like he paid a visit to another infamous killer for Scott Derrickson’s Black Phone 2.
Black Phone 2 Review
Director Scott Derrickson and screenwriter C. Robert Cargill are back to deliver a sequel to their hit, The Black Phone. Black Phone 2 marks the first time Derrickson has returned to a project to helm its follow-up. The film itself is one of his most mature to date and in many ways exceeds its predecessor, something that is typically hard to accomplish in the horror genre. Sure there are exceptions but that's exactly what they are, exceptions. The use of Super 8 (and modified Super 16) sequences once again sets a sinister tone, bathing the screen in a supernatural eeriness. Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw prove that Finney and Gwen can be heroes not just survivors while Ethan Hawke dares you to look away whenever he appears on screen donning The Grabber's mask.
The Grabber (or at least his ghost) is back for Black Phone 2. It's a sequel that acts as an origin story for the nightmarish figure as well as a way to give audiences more of Hawke's now iconic villain. The Grabber always seemed to borrow from other infamous killers but this time around more than before the comparisons are likely to have already begun. Without a doubt this is a new generation's Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors with a splash of Friday the 13th thanks to the camp location. Although it is exceedingly apparent The Grabber decided to pay a visit to Elm Street before popping back up, Black Phone 2 is still creepy, gory, and a great watch for genre fans.
Four years ago Finney (Thames) slayed the Grabber (Hawke), a serial murderer who was discovered by Finney's sister Gwen (McGraw) thanks to her physic dream visions. Nowadays, Finney is trying to cope with his trauma while his sister's visions are getting worse. Gwen is convinced they need to go work at a Christian Youth Camp that holds secrets to not only the Grabber's past but their mother's as well. Along for the ride is Gwen's would-be boyfriend Ernesto (Miguel Mora), the younger brother of one of the Grabber's victims from the previous film. At the camp they meet Armando (Demián Bichir) who is haunted by the deaths of the three boys Gwen has seen in her dreams. He has spent the last three decades searching for their bodies in order to lay them to rest. Together, along with his niece Mustang (Arianna Rivas), they will attempt to finally bring peace to those boys and their families. But first they will have to contend with the Grabber.
Oh sure he was dead at the end of the previous film but death means nothing in the horror world. There are all sorts of loopholes and plot armor that can make anyone return at any moment. “Death is just a word” Hawke growls at Thames in one scene. Although I much prefer the line from The Mummy, “death is only the beginning.” Explaining the Grabber's return isn't where the story runs into problems, it's the shoehorning of Christianity into the plot that makes things get a little awkward. In Black Phone 2, we learn that the kids' mother didn't just work at a religious camp; she was actually religious herself. Now making a character Christian (or any other religion) isn't a problem in and of itself but it was never hinted at before and adding it in now just feels wholly unnecessary. And when you think about it, the first film, and this one as well, are about overcoming external forces/entities that want to gain control of your life. It just seems counterproductive to that point and let's face it, religious horror isn't as entertaining as it used to be.
Religion isn't the only weak point but it does tie into the other– the dialogue. There are a lot of clunky and frankly absurd chunks that will have you laugh at it not with it. Kudos to Hawke for being able to deftly handle the burdens of his portion of the script when The Grabber is forced to grumble through quite a lot of words. For instance when the children make it to camp, Gwen is supposed to sleep alone but she sneaks into the boy's cabin in order to feel safe. She tells Ernesto she sometimes talks to Jesus in order to calm her fears. He replies by telling her that it's “hot” to talk to Jesus. *Face palm* Then there is the excessive and I do mean excessive use of 80s catchphrases. Multiple words/phrases are thrown into single sentences. None of it sounds natural and although I was a baby in that decade others who were very much teens/young adults confirmed to me no one talked like that. The slinging of curse combos by Gwen become distracting as do the random Christian-ese interjections. It even takes away from the emotional payoff of the ending. Ultimately, Derrickson and Cargill would've been better off leaving all that behind so as to not pull focus from their engaging and horrific world.
Dialogue and religious tones aside, Black Phone 2 has an incredible visual look that is as fascinating as it is chilling to look at. The grainy imagery that Derrickson is so fond of provides the basis for the most nightmarish imagery in the whole film. The echoes of the past – the deaths of those three boys – are eerily ethereal and fragmented in a way that send a shiver down your spine. The gore effects that occur when Gwen sees how those boys were murder are a mix of practical and special effects, leaving blood to smear and pool in places where body parts are left to rot. And if the Grabber being a killer that haunts dreams wasn't Freddy enough for you, they visually pay homage to him with a spinning bodies effect as Gwen is tormented by her invisible enemy.
In spite of some of the more cringe-worthy dialogue, the performances by the three leads are powerful. Thames puts in work to show how Finney is battling with his emotions as he faces his own trauma while trying to save his sister. McGraw is both timid and determined as Gwen, moving from one to the other as her character learns she can fight back. And of course it is no surprise that Hawke is incredible. Menacing, frightening, and purely wicked, he dares you to look away. He is somehow more deranged than before, wearing varying versions of the mask before showing off some gnarly prosthetics.
Verdict
At the end of the day, Black Phone 2 outperforms its predecessor in many ways. Hawke's Grabber is more petrifying, the visuals more spine-tingling, and plenty of genre-fans, especially newer ones are going to eat up every second of this. A common complaint for longtime horror lovers will be that this, just like many other contemporary films, takes heavily from iconic franchises of the past. Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and even The Shining are bound to come up in conversation after the credits roll. The Grabber may have stopped on Elm Street to borrow a thing or two but he does so in a way that still makes for a creepy, fun watch. If this franchise continues, I hope they drop the religion part and all the weird 80s phrase combos and give us something that will make us want to shrink in our seats from being scared, not from being embarrassed for the characters.
Black Phone 2 is in theaters now It is rated R for strong violent content, gore, teen drug use, and language with a runtime of 1 hour 54 minutes.
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