🎥 The Black Phone 2

“Dialing back into the nightmare… but this time, Gwen answers.”


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🎞️ Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers, shall we?

Since this is a Universal film, Y’all know what that means? Cue the Universal Logo!

⚠️ Content Warning ⚠️
This sequel is gnarly — not in the fun “surf’s up” way, but in the holy hell they actually showed that? way. The dream sequences don’t hold back: kids are stabbed, burned, sliced in half, and dragged into icy graves with more detail than you’d expect from a mainstream horror film. While most of the “real world” deaths are avoided, the visions themselves lean into gore and shock imagery that might be too much for some viewers. If the first film’s menace felt restrained, this one pushes into Terrifier-style territory — not constant splatter, but raw enough to make you squirm.

By the way, if you ask me it really feels like Terrifier 2 and 3 really flooded open the doors to allowing hollywood to be more edgy with its horror films.


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📖 Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

We pick up years after the first film. Finney is not okay (shocker): he’s angry, fights at school, and numbs himself. Gwen still has those visions — only now they’re sharper, meaner, and dragging her toward a remote Christian youth camp at Alpine Lake, where something awful happened to three kids in the snow.

Gwen convinces Finney to go “work” at the camp (read: snoop), and the minute they arrive her dreams start bleeding into reality: a burnt boy, a boy sliced in half, a frozen lake, a name carved into ice — and that cursed black phone keeps ringing from random booths in the forest.

While Finney tries to move on, the past refuses. The Grabber isn’t just a memory; he’s back in a colder, more supernatural form that feels ripped from Dante’s Inferno (yep, hell is ice now). Gwen believes the only way to stop him is to find the missing kids’ bodies and lay them to rest — which means digging into town secrets, sparring with holier-than-thou staff, and wading into a dream-world that makes zero sense but somehow still wants her dead.

TL;DR: Sibling trauma, ghost logic, frozen hell, and a hunt through visions to expose what really happened at Alpine Lake — with the Grabber stalking Gwen from the shadows.

If any of y’all were expecting or wanting a grounded story like the first movie, sorry to say this, but all logic and realism has left.
The movie, instead of this movie just goes batshit off the walls. If that’s your thing, you will love this movie. If that’s not your thing, then you’re probably going to be disappointed.

Also, it’s been four years since the first movie came out. Maybe y’all can explain this to me, but how did these two actors go from looking like seven year olds in the first movie to now?Looking like they’re in their teens, and It’s only been four years!


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👥 Character Rundown

Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) – The movie is hers. Grounded, fierce, and actually feels like a real kid dealing with unbearable stuff. Not “child actor,” just sister. On a side note she has a massive potty mouth in this film, she cusses using some creative words people wouldn’t consider such as suck ur dinosaur dick, or at least i think she said that.

Finney (Mason Thames) – Punchy, bitter, and trying to pretend the basement never happened. Uses weed to mute the noise. Messy in a believable way.

After coming off of his success of playing Hickup in the live action Hos To Train Your Dragons film, now he’s back in the role of Finney.

The Grabber (Ethan Hawke) – Less basement boogeyman, more ice-demon. Minimal screen time, maximum dread. Whispery, surgical, deeply unsettling.

On a side note this is Ethan Hawke’s 3td horror movie role.

Dad – No longer the drunk. Trying. Human. It matters.

Armando / Mustang / Ernesto – The camp axis: one earnest, one ride-or-die, one comic grounding. They give Gwen/Finney a world to push against.

Religious Harpy (Barbara) – Specifically engineered to make you roll your eyes. Mission accomplished.

🎭 Why the Grabber > Freddy Krueger

I’ve never once found Freddy Krueger scary. Not once. By the time most of us grew up, Freddy wasn’t a nightmare demon — he was a walking Halloween costume with dad jokes. His “fear factor” is mostly nostalgia propping him up. Now compare that to the Grabber in The Black Phone 2. Ethan Hawke turns this guy into pure nightmare fuel. Frozen flesh peeling off his face, whispering about hell being cold, skating out of the dark with an axe on his belt — that imagery is unsettling in a way Freddy hasn’t been for decades. Freddy makes you laugh with his quips, the Grabber makes your skin crawl because he feels wrong. He doesn’t want to entertain you; he wants to haunt you. And honestly? That’s scarier.


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🌿 Finney’s Weed Habit: Why It Works

Normally, when Hollywood deals with trauma survivors, they fall back on the same boring tropes: brooding silence, therapy sessions with inspirational background music, or the classic “my trauma makes me an edgy loner who can’t love anyone anymore.” Yawn. The Black Phone 2 goes in a different direction: Finney numbs himself by smoking weed. And you know what? That feels real. It’s messy, it’s raw, and it’s not played for melodrama — it’s just a kid trying to dull the pain of something he can’t forget. It’s not glamorous, it’s not “dark and gritty,” it’s just painfully human. Instead of Hollywood’s neat little bow of “therapy cures everything,” this angle says: no, trauma doesn’t vanish, it festers, and people find ugly, imperfect ways to cope. It’s a creative choice that makes Finney’s character feel more honest than half the “traumatized survivor” stereotypes we’ve been fed for years.

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⏱️ Pacing / Episode Flow

First 40–50 minutes are a slow coil: family dynamic, camp vibes, creepy dream inserts shot on grainy Super 8 (huge win). Then the movie flips from true-crime grief to supernatural siege — and once the Grabber fully enters, it’s off to the races on cracking ice. If you’re allergic to slow burns, you’ll grumble. If you like dread marinating before the hit? You’ll be fine.

So if any of y’all are coming in wanting to see the grabber, you’re going to have to wait like 1 hour into the movie to see him, just warning y’all now.


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✅ Pros

Gwen & Finney feel like actual siblings. Protective one minute, sniping the next, then hugging like the world’s ending. It works.

Ethan Hawke = nightmare fuel with barely any screen time. Not goofy, not camp. Just cold.

Super 8 dream sequences look sick. Tangible, grimy, and they sell the folklore vibe.

Dante’s 9th circle “hell is ice” angle actually fits the Grabber. Mythic without being pretentious.

Joe Hill’s fingerprints (King’s son; wrote the original short story) keep it from feeling like a soulless sequel. You can tell there’s intent, not just IP milking.

I was surprised how far they were willing to go to show kids being killed in a brutal ways. I was just like, oh, they actually really went there, Okay.

Also, the dad sobering up and becoming a good father is always a win and im here for that.

This pro is a fun fact, but there’s a scene in the third act, where the grabber comes skating in from the darkness into the light. And the director said he took inspiration from this niche. Canadian movie called curtain. It’s a movie I did a review on earlier in the summer. If anyone’s curious, but it is really niche. And I actually enjoy it.



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❌ Cons

Dream-world rules? Absolutely cooked. Can it kill you? Sometimes. Can you punch ghosts? Also sometimes. Phones ring for vibes. Make it make sense.

Grabber is underused. What we get is great, but the trailers show most of it.

“Goriest entry” marketing is cap. Brutal flashes in visions, sure — but the main roster has more plot armor than a superhero team-up. Yeah no one dies in this movie, the only ones who do bite the dust.Are those three kids and the main character’s mother. And those were in backflash scenes.

A few Hallmarky beats peek through (melodrama swells, “we healed” vibes). Not fatal, but yeah, I clocked it.

Unfortunately, all of The Grabber’s scenes were shown in the trailers. Including the cool epic scenes.

Also this movie has three tones, this movie tries to be like nightmare on elm street. While being a hallmark melodrama movie, all the while of being stranger things. Yeah I wish I was joking but that’s where does movie steers into, it has no cohesive structure in its tone, as stated this film is bonkers.



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🧠 Two Quick Context Bits (pre-spoilers)

Dante’s Inferno Influence: The film literalizes the 9th circle — frozen betrayal hell — to reframe the Grabber as a thing clawing up from ice, not flame. It’s on-the-nose, but I liked it. How I was introduced to dante’s inferno was thanks to the video game that EA made, if any of y’all are curious, you should check out my review on that game.

Stephen King’s Seal of Approval: He called it one of the best horror films of the year. Is that partly dad energy for Joe Hill (who helped steer the sequel)? Probably. Doesn’t make him wrong, but the nepotism glow is definitely there.



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🧵 Final Thoughts

I went in expecting to be annoyed. I walked out… kind of impressed? It’s slower, moodier, and way more Gwen-centric — which is exactly why it works. Performances carry it, the vibe is strong, and Hawke is still terrifying. Do I wish the dream logic held together for more than five minutes? YES. Do I wish the movie swung harder with consequences? Also yes. But as a character-driven supernatural sequel that leans into grief, faith, and the ugliness of memory — yeah, this dial tone hit.

This movie might be my new favorite on the technicality of the acting being phenomenal and the theme and the core of this movie.


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⭐ Rating

8.5 / 10 — “Answer the call, but don’t expect the phone company to explain how any of this works.”


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🚨 Spoiler Warning — FULL SPOILERS BELOW 🚨

The Name: The Grabber is ID’d as “Wild Bill Hickok” (a nasty nickname from camp days because of his low-slung “holster” tool belt). Ghost kids literally point Gwen there via scratched initials: W / B / H under the ice.

By the way, if you ask me, that’s a stupid name, really? Wild Bill Hickok? Because he was wearing a belt like a holster and had long hair? That is such a stupid nickname, also, the realization that gwen comes to that her visions of WBH was kind of eye rolling.

The Hook: Gwen’s visions drag her and Finney to Alpine Lake’s Christian camp. Armando (staff) quietly believes her because she describes burn details never reported.

Mom Reveal: Gwen’s “suicide” mother? Not a suicide. The Grabber abducted and murdered her years ago and staged it. The film weaponizes Gwen’s dream-walking to show her the truth — inside the van, into the garage, straight to the body. That revelation is why their dad is broken and why Gwen refuses to leave.

This was by far the saddest moment of the movie, it’s it’s dark and bleak. Also The Grabber quote on quite calls this showing Gwen how her mom died and act of kindness, yeah dont ask.

The Grabber’s Form: He’s back as a frozen, rotting, infernal thing — mask half-shattered, flesh torn, ice skates bolted to shoes. He taunts over the black phone (“dead is just a word”), freezes windows, and goes full phantom enforcer on the lake.

The Rules (lol): In dreams, Gwen can be hurt (bleeding shows up IRL). But she can also fight back once she realizes it’s a dream and shards the phone booth with Carrie-lite brainpower. Is it consistent? Absolutely not. Is it metal? Yes.

The Plan: Find the canisters with the three boys’ bodies under the frozen lake; freeing them breaks the Grabber’s power. This becomes a rescue + exorcism + recovery mission — with dad finally joining the fight (redemption arc unlocked).

The Ice Rink Showdown:

Grabber ambushes at the lake (invisible to some, very visible to others — sure).

He tries drowning Armando, throttles Finney with the belt (role reversal), and goes for Gwen.

Gwen locates the canisters in the dream, the ghost boys rise and drag the Grabber down like a cursed anchor.

Gwen buries his axe in his head, rips his mask (he panics without it). Finney smashes his face on the ice and — with Gwen’s help — they finish it. Foot gets severed; body sinks; hell freezes over.

Because I guess now ghosts can be killed? No, really? How does the dream world work in this movie? Please explain it to me like i’m stupid.


Aftermath: Ghost kids are at rest; canisters recovered. On the drive out, the black phone rings only for Gwen — it’s their mom from the other side, proud and grateful. “It’s not a curse. It’s a gift.” Then we get a small, genuinely sweet family beat and roll credits.


Performances to shout out (again):

Madeleine McGraw (Gwen) — phenomenal, full stop.

Mason Thames (Finney) — raw, believable; his “I don’t want to be angry anymore” cracked me.

Ethan Hawke — creepy without camp. He’s scarier than Freddy ever was to me, because there’s no wink.


Gripes I’m still yelling about:

Dream physics are chaos.

Trailer cannibalized most of the Grabber’s presence.

For a movie hyped as “gnarlier,” the main cast is basically immortal.