Black Phone 2 takes place roughly four years after the events of the first movie, where Finney is still really struggling with his trauma from what happened to him. Once his younger sister, Gwen, starts to have visions of the Grabber and a winter camp that their mom once worked at, they go there to finally finish him off, where he has become even more powerful. With this, both siblings are tested to their max, both mentally and physically, as the Grabber begins to torment them in many different ways.

Overall, I thought Black Phone 2 was a really solid sequel, and just about as good as the first one, though if I had to pick, I think the first just barely edges this one out. One of the things I was worried about going in was whether or not this story was needed because the way that the first Black Phone ended didn’t really have an obvious sequel set up for it. However, I really liked the approach that the writers took with this story, really going for an A Nightmare on Elm Street kind of feel. This could make it sound like it’s just a blatant ripoff, and maybe it is, but I’ve only seen the first Nightmare on Elm Street, and I think this film did a good enough job at setting itself apart from that movie, mainly with its themes, which I’ll get more into in a second. The dream sequences were really good and probably the most entertaining parts of the film.

I really admire the director, Scott Derrickson’s outspoken faith, and he really went all out in adding a much heavier faith aspect to this sequel than there was in the first movie, which, of course, I really admired as well. Most of the faith stuff is continued with Gwen, just like in the first movie, but she’s clearly more of a religious person now, showing somewhat of her character development off-screen. Adding to that, one thing that definitely differentiated the Grabber from Freddy Krueger was that the Grabber is pretty obviously a figure for the devil, and with that, Gwen kind of has to battle her own inner demons to fight back against him.

The story takes place around four years after the first movie, and this movie was filmed somewhat around that same amount of time afterwards as well. Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw are even better than they were in the first movie, and both of them get scenes where they really are able to show off how good of actors they are. It was just overall really cool to see how much they improved in their performances as they got older. One big difference that sets this sequel apart is that Gwen is the main character this time around, and I found her to be a really compelling lead for the most part. I already mentioned her faith, but everything else regarding her character and character development I thought was pretty well done, as she starts to learn how to embrace herself more and more as the story progresses.

The vast majority of the film takes place at a Christian campground, with a whole bunch of cabins and all of that, and I was absolutely a fan of that setting choice. I know it’s been used to death in a lot of horror movies, with the obvious one being the Friday the 13th series, but for someone who hasn’t really seen a horror movie take place in a setting quite like this, I really dug it, and it created a really eerie atmosphere, almost feeling kind of unpredictable if that makes any sense. I also really liked the winter aesthetic, as it definitely reminded me of John Carpenter’s The Thing, one of my favorite movies ever made.

Something I definitely wasn’t expecting from Black Phone 2 was how good the visual effects would be. There are a lot of practical gore effects used, and man, they're gnarly to look at. They were extremely well done, and as someone who is always rooting for practical over digital effects when it comes to horror movies, I really appreciated that. Now, there were definitely some obvious green screen shots here and there, but they weren’t distracting enough to really note or make a big deal out of.

When it comes to the mixed, the first one is that this sequel goes in a completely different direction than the original movie. A lot of people will really like and admire that, and a lot of people won’t. A lot of people will also prefer one over the other, though I don’t personally really have a preference. The main difference, though, is that Black Phone 2, even when it just comes down to its premise, is a lot less grounded. There were obviously some spiritual and supernatural elements to the first Black Phone, but they go much further here with all of the dream sequences and Nightmare on Elm Street-esque stuff I already talked about.

The other mixed is that, as I said previously, Gwen is definitely the main character. I personally thought Scott Derrickson did a good job of sort of handing off the mantle to someone else, so to speak, but some people would definitely rather prefer Finney still be the main lead. The main negative I would say with this, though, and now is where I’ll start to get into my negatives, is that they tried to add a character arc to Finney that really could have been compelling, but unfortunately, it was pretty rushed through and didn’t really earn itself by the end.

The main negative I would say with Black Phone 2 is that the second half of the story was clearly what was more definitively imagined for the story, while the first half is mostly just focused on setting things up, which causes a bit of a pacing issue. We still get plenty of dream sequences and all of that, but they do get a little repetitive (just in the first half), and lack that “horror” or emotional impact that was really needed. I also really was bummed out by how little the Grabber was in the story. He’s very prominent in the second half, and maybe the film was just trying to go for this feeling that he was there in the first half, just not visibly, but I didn’t really feel any of that, and there wasn’t a whole lot of tension or interesting things that happened. I wouldn’t say I was bored, but I was constantly waiting for something bigger to occur.

There is also a new character by the name of Ernesto, played by Miguel Mora, whom I really didn’t think needed to be in the movie. He’s the main love interest for Gwen, and their whole love subplot just wasn’t needed, and didn’t add anything at the end of the day. It could have been completely removed, and all of my thoughts on the film would have remained the same.

Lastly, Black Phone 2’s climactic ending was mostly underwhelming. It has some really intense parts, and for the most part, I was really into it, but the way it ends felt a bit abrupt and had me asking, “That was it?” It’s not horrible by any means, but it could have been much better. For the actual ending itself, as in the final scene, I absolutely loved it and thought it was very poignant and emotionally satisfying.

Black Phone 2’s brave and bold new direction definitely worked for me, and I thought it was a really decent sequel for the most part, even though I wouldn’t say it exceeded my expectations in any particular way.