A film centred around a child killer called The Grabber would seem to be box office poison but its supernatural spin and Ethan Hawke’s turn as the grotesquely masked killer, a perfect scripted adaptation and a well directed film made it a hit. But with its killer having met an obligatory demise a sequel would seem difficult if not impossible. But nonetheless we now have Black Phone 2 that begins at a snowbound children’s camp in which a woman receives a threatening call in an isolated phone box at the edge of a frozen lake.
It’s a scene that prompts this sequel picking up in 1982 fours years after the first film where Finn (Mason Thames) the only surviving victim of The Grabber who but had turned the tables and despatched him instead is still dealing with the trauma and his coping mechanism is smoking weed in an effort to block out the ringing from a broken phone that haunts him each day. He’s not the only one as his younger sister Gwen (Madeline McGraw) is also tormented by the same telephone rings and it’s her who drives the story with often horrifying dreams about brutalized dead children under a frozen lake. But what’s perhaps even more traumatizing for her is a dream that sees her taking a phone call from her late mother who explains that she too has had disturbing visions of these same children under a frozen lake.
As scripted by C Robert Cargill & director Scott Derrickson this is cleverly scripted that channels elements of ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ with The Grabber, much like Freddy Krueger, back to haunt, terrorize and ultimately take revenge on Finn when he, his sister and their friend are lead to the winter camp on the edge of a lake.
Derrickson and Cargill are an accomplished duo when it comes to horror – their film ‘Sinister’ (2012) remains the stuff of nightmares with several highly effective flashback sequences and its the same here with the visions that are shot in a sort of grainy super 8 style ( that’s a little overused) with one especially unsettling image where Gwen is haunted by what happens to a child at a window. It’s not the only sequence that unnerves with Finn in the same snow bound telephone booth seen in the opening scene that in a single tracking shot reveals several persons unknown in the back ground. But its at the winter camp that they begin to piece together what these dreams are and what they signify. Ultimately everyone is in danger and the script throws in a lot of Christian theology that is dealt with respectfully though there is a deliberately funny throwaway remark when Gwen is in bed praying and the wannabe boyfriend Ernesto (Miguel Mora) makes an awkward adolescent remark.
Though Ethan Hawke returns to reprise his role as The Grabber he’s rarely seen without his mask and even without it he’s heavily made up so as to be unrecognisable but then the characters face is so hellishly memorable and now he’s back from beyond the grave its likely that this could be a Freddy Krueger for a generation unfamiliar with Wes Craven’s creation (and both villains shared an unhealthy interest in teenagers). Quite whether this will have the appeal of the first film which ultimately was a child in peril with a supernatural twist this sequel is more experimental maybe because the first film was based on a novel whereas the sequel has allowed the filmmakers to plough their own furrow with a follow up story. Both Cargill and Derrickson are talented film makers unafraid to experiment with narrative but much like their disappointing sequel to Sinister but audiences may not be so willing to embrace such an approach here also.
related feature : Delivery Run’ – a snow plough horror film you won’t forget – actor Alexander Arnold reveals all
related feature : The Grabber almost didn’t grab Ethan Hawke for The Black Phone
Here’s The Black Phone 2 trailer…..
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