Verdict: 2.5/5
Given the serial killer at the centre of 2021’s ‘The Black Phone’ is killed at the end (sorry for the spoiler), a sequel never felt on the agenda.
And yet here we are.
By the time we get to the end of ‘Black Phone 2’, your mind probably isn’t changed over whether a sequel was needed or not.
It wasn’t.
That’s not say it’s not a fine movie, with a decent storyline and some great jump scares along the way.
But it certainly doesn’t feel like this film added all that much to the original, despite following on just a few years after the events of the first movie’s story.
‘Black Phone 2’ is set in 1982 and Finney (Mason Thames) is still clearly traumatised from his experiences with ‘The Grabber’.
But it is his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) who takes centre stage this time around. When she starts having visions that feature mutilated children under frozen lakes, we know where this is heading.
The film is primarily set at a Christian camp where Finney and Gwen’s mother attended as a Counsellor, and several boys went missing.
What quickly unravels is the dark secrets the camp is hiding, as another inevitable battle with The Grabber, albeit in a different form, emerges.
There’s some genuinely good moments here. When Finney and Gwen arrive at the camp it has a true nightmarish, scary feeling about it – grabbing you almost like a video game and bringing you into the story.
And the final scenes on the ice are dynamite too.
But overall there’s just not enough here to justify extending the over-arching story.
And if you didn’t see the first one, ‘Black Phone 2’ doesn’t really stack up as a stand-alone viewing.
See this movie at Event Cinemas Parramatta.
Troy Dodds is Parra News' Managing Editor and Breaking News Reporter. He has more than 20 years experience as a journalist, working with some of Australia’s leading media organisations. In 2023, he was named Editor of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards.