BEFORE: I'm going in cold here, I don't even want to KNOW how they could make a sequel to "The Black Phone", considering what happened at the end. Like, The Grabber is back? HOW? Well, I'm sure they'll explain it. The tagline on the poster is "Dead is just a word." and there were a lot of messages from beyond, his victims trying to put things right so I'm sure there's a very reasonable explanation in here somewhere. JK.
But you see the beauty in my system, right? Most horror fans had to wait FOUR YEARS for a sequel, and I only have to wait two days. We live in a world of wonders. My dad used to avoid going to the movie theater by saying, "Every movie's going to be on TV, someday." And, well, he was wrong but also, he was kind of right. Now I find myself avoiding going to the movie theater by saying, "Every movie's going to be on streaming, someday." And I'm occasionally wrong but also, I'm kind of right. I only go to the theater now once or twice a year, and for me that's often for free, but only for very special movies, like "Star Wars" or Marvel - the rest I can honestly wait for, most of the time.
Mason Thames carries over again from "Monster Summer". I had to stick yesterday's film in between the "Black Phone" movies to keep the chain from breaking, it's not a big deal, but I had to leave a path open to the next film, via Ethan Hawke, who's in a couple more horror films.
THE PLOT: As Finn, now 17, struggles with life after his captivity, his sister begins receiving calls in her dreams from the black phone and seeing disturbing visions of three boys being stalked at a winter camp.
AFTER: SPOILER ALERT, The Grabber is dead. Also, the Grabber is back - the first film used the narrative device of the audience being able to SEE the Grabber's victims as they called Finney on the infamous Black Phone, as if they were in the room with him. Well, they were in that room before, and their spirit or essence or whatever, some piece of them was still "there" so we saw them as if they were there. The same goes for the Grabber in this sequel, plus we learn that he had a bunch of warm-up victims before he started working from home.
It's 1982, four years after the incidents of the first film, and Finn is now a sullen teen who smokes a lot of pot (to deal with the trauma) and is still fighting bullies (to deal with the bullies). His sister Gwen starts to have dreams again, this time about boys being killed at a camp. Then we see a girl named Hope making a phone call, to a seven-digit number that she saw carved in ice on a frozen lake - Hope has also had dreams about boys being killed at the camp, which happens to be missing a few kids. Gwen later has a dream where she's the person on the other end of the phone call, and well, two people with the same psychic dreams, they're probably related somehow.
Look, it's Denver, I don't know if winter camp is a real thing or not, it does not sound like a very good idea, not with the weather in the Denver area. But let's roll with it because it's the only way we're going to get through this. Gwen convinces Finn that they should become counselors-in-training at Camp Crystal Lake - sorry, I mean Alpine Lake - because that's where their mother worked and there could be more victims of the Grabber there, or something. Like the boys in the basement, their souls could be bound to Earth if they died in a horrible way and their bodies were never found. Gwen also has a boyfriend, Ernesto, who's the brother of Robin, who died in the first film, and the same actor plays Ernesto. (It's a "Landfill" situation, if you've seen "Beerfest"...)
Once they arrive at the camp, which has just closed down due to a giant blizzard (again, it's Denver, what did you THINK was going to happen at winter camp?), Finney starts getting calls from the Grabber on the camp's dead payphone, which I just realized is black-colored. This is a bit ridiculous because the phone booth is totally out in the open, like right next to a lake, you'd think it would be by the administration building or something but no, this is what we're doing. The Grabber now has the ability to make phone calls from the beyond, and he wants to get revenge on Finney. We start finding out that nothing is what we think it is, death is not the end and hell doesn't work like the Bible says, it's a very cold place where they strip away everything that makes you human and you're left with only your sins.
The theory is that if Gwen and Finn and the camp counselor (who happens to remember both their mother and The Grabber, aka "Wild Bill" from the past) can locate the bodies of the missing boys, then that should decrease the power of the Grabber, who's possibly drawing his energy from the restless spirits of his victims. Umm, sure, that's how it works. So if you kill a lot of people you can come back and semi-live again, makes sense. The Grabber here can't be seen by most people in his vengeful ghost form, but he CAN move things in the real world, like a poltergeist, and he CAN hurt people in their dreams, like Freddy Krueger. Well, damn, how the heck do you fight something like THAT?
Oh, and one more thing, the kids have always believed that their mother, Hope, committed suicide because of her psychic dreams. Well, the Grabber enters Gwen's dreams (or she enters his, whichever) and he shows her how her dreams led her to learn about his killing spree, so the Grabber had to kill her because she got too close to revealing his habit of kidnapping boys, then he staged her hanging to look like a suicide. It's bizarre that the Grabber actually thinks he's doing Gwen a favor by revealing this, like he's atoning for one of his sins or something, but on a more realistic level, I don't think Gwen appreciates the help. Some things it's better to now know, but I guess now the Blakes are more motivated than ever to defeat the Grabber and banish him from this plane of existence.
They really had to come up with a sequel plot that kind of wove away in and around the story that was already told, I mean of course the Grabber had a past, serial killers aren't really born, they're made. However, they don't really say WHAT exactly it was about Camp Alpine Lake that drove him to kill, maybe it was those extra preachy Christian camp counselors. They'll really get under your skin with their Bible quoting and their narrow-minded attitude, make you so mad you'll want to kill somebody, I get it. But then why didn't he kill THEM, why pick on defenseless little boys? Umm, I think I just answered my own question.
There's a final showdown at the lake and The Grabber skating around while holding an axe is a very difficult thing to defeat, especially since most people can't even see him. The humans are going to need some help from the other side if they're going to take him down once and for all. Again. The sequel was only planned after the first film became a success, there was no second short story to draw from, but the author, Joe Hill, wrote a follow-up story specifically made for a sequel film, in other words, inspired by the film. The director has also stated that there won't be a third film unless he's sure he can make one better than the first two - honestly, I wish every film director thought like that.
This one kind of hits home tonight, because my mother died in May and man, a phone call from her right about now would be very much welcomed, even if she was calling collect from the Great Beyond and even if I had to find a pay phone, which is impossible these days. Or even if she was calling to tell me about some murders at camp years ago, or (more likely) some weather incident or traffic accident in NYC that I either already knew about, or wasn't affecting me at all. Heck, even if she just needed help with the crossword puzzle. Again.
Directed by Scott Derrickson (director of "The Black Phone" and "Doctor Strange")
Also starring Ethan Hawke, Madeleine McGraw, Miguel Mora, Jeremy Davies, James Ransone, Jacob Moran (all 6 last seen in "The Black Phone"), Demian Bichir (last seen in "Land"), Arianna Rivas (last seen in "A Working Man"), Maev Beaty (last seen in "Dream Scenario"), Graham Abbey (last seen in "Take This Waltz"), Anna Lore, Simon Webster, Shepherd Munroe, Chase B. Robertson, Dexter Bolduc, Jazlyn Wong-Lee, Julien Norman,
RATING: 7 out of 10 giant exposed heating coils (In a wooden cabin? Surely this is a fire hazard. Come on, winter camp in Colorado can't really be a thing, can it?)
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