Four years ago, a boy killed his abductor and escaped. But true evil transcends deaths as his sister begins to receive calls in her dreams from the black phone and experience disturbing visions. A film by Scott Derrickson, starring Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, Miguel Mora, Anna Lore, Arianna Rivas, Maev Beaty, Graham Abbey, Demián Bichir, and Ethan Hawke.

BLACK PHONE 2

Scott Derrickson
(2025)
★★☆☆☆
 

1957, Colorado. A young woman named Hope Adler (Anna Lore) stands in a payphone booth at Alpine Lake youth camp, deep in the Rocky Mountains. She clutches the receiver, speaking to someone we can’t hear. Her voice is uncertain as she explains that she’s been having these dreams, vivid ones, where she keeps seeing a phone number carved into ice. That’s why she finally decided to call.

Just as she’s about to ask who she’s talking to, the line erupts with static and a piercing, high-pitched tone. Hope jerks the phone away from her ear, rattled. She hangs up quickly and hurries out of the booth, glancing back nervously as she walks away.

1982, North Denver. Four years have passed since Finney “Finn” Blake (Mason Thames) killed the notorious serial killer known as the Grabber and escaped that basement. Despite surviving, Finn hasn’t been the same. The trauma runs deep, buried beneath a façade of violence and anger that he uses to keep the world at arm’s length.

Finn’s younger sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) has grown closer to Ernesto (Miguel Mora), the younger brother of Robin, Finn’s friend who was killed by the Grabber. Ernesto pulls up alongside Finn and Gwen as they walk to class. He mentions he’s heading to the Civic Center that evening to camp out for Duran Duran tickets.

Gwen’s face lights up at the mention of the concert. When Ernesto asks if she’s planning to go, she says she wishes she could, but the tickets are way too expensive. Ernesto immediately offers to take her since he’s buying two tickets anyway. Gwen accepts, maybe a little too quickly. Finn watches the exchange in surprise, the realization slowly dawning on him that his little sister just agreed to go on a date with Ernesto.

That night, Gwen slips into a vision. She dreams of a boy named Felix (Simon Webster), murdered at Alpine Lake youth camp. The last image sears itself into her mind: Felix’s body floating up beneath the ice, his finger tracing the letter W on the frozen surface before he sinks back down into the darkness.

Gwen jolts awake to the sound of a phone ringing in the distance. But she’s not actually awake. Still trapped in the dream, she rises from bed and drifts toward the front door. Finn catches her just as she stands motionless at the open doorway, shaking her gently to wake her. Gwen tells him she had a bad dream. Finn quickly brushes it off, saying she was just sleepwalking and needs to go back to bed.

Meanwhile, Finn still hears the ringing from broken phones wherever he goes. He’s grown increasingly irritated by the calls from the dead, their pleas for help following him everywhere. Whenever Finn picks up, he says the same thing: “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.” Then he hangs up.

The following night, Gwen experiences another nightmare. This time she dreams of a boy named Calvin O’Keefe (add actor name), who was murdered in the woods. His body was dismembered and burned. Like before, she sees him floating beneath the ice, his finger tracing the letter B on the frozen surface.

Gwen jolts awake to the sound of a phone ringing. Still trapped in the dream, she steps outside and finds charred remains scattered across the front lawn. She follows the distant ringing, grabbing her bicycle and pedaling through the empty streets. The sound leads her straight to the Grabber’s house. Curious, Gwen crawls through a small opening and finds herself in the basement where the Grabber imprisoned his victims. She spots the black phone hanging on the wall, ringing. Gwen picks up the receiver and hears the voice on the other end. It’s Hope Adler, a younger version of her mother who killed herself years ago.

Gwen is determined to find out what happened at Alpine Lake and how her recurring nightmares connect to their mother, who used to work there. She tries to convince Finn to go with her by suggesting they both apply for Counselor in Training positions at the middle school winter camp. It pays, she argues, and maybe they’ll learn something about their mother while they’re there.

When Finn firmly refuses, Gwen turns to Ernesto instead, asking him to take her. But Finn and their father Terrence (Jeremy Davies) aren’t comfortable with Gwen traveling alone with a boy. In the end, Finn decides to tag along to keep an eye on her.

At the camp, Finn freezes when the broken payphone starts to ring. Against his better judgment, he picks up. The voice on the other end is unmistakable: the Grabber (Ethan Hawke). Even in death, the killer’s spirit has grown stronger than he ever was in life. The Grabber is back for revenge, and he’s going after the thing Finn loves most.

Directed by Scott Derrickson from a screenplay he co-wrote with C. Robert Cargill, THE BLACK PHONE 2 is a supernatural horror film and direct sequel to The BLACK PHONE. Following the events of the first film, the Blake siblings, who possess the ability to communicate with the spirits of murder victims, find themselves haunted by the vengeful ghost of the Grabber.

When the filmmaker attempts to expand the world-building and close narrative loops with cryptic and overly explained elements, such as bringing the mother back into the picture, the movie still relies too much on jump scares and visceral blood and gore imagery.

Wild Bill Hickok (WBH) is a nickname the staff at Alpine Lake camp gave to the Grabber during his time as a maintenance worker there, where he committed his first murders. Although it’s not his real name, Wild Bill Hickok was an actual figure in the American Old West known for his skills as a gunfighter, lawman, army scout, and gambler. His life came to a dramatic end in 1876 when he was shot and killed while playing poker in Deadwood, Dakota Territory. The cards he held at the moment of his death, a pair of black aces and eights, became known as the “dead man’s hand.” This combination remains a lasting symbol in poker lore to this day.

The film also never explicitly explains why the Grabber returns after a four-year hiatus. We’re left to wonder: Did he need time to gather his strength, like Lord Voldemort? Or did he somehow escape damnation on his own?

There are several inconsistencies, such as why Hope Adler did not contact or dream about the boys murdered at the Alpine Lake camp. Since the camp closed in 1958 after the incident, and the boys were presumably the Grabber’s first victims, this omission is glaring. Instead, Hope’s dream fixates on a missing paperboy, which ultimately leads to her demise.

The Grabber becomes inexplicably powerful to the point of absurdity. It is ridiculous that he not only can kill victims in their dreams, much like Freddy Krueger, but can also launch physical attacks in the real world while remaining an invisible ghost. With such immense power, defeating him seems impossible. Consequently, the script feels lazy: when all hope seems lost, Gwen suddenly learns to wield her powers effectively against the Grabber, forcing a convenient resolution.

Freddy Krueger is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the highly influential A Nightmare on Elm Street horror film franchise, created by Wes Craven. He was originally Frederick Charles Krueger, a serial child killer in the fictional town of Springwood, Ohio. Upon his death, he was resurrected as a malevolent spirit or Dream Demon by mysterious entities and granted the power to haunt and kill people in their dreams. Freddy Krueger’s powers are almost entirely effective within the Dream World, where he is a godlike entity.

The entire film feels like it was pieced together from fragments of a dream with bits of information, rather than a coherent world prepared since the beginning of the first movie. Given that the original film grossed over $161 million worldwide on an $18 million budget, it’s understandable that the studio saw the sequel as a lucrative opportunity; a clear money-grabber, if you will.

BLACK PHONE 2 lacks the memorable, iconic quality of the first film. The original was a self-contained story that didn’t feel like it needed a sequel or prequel. Its ambiguity concerning the serial killer and the subtle supernatural elements provided enough mystery, keeping the film within the realm of believable possibilities.

BLACK PHONE 2 premiered at Fantastic Fest on 20 September 2025. The film was theatrically released in the United States on 17 October 2025.