A superior snowbound sequel to the basement-bound original, Scott Derrickson’s “Black Phone 2” feels like a classic slasher movie coupled with all the tricks and treats that a modern studio tent pole has to offer, both for good and bad.
Based on the original short story by Joe Hill, “The Black Phone” was a fairly simple abduction flick coupled with a dash of supernatural flair, several excellent kid performances from Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw, and a fully committed Ethan Hawke performance at its center as “The Grabber.” It’s a good time, if a bit sluggish around the middle, that clearly holds a deep personal resonance for Derrickson; with themes of parental abuse heavily influencing the coming-of-age story of a young boy kidnapped and stored in a murder basement by a devil mask-wearing lunatic. But, “The Black Phone;” spoilers if necessary, ends with The Grabber’s demise at the hands of his captive, with the young boy Finney (Thames) returning home with assistance from the dream visions of his psychic sister Gwen (McGraw). Derrickson and his co-writer C. Robert Cargill, understanding that they were skating on thin ice with this sequel, knew that a central emotional core to this story was necessary for The Grabber’s return to feel inevitable, as not to fall through the ice and drown. Their efforts, buoyed by a Derrickson’s clever use of period-specific film stock and editing techniques, largely bear frightful fruit; unfurling a story that feels grounded if fantastical and hefts Hawke’s The Grabber another rung up the pantheon of modern horror iconography.
Quite a bit of shoe leather is required to transplant the story of a human serial killer undone by both a young brother and sister into a frigid throwback slasher that owes more than a little of its charm to fond memories of “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Friday The 13th.” “Black Phone 2” begins several years after the events of the first film. Finney and Gwen are in High School now and dealing with the aftermath of their much-publicized trauma in decidedly different ways; with the former punching his way through a sea of smart-aleck peers and the latter diving deeper into the paranormal abilities she inherited from her mother. Dreams are Gwen’s path to the other side, and her dreams are getting worse, populated by visions of young boys murdered viciously in the snow. Finney is also tormented in his own way, both by out-of-order pay phones ringing for him, with dead souls on the other end of the line desperate for his help, and visions of The Grabber watching him in the dark of night. No wonder he’s smoking as much early eighties weed to help block out the noise. But these visions are just that, visions, nothing more. He sent The Grabber to Hell, and that’s the end of it. Right? But when Gwen gets a dream message from the murdered boys that leads them to an isolated Christian youth camp in the mountains, it seems like The Grabber, though dead, is far from done tormenting Finney, leading to a confrontation which implies that perhaps Hell is more frozen over than we care to imagine.
“Black Phone 2” wisely chooses to center the story around the unexplored dynamic between the two standout performances from the first film, Madeline McGraw as the foul-mouthed, psychic sister and Hawke as the leering lunatic killer. By utilizing Super 8MM film stock as a visual representative of Gwen’s dream state, Derrickson establishes a unique cinematic language that allows the story to take place in concurrent states of reality in tandem without confusion. While film grain in modern filmmaking is largely fetishised for aesthetic or artistic purity, Derrickson might be the first filmmaker I have seen to utilize the grain as text, placing the audience in the contrast between the crispness of digital and the uncertain chaos of living film stock. The effect is unnerving and only increases the tension throughout the film, with a palpable dread settling each time Gwen goes to sleep, and we see the film grow cloudy as we know The Grabber is near. The film’s “Nightmare on Elm Street” influences might be less than subtle, but they are effective, in both the story’s dream/reality hopscotch, as well as in the portrayal of The Grabber as a force beyond God and nature itself.
Ethan Hawke is easily one of his generation’s finest actors and is a frequent Derrickson collaborator, with “Sinister” being “scientifically” rated as the scariest movie of all time. Yet with The Grabber, and the magnificently adaptable mask created by make-up legend Tom Savini, Hawke has begun to develop a character that fits well in the legacy of eighties slasher icons, not just for his unique look but also his evolution from human-based monster to supernaturally stalking ghoul. All the great cinematic slashers were known for resurrection; Freddy Krueger was a child killer returned from the grave to terrorize dreams, Jason Voorhees began as a living man, only to become something akin to a modern-day Frankenstein’s monster, and even Michael Myers and Chucky were the byproduct of supernatural transformations at one time or another. “Black Phone 2” deftly, if somewhat clumsily, gives The Grabber his own chance at immortality, positing that his evil lives on so long as his victims remain undiscovered. By slipping the veil of reality, Derrickson paints The Grabber as a trickster demon, a leering thing that tiptoes the shadowy corners of otherwise empty rooms, creating something eternal from the charnel remains of his formerly human form. The dream logic of the film is often slippery, but there are more than enough sequences of genuine dread, and quite a few featuring some nicely upsetting gore, for The Grabber to feel well at home in this mode, psychically skating across frozen lakes with an axe in hand, ready to slash and maim the living. Here’s hoping this isn’t the last we see of him when there are ever fresh nightmares to haunt.
“Black Phone 2” is quite stunning in places, and sincerely horrifying in others. The thing that Derrickson and Cargill do better than most is finding a space for earnest love amid the carnage. I’ll admit to becoming quite emotional at the film’s end when Gwen receives a call on the Black Phone from someone quite close to her. It certainly worked on me, though I do bemoan the lack of body count that seems to have infected much of modern horror. The old-time slashers understood that allowing characters we love to die, often violently, is part of the charm of these movies; a bloodbath of beloved faces only makes the hero’s victory all the sweeter. Alas, “Black Phone 2” clearly adores its characters and perhaps is the better for it. Even still, I do wish The Grabber could have gotten a couple more slices in before the credits rolled. C’est la vie.
Answer the call at a theater near you.
You’ll be glad you did.
“Black Phone 2” is playing at The Broad Theater and Prytania Theatres at Canal Place.
