BLACK PHONE 2 is an interesting sequel, and not just because they dropped the ‘THE’ and streamlined the title, FAST & FURIOUS style. It’s also because it follows the somewhat forgotten slasher sequel tradition of having to invent some new mythology to continue a story that seemed pretty damn wrapped up last time. The first movie (based on a short story by Joe Hill) used the supernatural elements of ghosts and psychic dreams, but its villain was just a plain old mortal human who kidnaps kids in a particular suburb of Denver. And then he got killed. Can’t really redo that, so what they came up with feels fresh.

The protagonist of the first one was Finney (Mason Thames, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON live action version), who gets abducted and locked in a basement by the Grabber (Ethan Hawke, EXPLORERS), and the titular telecommunications device allows him to speak to the ghosts of previous victims, so they pool what they know about the place their in and the Grabber’s activities, and together conceive an escape plan. Meanwhile his younger sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw, AMERICAN SNIPER) is at home surviving their abusive alcoholic father (Jeremy Davies, DARK HARVEST) and having psychic dreams with clues that help her locate Finney.

For the sequel Finney is back, older and tougher, having taken over for the bullies who used to beat the shit out of him at school, and also partaking in quite a bit of weed. Thames has grown into such an authentic 1982 rocker dude face that I was a little thrown off by him wearing a Peter Gabriel t-shirt, but that’s okay. Finney avoids categorization.

This time Gwen (with new short ‘80s hair) is really the lead. She was great in the first one so it’s no surprise she can carry it. At some point I realized how much she sounded like the girl in the M3GAN movies, and yep, it turns out they’re sisters – did Blumhouse get those McGraws in a two-for-one deal? Anyway Gwen is courted by (or at least invited to a Duran Duran concert with) a nice boy named Ernesto (Miguel Mora), the younger brother of Finney’s badass friend Robin, who got grabbed before Finney did, R.I.P. I didn’t realize that this was the same actor who played Robin, which in my opinion makes this an homage to Chow Yun Fat playing a twin brother in A BETTER TOMORROW 2.

How does The Grabber return? Very slowly. Outside of an excellently creepy scene that I think can be interpreted different ways (Finney is either haunted by memories or a literal ghost), we don’t see that fucker until surprisingly far into the movie. The story involves Gwen’s dreams leading her to revelations about the Grabber, their late mother, and a Christian youth camp in the mountains called Alpine Lake, where some missing children were never found. She convinces Finney and Ernesto to come investigate by signing up to train as counselors, but a blizzard cancels the session and they get snowed in with only the owner Armando (Demián Bichir, PERDITA DURANGO), his badass horsewoman niece Mustang (Arianna Rivas, A WORKING MAN), and older employees Barbara (Maev Beaty, BEAU IS AFRAID) and Kenneth (Graham Abbey, Degrassi: The Next Generation).

The Grabber appears in their nightmares, so obviously director Scott Derrickson (THE GORGE) and his co-writer C. Robert Cargill (The Ain’t It Cool News) take some cues from the ELM STREET series, but not by making him more like Freddy, unless you’re talking the one in the first movie. No jokes from this guy, no funny props, just pure malevolence. The specific Freddy scene you’ll be most reminded of is the brutal death of Tina. You can’t really match the shock of that original scene but they do a good job of evoking it without doing the exact same thing.

Though the dreams aren’t very Freddy-like, they use the same idea that if you’re cut or tossed around in the dream your body will suffer the same in the real world. Does the Freddy/THE MATRIX rule that if you die in the dream you die for real also apply? It’s speculated but (SPOILER) never verified. The most distinctive touch, and maybe the movie’s best choice, is that the dreams are shot in grainy Super-8. It’s gotta be the most Super-8 ever in a wide release like this, right? The sound of the dreams even sounds analog (apparently they used 16mm cut in half for those scenes?), creating an unusual multiplex experience.

I guess I forgot that they did this in the first THE BLACK PHONE, and we already knew from SINISTER that Derrickson and Cargill love the eerie, scratchy home movie aesthetic. But here the dreams are the center of the action, so they really get to indulge, and it’s also such a handy storytelling language because there are scenes where, for example, Gwen wakes up but is actually still dreaming, and we know that we’re supposed to know it. Or it will intercut between Super-8 and digital and we’ll know that Gwen is sleepwalking and dreaming but Finney is awake, trying to wake her up.

It’s a different cinematographer this time – Pär M. Ekberg, who’s Jonas Åkerlund’s guy so he shot LORDS OF CHAOS, POLAR and part of Beyonce’s LEMONADE! It’s also a different composer: Atticus Derrickson. Yes, the director’s son, making his feature debut after some shorts and a V/H/S/85 segment, but it’s a very effective score, at times abrasive in a good way.

Obviously there’s a thematic reason for it to be a Christian camp. Barb is a judgmental religious person in that broad THE MIST sort of way, which is not my favorite thing, but her ridiculous behavior gets some laughs and is consistent with Derrickson’s other work as a believer who also recognizes that many supposedly religious people are assholes unrepresentative of his version of the religion. I also liked that this character accuses Gwen of being possessed, since I was pretty bothered by Derrickson’s movie DELIVER US FROM EVIL purporting to be a true story because it was based on a real cop who said he dealt with demonic possessions, i.e. a liar or dangerous kook who they neverthless allowed to have guns and authority and then made seem cool in an Eric Bana movie. I will accept this character as penance for that one.

Anyway, if the messages about religion are a little clumsily conveyed (like some of the period slang and Gwen’s trademark curses), they at least feel very sincere.

It’s really not unusual to have an Oscar-nominated, still-respected actor in a horror movie, but usually “the guy who runs the summer camp” wouldn’t be their role, or if it was they wouldn’t be able to do much with it. I think Bechir really does elevate this thing, bringing a real sensitivity to this other type of authority figure who takes his responsibilities seriously but is understanding, knows when to be lenient, also has a history at the camp that makes all this personal once he understands what’s going on. In a way the sequel is more optimistic than the first one because once again the kids figure out how to handle things but also there are adults who care and get behind them. There’s some good teamwork. A hint of Dream Warriors. And even Finney and Gwen’s dad got sober and is trying to be a good person. Everybody can learn something and improve themselves in the ‘80s (Grabbers excluded).

Hawke has become one of my favorite working actors – you won’t be surprised to hear I’ve been enjoying him in Sterlin Harjo’s The Lowdown – and a big part of it is his passion for interesting genre projects, which he never seems to (this is not a pun, don’t worry about it) phone in. Part 2 of a horror series where your character wears a mask and is in a limited number of scenes would be a real likely time for many stars to just do a half-assed job, or even try but not find a way not to pale in comparison to the first time. But man, he’s so good in this.

I read that he did not pull a Mandalorian, it’s always him behind the mask except when he needed a stunt double, which is what I would’ve guessed. It’s like when Keanu wears a mask in MAN OF TAI CHI. You realize how much of his acting is not with his face. I love the scene where Finney answers the dead but ringing pay phone and it’s The Grabber, who then appears just outside the glass to taunt him as they talk, but we still hear him distorted through the phone until it cuts to outside and now for the first time in this chapter we hear his voice for real, if muffled by the mask, as he rages about why and how he will avenge the kid who finally got him. I think he’s genuinely scary, and in a different way than last time.

We don’t really see the black balloons birthday clown version of The Grabber, except when he’s younger (played by Julien Norman). Instead he’s always in the mask, or with part of it removed, his face burnt or mutilated beneath. I love that his mask and feet are covered in ice. As we know from the trailer there are parts where he ice skates on a frozen lake (something that I didn’t need an explanation for, but there is one) and I think he has skates but maybe it’s just the chunks of ice on him. He’s not really alive. He plays by his own rules.

To be honest I think personally I wouldn’t mind if some of this moved a little faster. On the other hand, the slow build creates a strong mood and I respect the choice. It’s definitely a movie that’s trying out some things and respecting the audience enough to assume we’ll stick with them. There are some really cool, mindbending tricks (SPOILER: a cold open in 1952 involves one side of a weird phone conversation that we later hear the other end of in Gwen’s dream thirty years later) and it’s clever in other ways that didn’t even occur to me on my own. (BIGGEST SPOILER, DO NOT READ: My friend pointed out afterwards that the body count for this one, other than backstory, is zero. But somehow it works! A hell of a thing to pull off /END OF BIGGEST SPOILER. I HOPE YOU DIDN’T READ.)

It seems like this one is doing well, the series could definitely continue if they want it to. I have already let it be known that I’d like to see a black Garfield phone in part 3. But what’s more important if they do one is to find another unexpected path to go down, a new setting, a new angle, hopefully not just “also it turns out the Grabber had this other job where he also killed people and we better find the bodies.” Unless the other job is in Hawaii, because I would like to see The Grabber on a surfboard.

P.S. SUPER SPOILER ONLY FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE SEEN IT: I found that phone call at the end pretty moving, and it’s another brave display of sincerity for a horror sequel. But also I got a laugh imagining that their mom is in Heaven hanging out with that little tough kid with the headband and muscle shirt who taught Finney how to fight. They must be quite a pair.