The Black Phone is not a film that necessarily lends itself to being sequelised. Adapted from Joe Hill’s miniature story, Scott Derrickson’s ‘70s-se
The Black Phone is not a film that necessarily lends itself to being sequelised. Adapted from Joe Hill’s miniature story, Scott Derrickson’s ‘70s-set supernatural horror had a very specific premise: Finney (Mason Thames) has been abducted by local masked child-killer The Grabber (Ethan Hawke) and attempts to escape, aided by the ghostly voices of The Grabber’s other child victims who speak to him through a disconnected black phone on the wall. By the final reel, Finney had – SPOILER ALERT! – evaded The Grabber’s basement, and killed his tormentor. So, how do you do Black Phone 2 with a dead Grabber, and without… well, the black phone?
It turns out, Derrickson – and returning screenwriter C. Robert Cargill – have a sturdy get-out for that: The Grabber is back as a malevolent spirit, continuing his evil from beyond the grave. Check out the trailer:
Spooky stuff! Set in the early 1980s, four years after The Black Phone, the sequel sees Finney’s sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) being plagued by nightmares about The Grabber – sending her and her brother on a quest to a winter camp, Alpine Lake, where bad things are going down. It seems The Grabber now has more powers as a supernatural entity, there’s some scary and scuzzy dream-footage that feels reminiscent of Derrickson’s Sinister, and a different haunted landline (this one a payphone). Yes, the phone is still black.
Since The Black Phone was never intended as the basis for a franchise, it’ll be compelling to see whether Black Phone 2 can take the instantly iconic Grabber mask and spin another surprisingly uplifting story out of it – early evidence suggests there’s unexpected life in this one yet. Ring ring! We’ll find out when it hits UK cinemas on 17 October.
COMMENTS