The Grabber’s Spirit Strikes Back In Black Phone 2 Trailer

With our first look at Black Phone 2, the definite-article-free sequel to The Black Phone, we got confirmation of a mighty premise for Scott Derrickson’s follow-up: since serial killer The Grabber (Ethan Hawke) was killed at the end of that film, and the black phone in his basement destroyed, this time he returns from beyond the grave to wreak Freddy Krueger-style revenge. Now, with the film’s release not too far away, we have another trailer teasing more mayhem for youngsters Finny and Gwen (Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw) as they realise their nightmare isn’t over. Check it out:

Brrr, it’s getting chilly in here! This looks like a dim and nasty Halloween treat, with Derrickson really cranking up the scuzzy film-reel aesthetic, Hawke getting to go even bigger with The Grabber now that he’s a supernatural ghoul, and with lots of Nightmare On Elm Street-esque blurring of waking life and dreams. (No, not now, Moon Knight.) Derrickson is back as director and co-writer, penning alongside his regular collaborator C. Robert Cargill.

Here’s the official synopsis: “As Finn, now 17, struggles with life after his captivity, the headstrong 15-year-old Gwen begins receiving calls in her dreams from the black phone and seeing disturbing visions of three boys being stalked at a winter camp known as Alpine Lake. Determined to solve the mystery and end the torment for both her and her brother, Gwen persuades Finn to visit the camp during a winter storm. There, she uncovers a shattering intersection between The Grabber and her own family’s history. Together, she and Finn must confront a killer who has grown more powerful in death and more significant to them than either could imagine.”

Will Black Phone 2 prove just as captivating as the first film? Will it retain some of that surprising warmth, among all the torture and death? And will anyone ever want to go to a summer camp ever again? We’ll find out when the film hits UK cinemas on 17 October.