Black Phone 2: When Horror Loses Its Eerie Edge

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

A Louder, Less Effective Sequel

There’s a fine line between expanding a story and stretching it too thin. Black Phone 2 tries to do both. It aims to be bigger, louder, and more supernatural, but that ambition comes with a price: it loses the eerie simplicity that made the first film so effective.

Losing the Eerie Simplicity of the Original

The original Black Phone was grim, intimate, and grounded in the terror of isolation. A kidnapped boy, a basement, and a rotary phone that rings with the voices of the dead—it was simple, chilling, and effective. This time, the filmmakers swing for the fences, and the result feels like a different movie wearing the same mask.

Forced Supernatural Expansion and Familiar Tropes

I didn’t care for how Black Phone 2 escalated the supernatural elements. Don’t get me wrong—the first film had plenty of supernatural aspects, but it shied away from the type of spectacle on display in the sequel. The Grabber is essentially Freddy Krueger, and Gwen is Nancy from the Nightmare on Elm Street series, down to some of the exact dialogue. I’m not saying it was directly ripped off, but it’s obvious the first film was created as a standalone story, and the sequel is a clunky continuation.

Trading Suspense for Spectacle

The story picks up years after the first film, and while there are moments of tension, the scares feel more polished and less personal. The Grabber’s mythos is blown wide open, leaning heavily on dream logic and visual horror. The problem is that it trades suspense for spectacle. We get more backstory, more ghosts, and a lot more noise, but less of that unsettling stillness that made the first film breathe.

Praise for the Technical Craft

What I did like about the sequel lies mainly in its technical specs. The score by Scott Derrickson’s son, Atticus Derrickson, is both creepy and grand. It howls with menace one minute and hums like a distant nightmare the next. There are also scenes that look like they were shot on Super 8 film. You can even hear the faint reel “hum” in the sound design, which gives those sequences an eerie texture. It’s a clever touch that grounds the story in something tactile and old-fashioned.

The Final Verdict: An Echo, Not a Sequel

Still, it’s hard to completely dismiss Black Phone 2. Director Scott Derrickson knows how to craft a haunting image, and there are scenes here that stick in your head—a door creaking open on its own, a whispered voice on a dead line, a shadow flickering on the wall that doesn’t belong to anyone in the room. It’s all there, just buried beneath too much mythology. By the time the credits roll, it feels less like a sequel and more like an echo. Black Phone 2 tries to scare you louder, but sometimes the quiet ring of the original phone was all it needed.

Details

• Rating Certificate: R (for strong violent content, gore, teen drug use, and language.)
• Studios & Distributors: Blumhouse Productions | Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit (CPTC) | Crooked Highway | Ontario Creates | Universal Pictures
• Director: Scott Derrickson
• Written By: C. Robert Cargill (screenplay by) | Scott Derrickson (screenplay by) | Joe Hill (based on characters created by)
• Country: USA | Canada
• Language: English
• Run Time: 114 Mins.
• Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
• Release Date: 17 October 2025