It swept the end of year movie awards here at borg in 2022: Best Film, Best Retro Fix, Best Horror Film, Best Suspense/Thriller, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Musical Score, Best Costumes, and Best Art/Production Design.  Blumhouse’s The Black Phone was the ultimate genre mash-up–a supernatural coming of age mystery and crime thriller set in the 1970s.  Every now and then a movie truly keeps you riveted to your seat.  Soon we’ll be able to see if director Scott Derrickson can do it again in Black Phone 2.  The original followed a brother and sister in a small Denver suburb in 1978 as the town is shocked by a criminal dubbed the Grabber, who is kidnapping and killing young boys–a few years before pictures of missing kids would be the subject of milk cartons across the nation.  Based on a Joe Hill short story, the subject matter is not something audiences are expected to be comfortable with, and yet the handling of it, as well as the incorporation of supernatural elements, was perfect.

Mason Thames is back as Finney Blake, who at 17 seems to have PTSD from his kidnapping trauma.  Madeleine McGraw returns as his sister Gwen, who begins to have nightmares where she sees more disturbing events.  And it looks like Ethan Hawke’s villain, who Finney killed in the first film, is now haunting his dreams like Freddy Krueger.  And the trailer makes the sequel look to lean more toward Friday the 13th than Zodiac.

Here it is–the first trailer for Black Phone 2:

Could this be a “spiritual prequel” to the TV series Medium?  A sister and brother with paranormal senses, inherited from a parent?  Probably not, but it fits.  The scariest part of the original was young Gwen riding her bike alone to find her brother, and anticipating Gwen’s next action at every turn.  Yet she was the badass heroine of the movie.  Hopefully she’s not just the victim this time, and this isn’t just another slasher movie sequel.

The Black Phone blended the sincerity of Super 8 with the tenor of Silver Bullet, the chills of The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, and the pacing of Zodiac.  Where will the sequel take us?  Black Phone 2 comes to theaters in time for Halloween, slated for release October 17, 2025.

C.J. Bunce / Editor / borg