Watching “Black Phone 2” is an extremely different experience from “The Black Phone.” While the first film dabbled in the supernatural, the sequel decides to go all in on that aspect and ultimately, it all just feels pointless.
Purely from an enjoyment perspective, “Black Phone 2” is just okay. The first film had a decisive conclusion with no loose ends, since it ended with the death of The Grabber and the police finding the bodies of the missing boys. That’s really where this franchise should have ended, but Universal Pictures decided to make a sequel.
The driving actions of the film seem to happen out of nowhere. Sure, the film explains why some of the events are happening, but it never goes into detail on ‘why now?’
“The Black Phone” did a solid job in combining the realistic terror of children being kidnapped, with the calls and visions of the ghosts haunting the Blake siblings, but the ghosts never physically interact with the world around them. Yet, “Black Phone 2” refuses to adhere to the same rules; while this altering of the universe’s rules works for other films, it is just so sloppily done here.
None of the problems holds a candle to how bad the dialogue is. After seeing Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw’s performance as Finney and Gwen Blake in the first film, it’s hard to see how their characters are written this time around. Sure, the dialogue in “The Black Phone” was a little cringy during the school scenes, but they were middle schoolers; it made sense for that movie. It doesn’t transition over well to the sequel, where some scenes are hard to watch, as I can’t imagine them being real people.
There is one scene in particular that felt very creepy, but the film tries to play it off as romantic. Another issue that cannot be overlooked is the lack of character relationship dynamics. The only dynamics that ever stood out for more than a scene were the ones with Gwen and any other character. There are some scenes where there are glimpses of characters, like with Finney and Armando, played by Demián Bichir, but there isn’t enough done to save the characters from being unrealistic and stale.
“Black Phone 2” spoon-feeds every piece of mystery and wonder to audiences. Characters feel the need to go into exposition dumps that spell out every little detail that should be left to the imagination. Yet, in other aspects, they do the complete opposite and do not explain how other, more confusing things happened. This back and forth just kills the vibe of the film.
Without taking the plot and characters into account, it is not a bad horror movie to watch this Halloween. The old camera aesthetic, whenever they show audiences glimpses of the victim’s past, is done in a way that adds to the quality of the film. For the most part, the scares are done in a way that puts the viewers on the edge of their seats.
If this were a standalone or spin-off film, most of the problems “Black Phone 2” suffers from would not exist, but since it is tied to the 2021 film, it feels like it ruined the end of that one. But if viewers want to turn off their brains and watch something new this season, it’s okay.
