Black Phone 2: A Sequel That Never Quite Comes Together (Blu-ray)

The Film:

Just four years ago, Director Scott Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill unleashed "The Black Phone" in theaters, adapting Joe Hill's supernatural horror short story into a feature film. The result drew extremely mixed reviews from critics, and indeed the film was something of a mixed bag where the writers certainly could've tried a little harder to do a bit more with its premise, but that hardly stopped it from being an enormous hit at the box office. Indeed, after raking in about ten times its relatively small $16 million production budget, there seemed to be absolutely no question in regards to a sequel, which brings us to "Black Phone 2," in which Derrickson & Cargill attempt to expand on their unexpected smash hit. Will their follow-up be able to succeed where the original fell short, or will it merely be a sequel that repeats its mistakes?

Taking place in 1982, four years after the events of the first film, Finney Blake (Mason Thames) is still grappling with his terrifying experience with The Grabber (Ethan Hawke). Meanwhile, his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) is still having her vision dreams, which start to show her murders that happened at the Alpine Lake Camp in 1957. However, one of these dreams also includes a phone call from their deceased mother Hope (Anna Lore), who had the same kind of dreams. This causes her to convince Finney and her friend Ernesto (Miguel Mora) to get jobs at the camp to investigate. They meet Armando (Demián Bichir), the head of the camp, and his niece Mustang (Arianna Rivas), who quickly discern that they aren't there to be councilors, eventually drawing them into the mystery that will have them attempting to discover what happened to the bodies of three young boys that went missing 25 years ago, all while desperately trying to fight off the vengeful spirit of The Grabber.

When it came to the original "The Black Phone," what we got was a mostly down-to-Earth film about a serial killer kidnapping & murdering children, with some supernatural elements thrown in. As mentioned, the result was something of a mixed bag where the filmmakers didn't do a whole lot with their premise, with some of those supernatural elements proving to be almost entirely pointless by the end. For the sequel, Derrickson & Cargill have opted to dive much deeper into those elements, primarily for the simple reason of keeping their main antagonist in the picture after his death at the end of the previous film.

The result here is a somewhat silly concoction that borrows heavily from Wes Craven's horror classic "A Nightmare on Elm Street" in that we have The Grabber attacking Gwen in her dreams as revenge for being killed by her brother. If that's where they had chosen to leave it, it might have been able to get away with it, despite ripping off a pretty famous film. However, they unfortunately opt to push it a little too far by having The Grabber be able to attack people in the real world as well, making the dream attacks rather pointless and making it seem like they can't settle on the rules for their supernatural demon antagonist.

I suppose the simple explanation is that they needed to get everyone else involved, because leaving it at the dreams of one character wouldn't have led to any kind of exciting plot developments, so at the risk of turning the film into an even sillier outing, they decided to simply give their villain incredible powers instead of just having him be stuck in hell. That said, you do have to appreciate the wild swing they took here. Clearly they had their backs up against the wall when it came to developing a sequel, so they went the only real route that they could find that would allow them to proceed, that is, without conjuring up a new killer. I'm sure one of the biggest conditions was bringing back Ethan Hawke, so, again, they did that they only way they could. In the end, "Black Phone 2" doesn't quite come together into the cohesive whole that the filmmakers were hoping for, but for what it's worth, it's not any worse than the previous film, so ultimately they wind up making a fine pairing.

Video/Audio:

"Black Phone 2" comes to Blu-ray in a 2.39:1, 1080p High Definition transfer of outstanding quality. The picture looks incredibly sharp & clear throughout its 114-minute duration, even during the darkest of scenes. Likewise, the Dolby Atmos audio is marvelous, giving you all of the dialogue, sound effects, and music in excellent quality. Overall, Universal has done a fantastic job in both departments for the film's physical debut.

Special Features:

Commentary with Director/Co-Writer/Producer Scott Derrickson

Dialed In: The Cast of Black Phone 2 (11 Minutes): A featurette that primarily has the ensemble discussing the film.

A Story Carved in Ice (11 Minutes): A featurette that focuses on the narrative.

Frozen in Time (10 Minutes): A featurette that explores the film's setting.

Deleted Scenes (7 Sequences, 8 Minutes)

Conclusion:

"Black Phone 2" has director Scott Derrickson & co-writer C. Robert Cargill taking a wild swing by leaning much more heavily into supernatural elements, blatantly borrowing from an iconic horror film and somewhat losing control as they push it a little too far, ultimately making for a follow-up that isn't any worse than the original, but which never really comes together into a cohesive whole.

Score: 3/5

Available on Blu-ray starting tomorrow.

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