STORYLINE: As Finn, now 17, struggles with life after his captivity, his sister 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. (IMDb)

 Insidious(2010)/Insidious Chapter 2 (2013)  

Sinister (2012)/Sinister (2015)

Ouija (2014)/Ouija: Origins of Evil (2016)

Unfriended (2014)/Unfriended: Dark Web

   I once read that horror is the most successful of all the film genres.  Typically the films have a big audience draw, made with a reasonable budget, and this creates a nice profit margin.  The bigger the profit margin, even in some of the lesser quality films the higher probabilityof a sequel.  In 2021, a riveting horror film, titled The Black Phone, lit up the silver screen.  Flash forward four years to 2025, it’s sequel, Black   Phone 2, has made its way into theaters, to terrify audiences.

   In borrowing from Wes Craven’s 1984 A Nightmare on Elm St, Black Phone 2, turns the dial up on the supernatural plot points that its predecessor featured.  Considering the events of the first film, this seemed the natural way to take the sequel, even though much of the premise was similar to the previously mentioned 1984 classic.

    Returning as the menacing villain is Ethan Hawke.  A horror film, such as this one, depends on the quality of the villain.  Much of that quality depends of the quality of the performance.  Ethan Hawke is a versatile actor, with a wide range of films already on his resume. These range from my facirute film ever made Gattaca (1997) to the epic Boyhood (2014).  Successfully adding a horror film villain to his credits in, now, two films should not come as a surprise.

   Black Phone 2 goes for the, much, preferable jump scares.  This is over the shock value that plagued the ‘torture porn’ phase of horror in such films as the Hostel franchise. The jump scare model, lends itself more towards story telling.  It’s within that story the viewer is treated ti a higher class of a horror feature. 

   Black Phone 2 was a treat to watch.  It was a fun run of the mill, jump scare horror movie!

    Until next time I will see you at the movies!