{"id":4023,"date":"2025-12-20T02:49:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T02:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/12\/20\/black-phone-2-is-a-pretty-but-convoluted-sequel\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T02:49:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T02:49:16","slug":"black-phone-2-is-a-pretty-but-convoluted-sequel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/12\/20\/black-phone-2-is-a-pretty-but-convoluted-sequel\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Black Phone 2\u2019 is a pretty but convoluted sequel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>With sequels being such an easy cash influx for studios, I was unsurprised to hear the announcement for \u201cBlack Phone 2.\u201d This time around, the film\u00a0has added a supernatural dimension to the franchise, expanding upon the premise of the first film. Fans may expect \u201cBlack Phone 2\u201d to be much like the first \u2014 featuring lifelike characters, allusion to a life after death and the deceased communicating with the living \u2014 but while it kept some of these elements, it was also a totally different kind of horror, shifting further into the supernatural world.<\/p>\n<p>The first film grappled with evil in human form as it followed Finney\u2019s (Mason Thames, \u201cRegretting You\u201d) kidnapping by a sinister serial killer called the Grabber (Ethan Hawke, \u201cTraining Day\u201d). Instead of a human villain this time, however, the second film chooses to breach the door of religion by exploring what life after death might be like and communicating with the dead through a black phone, wherever it may appear. Themes of hell, evil, Christianity and heaven are potent in the film, giving it a richer, more reflective feel than the first and making it seem as though the original movie was only laying a backstory for the true diegesis in the sequel.<\/p>\n<p>The second movie opens with a haunting sequence: A young girl named Hope Adler (Anna Lore, \u201cFinal Destination: Bloodlines\u201d) uses a black phone to call someone named Gwen (Madeleine McGraw, \u201cAmerican Sniper\u201d) \u2014 Finney\u2019s sister from the first film \u2014 who seems to have visions in her dreams just like Hope does. This film bends time, allowing a now-teenage Gwen, the woman on the other end of the phone, to connect with her mother Hope in her own dream world. While this dream world keeps others safe, as Gwen can see in both the future and past, she herself is unsafe in her mind\u2019s universe as it merges with the real world. This unlocks a new, dangerous dimension where harm can be done to her real body even while inside the dreamscape.<\/p>\n<p>Director Scott Derrickson (\u201cDoctor Strange\u201d) depicts these events with chilling visuals and thoughtful cinematography, making what began as a short-story adaptation into a completely realized horror universe. Early scenes in the movie and dream sequences use a grainy and nostalgic filter like that of old home movies, transporting the audience into Gwen\u2019s dreams. While this difference was subtle, the cinematography\u00a0made it very clear when Gwen was dreaming, carefully and intentionally building suspense. The visuals are haunting yet peaceful, like the shot of\u00a0a lone phone booth in the blizzard, symbolizing a certain isolation and desperation to connect with the dead. <\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Yet while the movie\u2019s aesthetic is enticing, some of the plot gets lost when Derrickson tries to incorporate various aspects of the horror genre. Clich\u00e9s like prophetic dreams, newspaper montages and a snowstorm that conveniently traps everyone within close quarters all come up in \u201cBlack Phone 2.\u201d While these have previously appeared in successful horror films, they are overdone within the genre and are now predictable. Similarly, the broader use of religion and Christian imagery distracted from the film\u2019s core concern with the blur between spiritual and psychological realms. <\/p>\n<p>With so many new concepts introduced, it was hard to determine whether there were endless plot twists or if the plot was simply convoluted. These intricate new plotlines may have elicited some curiosity from the audience, but they ultimately sacrificed some of the clarity of the overall piece. Because the first film only offered necessary context and delivered a satisfying ending to the original story, this addition feels comparatively lost in clich\u00e9s. As a result, \u201cBlack Phone 2\u201d struggles to stand on its own.<\/p>\n<p>While the film may rely on tropes to deliver the promised horror elements, the story does still build on the original \u201cBlack Phone\u201d in a way that feels relevant. It provides further context behind the relationship between the Grabber and siblings Finney and Gwen, and, despite any over-reliance on clich\u00e9s and issues with the plot, the movie ends on a heartwarming note \u2014 with no sign of what\u2019s to come next \u2014 and ultimately makes it worth a watch.<\/p>\n<p><em>Daily Arts Contributor Sofia Padilla can be reached at <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/arts\/film\/black-phone-2-dials-up-the-supernatural-but-not-much-else\/mailto:sofiapad@umich.edu\"><em>sofiapad@umich.edu<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With sequels being such an easy cash influx for studios, I was unsurprised to hear the announcement for \u201cBlack Phone 2.\u201d This time around, the film\u00a0has added a supernatural dimension to the franchise, expanding upon the premise of the first film. Fans may expect \u201cBlack Phone 2\u201d to be much like the first \u2014 featuring [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1071,3937,2601,2966,3938],"class_list":{"0":"post-4023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-black","9":"tag-convoluted","10":"tag-phone","11":"tag-pretty","12":"tag-sequel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4023"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4025,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4023\/revisions\/4025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}