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Tag: Madeleine McGraw

  • Review For The Easily Distracted: Black Phone 2 – Houston Press

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    Title: Black Phone 2
    Describe This Movie Using One Meatballs Quote:
    CAMP MOHAWK COUNSELORS: “We are the C.I.T.s, so pity us.“
    Brief Plot Synopsis:
    Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 1.5 Henry Rollins out of 5.

    Credit: Wikipedia

    Tagline: “Dead is just a word.”
    Better Tagline: “So is ‘cash grab.’ Wait, that’s two.”
    Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: Did you miss the Grabber (Ethan Hawke)? Well, he’s back, which is good news for you, but bad for Finney Blake (Mason Thames), who’s still dealing with the trauma of being held captive by the Grabber before killing him. Meanwhile, nightmares about three murdered little boys plague his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw). The murders appear linked to a mountain camp where their mother was a counselor, so of course Finney, Gwen, and Ernesto (Miguel Mora), the little brother of Finney’s murdered friend Robin, apply for counselor-in-training jobs to get to the bottom of everything.

    YouTube video

    “Critical” Analysis: If you were puzzled by the news that 2021’s The Black Phone was getting a sequel, you’re not alone. Ethan Hawke’s “Grabber” appeared well and truly dead at the end of that movie (spoiler!), but some forces are greater than death. Specifically, $161 million global box office on an $18 million dollar budget. It’s a miracle.

    Set four years after the events of the first movie, Black Phone 2 uses a concept from original story author Joe Hill as inspiration. Naturally, it has to pivot to accommodate pesky things like the death of its antagonist. Director Scott Derrickson and co-writer C. Scott Cargill evidently felt the best way to accomplish this was a mashup of the summer (well, winter) camp slasher vibes of Friday the 13th with the somnambulant escapades of A Nightmare on Elm Street. The results are less than the sum of those parts.

    One thing that does work is the shifting of the focus to Gwen. It’s her dreams that move the plot, giving McGraw the lion’s share of the dramatic work, and she’s mostly up to the task. It’s just too bad her range of emotion isn’t in service of a better movie. Same goes for Demián Bichir, playing Armando, the owner/manager of the camp. Bichir brings some much-needed gravitas, something of a tall order when trying to have serious conversations about a dream killer.

    A good deal of what made The Black Phone work was its grounding in the real world. The paranormal elements were integral to the plot, but didn’t overwhelm it (and Derrickson really captured those late ’70s earth tones). Here, the Grabber is presented as Freddy Krueger without any antecedent or explanation until well into the movie, and only thanks to the flimsiest of horror tropes.

    Why the long face, buddy? Credit: Universal Pictures

    The pacing is also a problem. The original was somewhat ponderous as well, but at least it moved with purpose. Black Phone 2 too often bogs down in expository dialogue or rubbing our noses in scenes of kids getting hacked up. There’s an almost temporal distortion about the first hour, where Gwen’s sleepwalking is at the fore and not a lot happens until events contrive to get our trio to the camp.

    Black Phone 2 is not without humor, though. Once the kids get there, this mostly comes from the interaction between the often foul-mouthed Gwen and Barb (Maev Beaty ), one of the Christian camp’s staff. Armando’s niece Mustang (Arianna Rivas) also earns extra credit for pointing out to Barb that cowering in fear from threats isn’t “true Christian behavior.”

    As for Hawke, he’s top-billed, but it’s hard to shake the impression there’s some “Pedro Pascal in The Mandalorian” deception going on. That’s his voice as the Grabber, but aside from a few close-ups, anyone could be behind that mask.

    None of the probably matters. The original Black Phone was a huge hit, and its sequel lands in theaters two weeks before Halloween. That’ll probably be enough to overcome that Black Phone 2 magnifies many of the originals movie’s negatives without offering much more beyond that than pastiche.

    And Duran Duran didn’t play in Denver until 1987.

    Black Phone 2 is in theaters today.

    This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.

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    Pete Vonder Haar

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  • Black Phone 2’s Rotten Tomatoes Score Promises Horror Fans a Worthy Sequel Movie

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    Black Phone 2 reviews are beginning to arrive, with the film looking to promise a worthy sequel to the 2021 horror movie of the same name.

    What are the Black Phone 2 reviews saying?

    Over on Rotten Tomatoes, Black Phone 2 is currently sitting at an 80-81% rating, which matches the 2021’s original score. Black Phone 2 has 25 reviews as of now, most of which are positive and praising of the film’s style and general step up from the original.

    Rogert Ebert’s Brian Tallerico said the film is a “tick too long,” but is “at its best when it leans into surreal nightmare logic, but this weird movie works its fear factor in unexpected, creative ways.” Slant Magazine’s Rocco T. Thompson praised director Scott Derrickson, saying he “collapses dreams, reality, past, and present sidelong into a singular cinematic haunted space.”

    Elsewhere, Variety’s Peter Debruge called the film “remarkably scary,” while Bloody Disgusting’s Meagan Navarro praised it’s “strong vision” and “unique interpretation of horror classics.”

    Based on characters created by Joe Hill, the script for Black Phone 2 comes from Derrickson & C. Robert Cargill. The cast further includes Demián Bichir, Arianna Rivas, Miguel Mora, Jeremy Davies, Maev Beaty, and Graham Abbey. Derrickson, Cargill, and Jason Blum produce the movie, while Ryan Turek, Adam Hendricks, Daniel Bekerman, and Jason Blumenfeld serve as executive producers.

    Black Phone 2 arrives on October 17, 2025.

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    Anthony Nash

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  • ‘Black Phone 2’ Is Everything You Want In a Horror Sequel

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    More often than not, horror sequels are weak imitations of the original, a cheap, quick, cash grab that hits the same beats in a slightly different way. Black Phone 2 is not that. It’s a sequel that changes and elevates the original in ways you’d never expect. You learn more about the world, the characters, the killer, and by the end, it’s almost as if the original was merely a table setting for the horrors of its follow-up.

    Once again directed by Scott Derrickson, based on a script by him and C. Robert Cargill, Black Phone 2 picks up four years after the original. In that film, Finney (Mason Thames) was kidnapped by The Grabber (Ethan Hawke), whom he eventually killed with the help of the ghosts of The Grabber’s other victims, and the paranormal abilities of his little sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw). Gwen’s bravery and plucky personality were highlights of that movie, but she was largely relegated to the sidelines. Here, not only do we get more of her, Black Phone 2 is basically her movie, and it’s better off for it.

    The original film also killed The Grabber pretty definitively, so when Gwen starts dreaming about an old set of murders, and Finney starts getting phone calls from him, things instantly change. They’re no longer dealing with a real-life person in their neighborhood—it’s now something scarier, and with a history that goes back decades.

    Black Phone 2 has a lot to establish at the start, and, for that reason, it takes a while to get going. We spend time with Finney and Gwen in their high school, which is more violent, but also more romantic. We see what the events of the first movie have done to them and the world around them. There’s also the whole new story, which centers on a winter camp that Gwen keeps dreaming of. The film has to clearly establish why this brother and sister would willingly go to this camp, knowing the horror that might await. Eventually, there’s a very good hook, but that then requires even more exposition to flesh out.

    Once Black Phone 2 does get to the camp, though, everything changes. Not just in the story, but in the nature of the film itself. The first Black Phone was largely a supernatural thriller where we chewed at our fingernails hoping Finney and the ghosts could outsmart The Grabber. Now, The Grabber is dead, so his contacting the siblings constitutes a whole new brand of horror. And when you filter that through Gwen’s dreams, there are more than a few shades of Freddy Krueger along the way.

    © Universal Pictures

    Beyond that, the film borrows quite liberally (but never distractingly) from other classic horror films of the 1970s and 1980s. The snowy setting brings to mind The Shining; that it’s a camp near a lake brings to mind Friday the 13th. (In addition to Nightmare on Elm Street, there are other winks and nods throughout.) This all works in tandem to make Black Phone 2’s transformation from a thriller like the original into a more of a slasher movie feel seamless. It works beautifully, and lets the gore start flowing in ways that go well beyond the original film.

    Most importantly, the best thing about Black Phone 2 is Finney and Gwen. Their relationship was the best part of the original, and here they’re together for the entire film. Thames is excellent as the hardened Finney, a boy completely changed by everything he’s gone through. But the true star is McGraw, whose potty-mouthed, religious-leaning dream warrior is funny, heartbreaking, heroic, and delightful all at once. Every time we’re with either of them (or preferably both), the film shines that much brighter. Throw in Demián Bichir as the head of the camp, Jeremy Davies returning as the father, and the original film’s star Miguel Mora—who played the kick-ass Robin in that film and returns here as his brother Ernesto—and you’ve got more than enough to bring Black Phone 2 to entirely new levels.

    And it does go to all new levels. Without spoiling too much, Black Phone 2 not only evolves the nature of the franchise, but it also adds more mythology and depth to it. We learn things here that recontextualize everything we saw in the original, which yes, largely has to do with how and why The Grabber became so incredibly evil. In that aim, Ethan Hawke is as terrifying as ever, even as we mostly see him in the mask.

    Black Phone 2 may take a while to get going, but its lead performances, primary relationship, and twists make it well worth the trip. It’s filled with great horror moments, a few laughs, and even a nice shot of emotion to tie everything together. The first film was certainly solid, but this one is excellent. The rare sequel that outshines its predecessor.

    Black Phone 2 had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2025 and opens everywhere on October 17.

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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    Germain Lussier

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