Four years after Finn (Mason Thames) fought off and killed ‘The Grabber’ (Ethan Hawke) he is struggling to deal with his trauma from those events. His sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) then begins to have mysterious dreams about some young boys that died at a camp that may be linked to their mother and ‘The Grabber’. 

Taken on its own merits Black Phone 2 is a merely okay horror movie. Albeit one that treads incredibly closely to A Nightmare on Elm Street. Taken in the context of the rather brilliant original movie it is a hefty disappointment with flashes of interest. 

The creative team involved in the original film remains the same and it’s clear that they are trying to do something more than a retread. The main character switches from Finn to Gwen whilst maintaining their fun brother-sister bond. Gwen’s inventive name calling a real highlight. Rather than have Finn in direct physical danger from ‘The Grabber’ we now have Gwen facing him in her dream world. 

There are interesting moments. The mystery of joining the dots between what is happening at the camp and the children’s mother is good. The juxtaposition of Finn self medicating his pain via marijuana and his father using alcohol are clever. The use of super grainy footage to denote the difference between the real world and the dream world and the usage of the old Universal logo at the film’s opening to denote its timeframe are inventive and appreciated. And when it goes for gore and violence it really goes for it. 

The issue though is that there is never the same sense of dread now that the villain is essentially Freddy Krueger. Add to that the fact that Finn and Gwen have assistance from a few different other secondary characters and it does not feel quite as perilous as before. The biggest issue though is that for me the film just enters rather generic territory in its final third. Setting up a group of people working together to fight off the dream villain. 

It is a shame because the original trio of actors in Thames, McGraw and Hawke are really convincing in their respective roles now. And I appreciate writers C. Robert Cargill and Scott Derrickson (who also directs) trying to mix things up a little.

Black Phone 2 is fine so long as you do not watch the original in close proximity to it and you are just looking for an okay horror movie. But it fails to live up to the original and sets a worrying precedent that this could find itself as a new franchise where the villain keeps returning no matter what.