**Spoilers for The Black Phone ahead!**
Whether you watched The Black Phone back in 2021 or have recently discovered it because of the hype it got on TikTok, you’re probably confused as to why there’s a sequel releasing, especially since the first film seemed to wrap up with a pretty definitive ending.
Fantastic Fest just had The Black Phone 2 premiere on Sept. 20, and we’re already hearing a lot online. No spoilers, thankfully, but it seems like this sequel is a step up from the first movie, leaning into a darker, more graphic, and sinister vibe.
The first movie, while categorized as a horror/mystery, wasn’t overly gory or scary. As a self-proclaimed scaredy-cat, it didn’t completely freak me out. Still, it became a fan favorite. The scene where Robin, as a ghost, teaches Finney how to ultimately kill the Grabber went viral recently, bringing more attention to the movie.
The Black Phone is back, with the same captivating cast returning for the sequel. In the trailer, we see Finney and Gwen as teenagers, with Gwen once again having nightmares.
In her visions, she receives calls from the black phone and sees three boys in danger at a winter camp. As they head to the camp to solve this mystery, Finney hears a payphone ringing and heads to answer it, hearing a voice that he couldn’t possibly forget.
“You of all people know that dead is just a word.” Chills! Immediate chills!
But wait, didn’t Finney kill the Grabber in the first movie? Well, let’s talk about it.
The most popular fan theory is that the Grabber returns as a supernatural force, Nightmare on Elm Street vibes. We actually got a small hint of this in the first film through Finney’s interactions with the Grabber’s previous victims.
The boys who were murdered in the basement were able to come back as ghosts and helped Finney survive. Their return showed us that death in the same room as the black phone doesn’t mean the end. If that’s true, it’s more than likely the same thing happened to the Grabber himself, who was killed there by Finney before escaping.
He doesn’t seem very happy that Finney tried to end his murders, and he’s back angrier than ever, determined to make both him and Gwen pay for his death. In true Freddy Krueger fashion, the Grabber’s demonic powers seem to be much more dangerous and terrifying this time, except that now, he can’t be killed.
We can see these violent, bloody attacks in the trailer, as Gwen is tortured and tormented by the Grabber, yet no one else in the room can see how that’s happening to her.
This detail makes it clear that Gwen’s connection to the supernatural is deeper than we realized, and she might no longer be a supporting character, but the key to figuring out how the Grabber came back, and possibly the only one with the power to stop him.
With a cast we already love, and a solid original plot that promises to surprise and terrify us, all while staying loyal to the original storyline, The Black Phone 2 sounds like the perfect sequel and is coming out right in the middle of the spooky season on Oct. 17.
To say I’m excited isn’t enough. I’ll have to sleep with the lights on for weeks, but I’m sure it’ll be worth it! The countdown has started. See you on Oct. 17!
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