On June 24, 2022, the movie “The Black Phone” was released, but I had not heard of it until a year later. Watching it for the first time, it had me intrigued, wondering if the director of the movie was planning on making a second one. And indeed he did not disappoint. The “Black Phone 2” was released on Oct 17, 2025, having many familiar and new actors in the movie, but bringing a different atmosphere. In the “Black Phone 2” we still have our main villain, the Grabber, but he comes back for revenge in a different form. The first movie follows a plot about a boy being kidnapped by a masked serial killer. However, the second movie changes the pace as there seems to be a shift to the paranormal world with the grabber becoming an evil ghost.
In the “Black Phone 2”, 15-year old Gwendolyn Blake is being haunted by three boys from a winter camp in her dreams. In response, Blake decides to figure out why these three boys were continuously haunting her by going to the camp, accompanied by Finney Shaw, her brother. As they were solving the mystery they were confronted by the Grabber who after being killed in the first movie is now an evil spirit.
One aspect of the movie that stood out to me was instead of Shaw being the overall main character the filmmakers seemed to mainly focus on Blake instead of Shaw. It was interesting to see that the roles were almost switched as in the first movie Shaw faces the grabber, but now it is Blake who does.
Another aspect of the movie that I absolutely loved was that they brought back the actor Miguel Mora. Mora had played Robin Arellano in the first movie, but this time he was back as the brother, Ernesto Arellano. We can see a major difference between the two brothers: Robin Arellano was known as the cool, fighter guy who no one wanted to mess with; however, his brother Ernesto Arellano, was more calm and focused on his studies.
One similarity between the two brothers that I noticed was that Robin Arellano was there for Shaw during the first movie and now Ernesto Arellano is there for Gwen. It showed me how these two brothers have a good heart and have courage to protect those they care about.
In the first movie Shaw and Robin Arellano have a close friendship with each other, but the death of Robin Arellano made an impact on Shaw. In the second movie, we see how Shaw does not really like Ernesto Arellano, and I wondered why. After all, he is the younger brother of Robin Arellano. In an interview, Mason Thames, who plays Shaw, goes into detail about why the character Shaw may not like Ernesto Arellano.
Thames shares how Shaw does not like Ernesto Arellano much as he looks a lot like Robin Arellano. In the movie we can not see this being said, but it is something that is felt within the character and even in some of the scenes.
The Grabber also had a great impact on this movie especially now that he came back as an evil spirit. The anger and need for revenge were well portrayed; they had me intrigued throughout the whole movie. It was interesting to see that if he hurt Blake in her dreams, she would feel that pain out of her dreams. The Grabber wanted his revenge on Shaw, but instead of only hurting Shaw, he was using his sister against him which I thought was a smart tactic.
Overall, I feel that this movie had a perfect ending with the perfect amount of suspense in the right scenes. The actors portrayed each character’s development very well. I would rate this movie a 10/10 and would definitely recommend this movie and the first one to those who are into horror movies.
