Black Phone 2 - Voices of the Past

I saw the first Black Phone when it reached streaming. I laid in bed after a long day of work, heard good things about it, so I gave it a try. It was a fantastic horror movie.

The suburbs of Denver are being rocked by a serial killer known as The Grabber. He kidnaps kids and they're never seen again. The story centers around one of the kids that's taken...Finn. As the days tick by, Finn tries to find ways to escape, his only help is the spirits of the kids The Grabber has killed, some of them Finn knew in life.

The sequel picks up a few years later. Finn is a little older (and kind of a bully). He has a lot of post-traumatic stress from his time in The Grabber's basement. He's still known as the kid that killed a serial killer, so people wanna step up to prove he's not so tough. Broken phone's still ring for him and he refuses to help, not wanting to go through another Grabber-like situation. But destiny had other plans.

Finn's sister, the awesome Gwen, pulls him unintentionally brings him back into it. Gwen (played by Madeline McGraw) was my favorite character in both films. She's the one that mounted Finn's rescue with her visions (yes, she has dreams that help her save people). She's strong willed, confident and fiery.

She has a dream of people that were killed years before at a camp in 1957. The very camp their mom (who died years ago) attended when the murders took place. Gwen wants answers and volunteers at the camp with a boy she likes (Ernesto) and Finn reluctantly agrees to go to keep an eye on her.

A blizzard traps them there and Finn gets a phone call from a voice from the past...The Grabber. His spirit is there and he wants revenge. He attacks Gwen in her dreams, but Finn and Ernesto manage to save her.

The past is not at rest in this second installment. The things we thought were true weren't.

The spirits that are calling for Finn and Gwen's help are victims of The Grabber before he became The Grabber. His spirit has returned to the camp so he can torture and torment his victims in the afterlife. The closer they get to finding them, the more intense his attacks on Gwen become.

But what drew Gwen to the camp wasn't so much the victims...it was her mother. Dreaming of her on the phone, communicating with the same spirits years before. Gwen's mom gave her the gift of visions and Finn his ability to talk to the dead.

Dreams of the past also explain the truth about the way their mom died. They always thought that their mom had killed herself due to the dreams of death and voices calling out for her. The truth was darker than that.

As The Grabber was just beginning his reign of terror in their suburb, Hope had a dream of the first kid that was taken. Naturally, she did what anyone would do and tried to help. Gwen learns that The Grabber followed Hope home and killed her, hanging her as if it were suicide.

This gives Gwen the strength to take control of her dream and fight off The Grabber, giving Finn and the camp people time to find the bodies in the frozen lake.

While very much a ghost story, its still very much a story about surviving trauma and finding power in who you are.

Finn went through the ringer, being mentally tormented by The Grabber in the first one. It was only because he wasn't playing by the rules of being a "naughty boy" that it wasn't physically abusive. He found his strength and managed to kill The Grabber, but the trauma of what happened remained with him four years later. When confronted with the literal ghost of the past, he had to find his strength again, pushing through it to save his sister and help the spirits of the murdered campers.

Gwen, though a force of nature, tends to deny and shove her gifts away. This is mostly due to their father. In the first one, he was literally beating her with a belt (dad of the 70s) and making her say that her dreams were just dreams. She knew they weren't and while she used them to finally find Finn and where the bodies of the missing kids were buried in the first one, here she still keeps quiet about her dreams.

Its when she takes control, accepting that they are a part of her and can do good with it that she becomes more powerful and helps find the bodies of all the campers. In doing this, they are able to fight back against the evil spirit of The Grabber.

As the kids finally head home after a long few days, it does give us a happy ending with a mysterious phone call on the broken phone booth. But its not Finn that hears it...the call is for Gwen. When she answers it, its her mom. She is so proud of her and Finn.

Anyone who has ever lost someone important to them; a parent, grandparent, friend or love one knows how much this means. We all want to know that when the people we love leave us, they're still with us. They're watching over us and proud of who we become after they've gone.

The cinematography is amazing. Because they're at a camp during a blizzard, the blanket of white snow blends well with the darkness of night and the woods. The acting from the two siblings is great. You feel their love for each other and they want nothing more to protect each other and get off the mountain alive.

It does tend to drag at some points. The story moves slow then revs up and just ends. It is worth watching, especially if you liked the first movie. Ethan Hawke is just as chilling this time around because much like the shark in Jaws, you don't see him much, but his presence is there.

4/5