Screens

A place to talk about movies, TV and videos on Farcaster.

When The Black Phone first rang in 2021, it gave us an instantly iconic villain in The Grabber. That the man beneath the mask was Ethan fucking Hawke both raised eyebrows and, perhaps, distracted from the in-world character. But Black Phone 2 (drop the “The” — it’s cleaner) cements his place in the pantheon of horror.

While the first film featured paranormal elements via the titular hotline to Hell and a little girl’s prophetic dreams, it still felt grounded in suburbia — more child-abduction nightmare than otherworldly horror. The Grabber, after all, was a conventional serial killer, albeit with superhuman style and good looks (no mask can hide Ethan Hawke’s ageless genes). Unfortunately for Mr. Grabber, Finney — his would-be victim — (SPOILER) vanquished him from the mortal realm. Naturally (or unnaturally?), his return necessitates some supernatural flair, graduating him from “creep from down the street” to “ghoul from the grave.”

BP2’s story migrates to a snowed-in youth camp — minus the youths, for in-story reasons. More than a change of scenery, this move deepens the mythos behind both the villain and our now-teenaged sibling heroes, Finney and Gwen. You can feel a franchise being born as The Grabber… grabs… the torch from Freddy Krueger in this elevated Nightmare on Elm Street by way of an iced-over Crystal Lake sprinkled with The Shining.

The only thing cooler than the movie’s location is its time period. Taking place in 1982, the film leverages — to spooky effect — the look of old film stock in Gwen’s dream sequences. The synthy soundtrack reinforces that vibe, evoking the great John Carpenter — or, for those whose only exposure to the 1980s is through Netflix, Stranger Things. Either way, I want to go to there. Hell, I’m literally from there (1982 ftw).