Black Phone 2 Trailer Breakdown!
The original The Black Phone (2022) is based on the short story of the same name by Joe Hill. It’s only a few pages long, and the entire plotline was already covered by the original film. How would a sequel continue the story? The Black Phone 2 trailer answers that question and hints at how Universal could turn this into a franchise. It hits theater on October 17th.
The Black Phone was a big hit back in 2022, so a sequel was inevitable. Fortunately, Universal was able to convince the original director and primary cast members to return.
Scott Derrickson is back at the helm, and he’s joined by Ethan Hawke as The Grabber, Mason Thames as Finney, a rare horror movie final boy (as opposed to the more common final girl trope) who escaped The Grabber’s clutches in the first film, and Madeline McGraw as Finney’s spunky sister, Gwen.
I reviewed the first Black Phone back in this site’s early days and ranked it as one of my favorite horror films of 2022. The sequel looks promising. I’m pleased that it’s a direct sequel to the first. Let’s check out the trailer and see what it has in store!
Black Phone 2 Trailer Breakdown
0:17-0:26 – Gwen’s dream sets a Nightmare on Elm Street-esque tone. We haven’t had a true NOES film in 15 years. If The Black Phone wants to fill this void, then so be it.
0:30-0:32 – The sequel is partly set at a youth camp, so this is giving me Friday the 13th vibes as well. Of course, a youth camp is the perfect place for The Grabber’s ghost to haunt.
1:16-1:22 – Major Elm Street vibes here, with Gwen pinned to the floor by an unseen force and then sent careening around the room and bouncing off walls. Shades of the infamous death scene of Tina (Amanda Wyss) in the first Elm Street. I hope Gwen doesn’t meet the same fate as that poor gal.
1:47 -1:50- The Black Phone 2 trailer makes yet another ode to ’80s slashers, this time referencing a far more obscure film – Curtains (1983). That movie is remembered (if it’s remembered at all) for a scene where the masked killer pursues a victim while skating across an icy lake.
The first movie was set in 1978. Finn and Gwen are obviously a few years older in the sequel, which would put this movie in the early ’80s. That explains the inspiration for emulating that era’s slasher films.
Here’s the Black Phone 2 official trailer:
