Black Telephone 2: the effective sequel to a success that seemed concluded at the end of the initial chapter

black phone 2 (Black Phone 2; United States/2025). Address: Scott Derrickson. Script: Scott Derrickson y C. Robert Cargill. Photograph: Pär Ekberg. Music: Atticus Derrickson. Distributor: UIP. Duration: 114 minutes. Qualification: only suitable for people over 16 years of age. Our opinion: buena.

The second part of black phone follows the path of a few notable horror films released in recent years with an impact that far exceeds the most optimistic expectations. The rules that govern the operation of the entertainment industry machinery today establish that behind any success of that caliber there always appears the inevitable reality of a sequel. Even, as in this case, when the original story offers us a closure to which it is not necessary to add anything else.

Fortunately, behind black phone The figure of a director as competent as Scott Derrickson appears, who knows how to carry out an unforeseen continuation (and on paper almost impossible) and in the process connect it directly with the rest of his work. In this second part there appear, among other interesting details, precise references to some of the valuable contributions to the genre that the director of Doctor Strange did in the past. Above all The Exorcism of Emily Rose y Deliver us from eviltitles in which (as happens here) the connection between the supernatural and the real world functions as a fundamental axis of the representation of Evil.

Derrickson has to swerve hard to tell this second chapter, because the central character of the original story (Grabber, the demented child killer hidden behind the horrible mask of a smiling devil) is dead. With the help of his usual screenwriter, C. Robert Cargill, the director gives a twist to the same story that inspired the original film (written by Joe Hill, son of Stephen King) without abandoning the essence of the story: the greatest threat appears when Evil takes the form of some family trauma that attacks the most innocent to an irreversible point.

In the harsh Denver winter of the early 1980s, siblings Finney (Mason Thomas) and Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) reappear as teenagers four years after defeating Grabber (Ethan Hawke), only to find themselves once again exposed to the same eerie threat, whose spectral return coincides with an unresolved series of emotional traumas from the family’s past.

The angry Finney, owner of the weight of the original story, passes the baton to his younger sister, who now experiences her power to communicate with the supernatural world in an aggressive and painful way. Around it, an entire structure will be built that includes ghostly visions, religious references and (again) the punishment of the purest souls in the middle of the snowy landscape of a recreational camp for Christian youth, an ideal setting for all that past to be revived in the most bloody way.

Derrickson takes us into that world eightieswith small-town teenagers who watch video clips and dream of listening to live Duran Duranthrough images filmed in analog formats (such as Super 8) that stand out especially in the magnificent dream sequences. What this sequel largely loses is the subtle, discreet and at the same time profound way that the original story used to install the deepest fear without ever resorting to the classic effects tools of the genre.

Here, however, we frequently return to the resource of jump scare (the startle of a character in the face of some unexpected appearance, conveniently reinforced by the soundtrack) or the use of slow motion. Perhaps there was no other way to approach a sequel of these characteristics, which will be difficult to understand in its fundamental lines without having seen the original film.