In “Black Phone 2” (2025), Scott Derrickson tries to rouse a dead animal to life. When a franchise is primed to continue even past clear signs it ought not to, no amount of scares can compensate. A lot can be put into reviving it, keep it going, but it won’t suffice when the project itself is so stuck in its quagmire of schlocky indulgences. Despite a few effective instances, “Black Phone 2” relies too much on callbacks to break out into fresh, exciting, daringly provocative terrain. For horror to work its full power, it demands certain transgression, an appetite to push at your nerve endings. It cannot just succumb to templates if it has high aims.
“Black Phone 2” threads back to its predecessor without reflecting an impulse to snap afresh, bristle with new danger. There’s a stubborn familiarity drenching it with characters trapped in stalemate, not a hint of growth in sight. Even as the ending obviously sets up room for transcendence, there’s not much that transpires previously that leads towards that moment. It regurgitates past glories and stays complacent. The analogue texture is a welcome addition. Initially, it does ratchet up undercurrents, an edge of startling unease. These visions jolt as liminal, inducing a strange sensation that floats on the edge of reality and sanity. Thankfully, at least the franchise seems to bow out with this film.
Black Phone 2 (2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
When they swish in, these visions are adequately unnerving, splicing through one’s grasp of consciousness. One cannot gather them as fully in consonance, but they have a sudden flash of vivid disturbance, curling under the skin. Granted, the film doesn’t portend itself as something cerebral and overly complicated, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that it seems to have no desire to exert much beyond early suppositions. It leads to a predictable close, propped up by usual scuffles, a resolution arriving as too pat to yank forth extreme, dire discomfort.
The film conjures these grotesque images without ever amping up a sense of high stakes, peril that can potentially kill all. For all its projections, this is a bloodless film, relegating danger to mere threats that leap forth with as quickness as they dash away. It’s embarrassing because the promise it raises is squandered mostly. The villain incites and looms with remonstrations, but doesn’t make much of a dent. Where’s the terror that makes one slip off?
Within a race, the film feels tame, de-fanged, as if the makers wanted to go the long mile but baulked midway and chucked the game itself. What could have been heady turns, suitable, modest, just about draped in polite conventions after setting up with some tease. This is symptomatic of a wider state of movies that just genuflect to norms after showing some teeth.
What draws Finney and Gwen to the camp?
Four years after the events of the first, Finney (Mason Thames) is still in deep trauma and shock at what he has endured vis-à-vis the onslaught of the Grabber, a serial killer who targeted boys. There’s so much agony and horror Finney hasn’t even processed yet. He may try to repress it before his sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), who assumes centrality here. Her perspective initially wields more primacy here, a shift from the brother, though it later winds back to him. The focus in the film is confused, unsure of where to zero in for maximum impact.
Also Read: 8 Movies To Watch If You Like The Black Phone (2022)
Gwen has persistent bad dreams. She has these visions that predate real nasty occurrences. There have been cases where she’s pointed out a corpse before a proper investigation could lead people in that direction. She insists on the veracity of the claims her dreams strike forth. She reiterates that her dreams have valence, that the visions hold a seed of truth.
They cannot be outright dismissed, even as her brother calms her down and asks her to take them one at a time. These dreams spur a tide of anxiety in her, putting her on a tight leash that she cannot quite overcome. Her emotions are churned in a big, volatile, ungainly mix. On her insistence, Finney goes with her to an alpine Christian camp, where she insists their dead mother has been calling her.
What had actually happened to the siblings’ mother?
Finney isn’t convinced, but the intensity of her appeal pulls him close, makes him watch out for her with constant devotion. The sibling bond powers the film. The two, along with her classmate Ernesto, arrive at the camp. There are heavy blizzards for which they are informed they are the only ones at the camp. The others haven’t made it. The very first night itself is dramatic. Gwen and Finney find themselves surrounded by the spirits of dead kids who beseech them to help them. A pay phone keeps luring Finney in, and he re-encounters the Grabber, his deadly nemesis. Their clash fuelled the earlier film.
It’s at this point, when circumstances are rapidly snowballing and the siblings find themselves cornered, that the camp organisers are let in on the secret. Finney reveals his past, being the one who got away from the Grabber’s clutches. Gwen has a revelation, in her vision, that their mother was pushed to kill herself because of the Grabber. There’s some baulking among a few of the organisers, but the siblings persist. Only when the dead kids’ corpses are found can the Grabber’s reign of horror end. Gwen’s mother, too, had visions of her own and was murdered by the Grabber, who then staged it as a hanging.
Black Phone 2 (2025) Movie Ending Explained:
Is The Grabber Killed?
The climax takes place at the frozen lake. A blizzard threatens to rise and overwhelm, but the team is devoted to their pursuit. They know they have to bring the dead to justice. Only then can the Grabber’s bloody trail be put to a decisive end. Gwen and Finney have to work through their trauma so that the past can be nipped in the bud once and for all. Otherwise, it’ll keep tailing them.
The Grabber tries to rush and beat the siblings, but they are determined to bring the corpses out. Aided by the camp organisers, it’s a heroic collective effort, everyone pitching in to defeat the persistent, nefarious Grabber before he can exert himself fully. Once the bodies are found, the spirits too throw themselves in and the Grabber is knocked down. The Grabber is mauled and attacked. Whatever remains of him now drifts underwater, only a sorry residue vanishing into the cold air of the night. The battle is triumphant. Justice has been delivered. Gwen and Finney are free at last. The villain drifts into the very nether of the lake and has been bested at last.
On the day of departure, right before Gwen and Finney roll out of the camp, the pay phone rings. Only she can hear it. It’s their mother who reassures Gwen of trusting in her psychic gifts, which she must see as a strength. It’s a bittersweet moment that lets the family unburden themselves of the past so that they can surge forth with hope and growth and so much to look forward to.
