Black Phone 2 - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Black Phone 2



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
As a huge fan of 2021’s The Black Phone, I was actually looking forward to the sequel. It was bringing back the entire original cast, plus expanding on the story of the supernatural telephone with the same writers and director. So what’s not to like? Turns out, this was wildly different from what I expected, and wildly different than the first movie as well. But with that being said, I ended up enjoying the sequel almost as much as the first film, just with a few caveats of Hollywood storytelling that I find a bit annoying.

The film picks up years after the event of the first film, wherein a 13 year old boy named Finney (Mason Thames) was kidnapped by a serial killer named “The Grabber” in a soundproof basement, where his only help was through the use of a mystical black phone that allowed the dead victims of the Grabber to communicate and help the young boy escape his fate. Now, with Finney about ready to graduate high school, things start to get weird again. While Finney can still hear the dead through the telephones around him, his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) is starting to see things as well. The room that Finney was held in, a voice from across time through the phone, and even the Grabber himself (although said serial killer met his demise at Finney’s hand in the previous film).

Slowly being driven mad by her visions, Gwen realizes that one of the voices she heard in her vision through the phone was that of their dead mother speaking from her own childhood at a youth camp. Masquerading as counselors in training, Gwen and Finn head up to the youth camp to see what clues they can find about their mother's past, only to find out that they’re stuck at the camp as a massive blizzard snows them in. But there they find that they weren’t there because of their mother. Rather, they are there at the behest of a more sinister undead presence. That of the Grabber himself (Ethan Hawke), who has his own set of plans for the children that escaped his clutches in the previous film.

The Black Phone was a taught and intense horror thriller, with a rather unique flair. It took place mainly in the abandoned basement where the Grabber kept young Finn, with the phone that connected him to the dead victims of the Grabber as his only way to escape. This time, it’s much more open and sweeping with the locations. Not to mention the lore gets expanded a whole lot with this “reverse Black Phone” plot. Instead of a serial killer torturing them while alive, and the dead speaking to Finn. We have a flip side of that, where Gwen and Finn are alive and being tortured through the phone by the demonic spirit of the Grabber, who is stuck between worlds. There are also several lore-building subplots where we find out that the Grabber had a hand in Finn and Gwen’s mother’s death years ago (which was deemed a suicide), as well as delving deeper into the family machinations going on. But what really made the film interesting was Gwen’s ability to take control in her dream visions. It almost feels like A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors in how it plays out. Gwen can take the grabber on head-to-head once she realizes that the dream world is malleable, and it takes on an almost superhero-type twist to the horror genre.

My only real complaint with the film is that it does what every Hollywood sequel does in some way. It goes bigger, bolder, and with that comes some silliness. Such as if Finn’s mother was killed by the Grabber years earlier, why didn’t she speak to him via the phone in the basement of the first film? Or Gwen’s supernatural abilities can be a bit too cliché at times. But I found the overall experience to be quite a lot of fun, despite some of the hiccups that the sequel is prone to. Ethan Hawke just revels in his role as the Grabber, using his vocal inflections to put forth a twisted and foreboding presence that is delightfully creepy. Mason and Madeleine both do well as more mature versions of their young teen selves from the first movie, and it was nice to see James Ransone in what I believe was his last film before taking his own life earlier this year (May he finally find peace).




Rating:

Rated R for strong violent content, gore, teen drug use, and language.




4K Video: Video:

Shot using a mixture of 6K digital cameras and Super 8 film for the flashbacks, Black Phone 2 looks routinely gorgeous all the way around. Colors lean towards the blue end of the spectrum, with muted primaries and worn-out saturation levels during the Super 8 sequences. Ambers and Sepia hues bleed through in many interior shots, while outdoors keeps that heavy blue look. Fine details are still exceptional, handily outclassing the Blu-ray by a decent margin (the Blu-ray is good, but suffers in really low light shots, and some minor banding is going on). The Dolby Vision really enhances that final act in the dreamworld, where Gwen and The Grabber face off on the ice, and little things like the Red on his costume, or the flashes of blood on the ground, are more vibrant than the SDR 1080p disc.









Audio:

While the track is aggressive and heavy-handed with many of the more jump scare moments, I found Black Phone 2’s Atmos mix more of a laid-back affair when it comes to overhead usage and the lightness of it all. The film thrives on atmospheric presence, adding in subtle directional shifts and score cues that shift the focus around the room, but the surrounds are never really utilized for obvious, discrete sounds. That being said, this is still a wicked mix, with impressive side and rear surround usage, and the oppressive score flows effortlessly throughout the mix. LFE is punchy and powerful when needed (such as the snow plow or the massive cracking of the ice). Dialog is strong and well-centered up front, making this an all-around great sound mix.







Extras:

• FEATURE COMMENTARY WITH DIRECTOR/CO-WRITER/PRODUCER SCOTT DERICKSON
• DELETED SCENES
-- Gwen and Ernesto Talk in the Library
-- Mustang Talks to Group
-- Mando Talks About the Camp Closing
-- Mustang and Gwen Talk in the Chapel
-- Ernesto and Gwen Kiss
-- Gwen Prays
-- Ken and Barb Ask Gwen and Finn to Come Back
• DIALED IN: THE CAST OF BLACK PHONE 2 – Get to know the actors whose creative decisions and personal connections breathe life into a wide range of characters.
• A STORY CARVED IN ICE – From breathtaking stunts to grotesque prosthetic work, a look at the immense creative and technical effort required to bring this visceral, edge-of-your-seat thriller to life.
• FROZEN IN TIME – Dreamlike settings collide with unnerving terror in this behind-the-scenes look at the frightening set of BLACK PHONE 2.

Final Score: ​

As I said above, I enjoyed Black Phone 2 a lot more than I expected to after I saw the changes unfolding on screen. This isn’t going to be exactly like the 1st film, and in many ways it’s MORE fun. But that is tempered by some of Hollywood’s standard excesses that make this a “1 step forward and 1 step back” sort of situation. I like the expanded lore, and I like how much more fun the characters were. But overall, this was simply a solid sequel that really surprised me, and I liked it nearly as much as the original. The 4K UHD disc looks great, showing solid improvement over the included Blu-ray, and the Atmos track was a treat. Extras are actually rather impressive for a modern film, and I had more than enough fun digging through the various commentaries and deleted scenes. Definitely a fun watch


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Demian Bichir, Jeremy Davies
Directed by: Scott Derrickson
Written by: Joe Hill, Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), Spanish, French DD+ 7.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Universal
Rated: R
Runtime: 114 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: December 23rd, 2025

Recommendation: Fun Watch