#BlackPhone2 2025

Set 4 years after the last movie, our protagonist is traumatized after escaping and killing Ethan Hawke's villain known as The Grabber. He's in high school looking out for his sister and trying to protect her from nerds when she gets the spontaneous idea to sign them up as youth camp counselors. They head to the camp in the midst of a blizzard and find themselves stuck there for a while. The place has a backstory connected with them and a mystery unfolds, involving the return of the now undead Grabber.

The story involves a lot of dream mechanics and becomes strongly reminiscent of Nightmare on Elm Street. Our killer is a sadist like Freddy who targets kids, so the parallels are all there. Our main guy from the first movie is a whiny bitch this time around, always miserable and throwing himself pity parties, so the real protagonist is now his younger sister, who goes on an adventure through her dreams to further the plot.

Ethan Hawke obviously enjoys the role, though it could have been played by anybody this time around due to heavy makeup and minimal screen time, so kudos to him for diving in again. The snowy setting is a unique difference, and the dreams have a grainy film look to them with some snuff-like qualities. It's rated R, though most of the violence is in flashbacks or dreams, and I may be wrong, but I think the bodycount here is zero.

I can't point out much that's actually wrong with the movie, but I'm still not entirely wowed by it. It seems primed for more sequels since the villain is pretty iconic. They sell his masks as Walmart, and when you have that kind of marketability, you don't want to waste it.