Teléfono negro 2

Acting was decent, namely Bichir, Davies, and McGraw. Storyline struggled... the sound effects tried to make up for a movie that is lifeless. When they ran out of sound effects, they leaned on McGraw, who seemed to have unlimited emotion and pathos, but this wasn't enough to make up for the movie itself, which was as boring as it was loud, and I saw it in a Dolby theatre.

Let's be honest: The Black Phone 2 exists for one reason - to fill the producers' pockets. The first one made bank, so they figured, "Let's call the dead again, it's profitable." Problem is, Hollywood's been resurrecting corpses so often it's starting to look like a coke-fueled séance. The original was tight, creepy, and perfectly wrapped up - the kind of story that should've stayed hung up. But no, they had to pick up the receiver again. The result? A sequel that drags its feet like a teenager on a Monday morning.

We find Finney still traumatized, and his sister Gwen with more psychic energy than an entire season of Ghost Whisperer. The black phone starts ringing again - this time, in their dreams. Great idea on paper, but the execution flows about as smoothly as a dial-up connection in 2002. You can feel the writers forcing every twist, like they're propping up a corpse with strings. The intro drags on forever, and you just want to yell, "For God's sake, make the damn phone ring already!"

Ethan Hawke returns as The Grabber - the sadistic, masked boogeyman with the elegance of a homicidal priest - and damn, he's still terrifying. His quiet menace, that eerie control, that vibe of "I'll strangle you, but politely"... it all works. The tragedy is he's barely there. The film treats him like DLC content someone forgot to download. He carried the first movie on his back, but here he's more ghost than villain, and ironically, the film dies the second he vanishes.

Scott Derrickson does his job, though. His direction is sharp, the atmosphere grimy and suffocating, the archival footage still creepy as hell. He knows how to make you squirm without tossing a screamer in your face every ten seconds. It's genuine horror filmmaking, not "fast-horror" for Red Bull-fueled teens. The issue is the story - it just doesn't move. It spins its wheels like a rerun of last season, only foggier and with fewer ideas.

And then there's the ending. The big finale that's supposed to crush you. It doesn't. It happens, it fizzles, and it's gone. No tension, no real payoff, just a limp attempt at emotion. You walk out feeling like someone hung up before the last ring. Shame, because with a bit more guts, that ending could've saved the film. Instead, it leaves a stale "been there, seen that" aftertaste.

The Black Phone 2 is like calling your ex out of loneliness: you know it's a bad idea, but you do it anyway. And of course, you hang up disappointed. Sure, the direction's clean, Ethan Hawke is still monstrous - but the rest reeks of creative exhaustion. It's not a disaster, it's just pointless. Like horror cinema refusing to follow its own advice: sometimes, it's better not to pick up.

The positives about this movie were the cinematography, some scenes were shot so well like the mountain scenery.

The outfit and design, and ofc the level of effort put into gore scenes were absolutely realistic.

The rest was just bad, it was literally like watching one of those art short films were a lot of things were there because "it shows a deeper meaning" without it even relating to the plot.

There were parts that felt like filler, the phone scenes took such a huge part of the movie without anything developing in it,it got to the point that it became so boring I only stayed cause my friends were watching.

The characters sucked so bad. I didn't sympathise or like any of them. There was a "cool girl" who was just there, the main character was extremely unlikable and self centered, she even lashed out at her traumatised brother. Despite never showing any sympathy or care to others she demanded ppl risk lives for her to over a dream.

The entire goal of the unlikable character was so useless and vague and it was insulting that I had to accept that everyone suffer because she wants to "be brave" and "get to the bottom of this dream"

In the first film, The Black Phone, we followed young Finney (Mason Thames), who was abducted by the mysterious Grabber and held captive in a soundproof basement. His sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) desperately tried to find him, guided by her psychic visions and her fierce determination. It was a dark, claustrophobic thriller that combined supernatural tension with raw emotion and it worked.

In this sequel, Finn and Gwen are older and working at a winter camp; the same place where their mother once worked, and mysteriously died. Soon, they uncover chilling truths about their mother's past, and somehow, the Grabber is back, or rather, the idea of him is. He wants revenge on Finn by targeting Gwen.

The problem with The Black Phone 2 is that it never truly earns its fear. The tension, the dread, the eerie silence of the first movie are gone. Finn is grown up, confident and unshaken. Gwen, who once stole every scene with her emotional depth, feels out of place here. Madeleine McGraw is simply miscast; her character is supposed to be terrified, but she plays it too calm, too flat. If they're not afraid, why should we be?

Ethan Hawke's presence as the Grabber, the haunting figure that made the original so memorable, is frustratingly limited. He lurks around the edges of the story, appearing only long enough to remind us how great he was in the first film. When he finally gets a bit more screen time near the end, it's too late. The film has already lost its pulse.

By the final act, I found myself emotionally detached. Whether the Grabber killed Gwen or not didn't seem to matter anymore and that's the worst sin a thriller can commit: indifference.

There's a faint attempt to set up a Black Phone 3 and while that might excite some fans, it feels more like a studio decision than a creative one. The original film ended with quiet finality; this one ends with a shrug.

The first film was a tense psychological thriller with a slight supernatural element.

Black Phone 2 felt like a throw everything at the wall and see what sticks mess.

The Ernesto character had nothing to do and that story thread.coukd have been lost and helped bring the overly long 2 hour runtime down.

At most this should have been 90mins.

The direction was weird with overly long pauses in scenes that should have been a lot quicker given the situation the characters were in. This was especially noticeable in the scene between the father, son and daughter having a long pause discussion/argument about leaving the camp.

Borrowing from Nightmare on Elm Street in heavy doses only made my eyes roll.

If you enjoyed Black Phone, rewatch that and don't waste your time with this messy, unnecessary sequel.