“What dreams may come…” Shakespeare’s Hamlet
You may have enough of Ethan Hawke’s sinister ghost in a devil’s mask called Grabber, but you will not have enough of the many effects that create terror without a whole lot of blood. The heft of this macabre sequel is not carried by Grabber but director Scott Dickerson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill, who have our devil tormenting the Blake family, especially returning Finn (Mason Thames) and young sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw).
Regularly the Devil from hell connects with the teens by way of the black phone in the middle of snow and cold at the Christian summer Camp her ghost mother bid her to visit. The effect is just as horrible as an axe, given the isolation of the spot and the seeming invulnerable Grabber. The use of heavily-grained Super 8 film effects extends the mischief to the past and the supernatural.
More interesting than the phone is Grabber’s ghostly calls through Gwen’s dreams, a dimension that ushers in the theme of consciousness vs subconscious, the existence of hell and heaven, and the powerlessness in the face of pure evil. Fortunately, good counsel is there to help in the form of friends and family who support them. The leitmotif is that being strong will carry you through the evil.
The pedophiliac Black Phone four years ago has grown into a slam against Christian religions especially when the unchristian Lake Alpine counselors intrude and Gwen gets a chance to enjoy her acid tongue responding to them. Black Phone 2has enough new action to justify it as a sequel an provide steady work for Ethan Hawke as a new Freddy Kreuger.
Black Phone 2
Director: Scott Derrickson
Screenplay: Derrickson (Doctor Strange), C. Robert Cargill (The Black Phone), Joe Hill (The Black phone)
Cast: Mason Thames, Ethan Hawke
Rating: R
Length: 1h 54m
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take (recently listed by Feedspot as two of the ten best NPR Movie Podcasts) out of WCBE 90.5 FM, Columbus, Ohio.Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com