As is my wont with sequels, I often access my reviews of the original movies to get a starting point for the new review. Apparently, 2021’s The Black Phone met my yardstick for being genuinely scary from within without undue violence and gore. I’m not about to rewatch it to make sure, but if this weak sequel is any indication, maybe I was just in a good mood.

The premise at least was original. A lad named Finn (Mason Thames) wakes up in a locked room with nothing but an old black phone and realizes he may be the sixth in a series of otherworldly child abductions and murders. Then, the obviously disconnected phone starts receiving calls from what are apparently his five deceased predecessors offering him helpful hints on getting out of this predicament alive.

This time the chosen target of the evil entity called “The Grabber” (Ethan Hawke) is Finn’s clairvoyant kid sister (Madeleine McGraw, also in the first movie), who receives her warnings through dreams. As with the original, the production values and the acting are excellent, and the premise is scary. So I’m at a loss to understand why director Scott Derrickson thought a bunch of violently administered blood and gore was necessary, especially since he managed to avoid such stuff in the first flick.

Overall, a well-made mixed bag for horror fans that I stop short of recommending to normal people, and I’ll not be answering this particular phone next time it rings.

(114 min)