Black Phone 2 (2025)

The critic sees it as a classic slasher sequel with the Grabber resurrected, comparing it to Nightmare on Elm Street 3 on ice; praises the visual coding of dream and real worlds but complains it's too nice and sermonising with Christian themes.

Gripping sequel embraces the paranormal and gruesomeness; singles out the performances of Thames and McGraw and unsettling dream sequences.

The film offers an eerie, tactile plunge into dreamscapes that collapses dreams, reality, past, and present, expanding the mythos with frostbitten dream logic and 8mm footage. It finds faith in the young protagonists' resilience amid its Christian bent and supernatural elements.

The critic praises the artful sequel for its evocative analog texture, hypnotic electronic score, and ability to keep scares coming in a cross between a ghost movie and A Nightmare on Elm Street. It succeeds by devising a formula where ghosts and serial killers both come calling, with strong direction and design choices.

The sequel successfully throws back to 1980s slashers like Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street while delivering graphic horror and throwback atmosphere beyond mere nostalgia. It belongs to the young cast and their resilience amid upsetting visuals and dream logic.

The critic finds the sequel creates a more cohesive picture than the original while deploying a new bag of scary tricks. It ties together disparate strands from the first film through the Grabber's return and new supernatural elements involving dreams and family trauma.

The film earns credit for daring to be different and weirder than the original, liberating itself into unsettling dream sequences and stylization like a poisoned tone poem. It improves on the first by making Gwen the more compelling character.

The film delivers a grisly sequel indebted to Nightmare on Elm Street, with Ethan Hawke channeling Freddy Krueger in a bloody, genre-hitting horror outing. It plays the hits effectively in its festival context.

Sequel lets events out of the basement, releasing tension and exposing thin conceit; still has chills but less sharp than original.

Rote horror sequel retreading familiar ground with diminishing returns; superficial creepy fun but not as effective.

The critic finds the horror sequel disappointing and unconvincing as a franchise starter, with the Grabber reduced to a joke-free, low-rent Freddy Krueger trapped by convoluted supernatural rules that fail to generate scares. Hawke's presence and the mask are noted positively amid mostly ineffective, self-aware set pieces and unnecessary complications.

The critic calls the sequel dreadfully boring and a snooze, criticizing its monotonous, dour, and one-note narrative that borrows heavily from Nightmare on Elm Street while feeling oddly pious. Action-heavy dream sequences fail to compensate for standing-around speeches about trauma and backstories.

The sequel commendably tries to do something different with its tone and approach by focusing on lingering trauma, but it isn’t nearly as terrifying as the first film. The performances are committed and the new focus on Gwen works in places, but the result is interesting without being quite compelling.

The sequel is an ambitious and mostly successful follow-up that leans into its convoluted plot with genuine emotion and religious themes. It excels thanks to Ethan Hawke's chilling voice performance as the Grabber and strong work from the young leads.

The critic calls it a fantastic sequel that explores new avenues and improves on the first film in nearly every way. They single out the shift in protagonist to Gwen, the grainy dream sequences with retro aesthetics, and the coherent return of the Grabber as a Freddy Krueger-like figure.

The critic calls the sequel a compelling psychological horror picture that stands above most cash-in follow-ups thanks to its deliberate setup and atmospheric winter camp setting. They single out the returning young leads' performances and Ethan Hawke's creepy vocal turn as The Grabber for particular praise.

This wildly imaginative sequel is better than the original, with lusher sets, gorier kills, and a nastier Grabber in a post-modern remix of genre classics. The mountain resort setting offers grand psychological horror, though the Grabber arrives late and the final act grows convoluted.

The critic finds it a mixed bag with excellent performances, especially Hawke as a scarier Grabber and strong direction, but criticizes clunky dialogue, heavy-handed themes, and slow pacing.

The film is often moralizing but delivers its message with energy and skilled kills, making it effective horror cinema. It stumbles through narrative mechanics and lore but excels in staged attacks, dream sequences, performances (especially McGraw), and its wintry Christian camp setting.

The review finds the first hour terrifying and a strong horror sequel that deepens the heroes and makes the villain newly supernatural, but faults the second half for clunky exposition dumps and silly elements like magic ice skates. It singles out the well-written characters and ethereal dream sequences for praise in the strong opening section.

The sequel is scarier and more ambitious but loses the original's focused intensity in favor of messy, overpacked supernatural effects and action, feeling like an indiscriminate buffet.