You can do that on the 5 euro cinema day

A little scary, a little annoying, a little irrelevant: teenagers.

A comment from Gregor Elsholz

Whether you Horror sequel Black Phone 2 depends largely on how high your tolerance level is for traumatized teenagers with mood swings. I got through about half of it well, but after that I got a little tired of the spooky spectacle. You can find the trailer above this article.

Black Phone 2: Horror sequel brings back villain

Black Phone 2 begins four years after the events of Part 1 – the supernaturally gifted siblings Finney and Gwen are noticeably scarred after the vicious attack by the evil Snatcher (Ethan Hawke).

Gwen in particular is haunted by intense dreams that hint at a mysterious past with her mother at a Christian winter camp. But when the two teenagers arrive there in the present, the grabber from the afterlife tries to settle his outstanding score with them.

Black Phone 2 takes itself too seriously

I really liked the first half of Black Phone 2 – especially the visually impressive dream sequences give you goosebumps. They cleverly present atrocities from the past with film noise like from a VHS cassette and thus stand out from the rest of the plot.

In contrast to these atmospheric horror bites, the present unfortunately cannot keep up with Finney and Gwen. Especially because the film uses slasher classics like Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street in its structure, but forgets the fun.

Instead of using the winter camp and the characters’ indefinable dream abilities for entertaining slasher action, the film wants to be taken extremely seriously in the second half with its motifs of trauma, family drama and religion. What for me with all the supernatural mumbo jumbo and seems a bit silly to the mopey teenagers in focus.

In my opinion, The Black Phone (currently available in the WOW subscription) had found a better balance; the sequel loads too much onto the record, especially from the second act onwards, and unfortunately wastes its villain, who remains quite pale. With a decent cinema discount it could still be worthwhile for enthusiastic horror fans, otherwise I would wait for the streaming start.