What’s it about?

Bad dreams haunt 15-year-old Gwen as she receives calls from the black phone and sees disturbing visions of three boys being stalked at a winter camp. Accompanied by her brother, Finn, they head to the camp to solve the mystery, only to confront the Grabber — a killer who’s grown even more powerful in death.

What did we think?

Sam Donaldson asks: ‘What if Freddie Kreuger had a black phone?’ 

That’s the question Black Phone 2 seems to be asking. Ethan Hawke, Mr Grabber in a spooky mask, taunts our protagonist in a dream world and can also speak to him via phones, even though he doesn’t really need to. 

On paper it’s an intriguing idea, having a protagonist solve a murder mystery by answering phones that have a direct line to ghosts. But the movie doesn’t deliver: it tries to keep up the intrigue with surreal and dreamlike sequences, but often comes across as amateurish, and the visuals sometimes look like they’ve come straight from a YouTube short.

It is nice seeing Ethan Hawke having a lot of fun, but unfortunately he is underused. And sadly, Black Phone 2 is poorly paced, meandering and ultimately very boring.  4/10