The Black Phone, a 2004 short story by Joe Hill, the son of renowned horror author Stephen King, was adapted into a 2021 movie of the same name. With the success of the first movie, grossing over $161 million, the story was renewed for a sequel. Premiering on October 17, 2025, The Black Phone 2 continues the story of kidnap victim Finney Blake and his younger sister, Gwen, as they try to defeat the Grabber for the second time, but this time, his ghost. On only a $30 million budget, within a month, The Black Phone 2 has grossed over $112 million worldwide and is rising.
Since the first movie was based on a short story, the writers had to come up with a completely new plot line for the next installment of the series. Writers Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill did a fantastic job writing a new script that effectively incorporates key aspects of the first movie. Questions that were left unanswered in The Black Phone, like Mrs. Blake’s death, the Grabber’s past, and the severity of Gwen’s dreams, were answered in ways that made both movies twice as good. Also, actor Miguel Mora, who played Robin Arellano in the first movie, returns in The Black Phone 2 as Robin’s younger brother, Ernesto Arellano, keeping another familiar face in the franchise.
A subplot in the first movie is the story of the neighborhood boys, one of whom, Robin, the Grabber, had killed before Finney. He talks to the boys, some of whom were once his friends, through a broken black rotary phone in the Grabbers’ basement. I figured re-using the haunting of young boys wouldn’t benefit the story of the second movie, but it was written into the script to help tell the Grabber’s past. Three boys who were murdered decades prior at a Christian Camp, Alpine Lake, talk to Gwen through her dreams, and Finney through a broken phone booth, to help them figure out the truth about the camp, and even their own family.
The only aspect of the movie that I didn’t enjoy was certain dialogue. The Black Phone 2 is set in 1982, four years after Finney was kidnapped. It’s clear that the writers tried to include dialogue from the late 70s and early 80s, but having actors who are teenagers now deliver these lines could seem a bit off. Gwen Blake is written as a sarcastic, loud, and expressive character, so Madeleine McGraw was assigned most of the cringeworthy lines, but as a talented young actor, she did a pretty good job.
While it has not been confirmed whether or not The Black Phone 3 has been given the green light, if the writers and cast can do as good a job as they did with The Black Phone and The Black Phone 2, a third movie would be very successful. Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw are both rising stars, and a trilogy would benefit them greatly.
