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Credit: Universal Pictures
Memorable horror villains aren’t exactly a rarity these days, but still aren’t something I’d ever want to take for granted. So even though I wasn’t 100% convinced that Black Phone 2 needed to exist as a 2025 movie release, given the first film adapted a standalone short story from Joe Hill, I was still more than excited to see Ethan Hawke’s depraved killer The Grabber back on the big screen. Hill’s famed father Stephen King was also pumped for the upcoming horror movie and has shared a short-but-glowing review that I can fully agree with.
King is known to share his many pop culture opinions, movie takes and TV show praise with his social media followers, and it wasn’t exactly surprising that he would be chiming in on Black Phone 2, considering its legacy connections. (It also isn’t surprising that the bestselling author was either privy to a private screening or got an early version of the film sent to him.) He took to X to share his thoughts, which are as follows:
It’s not as good as the first one. IT’S BETTER.
Dem’s high-praisin’ words indeed, considering how widely acclaimed The Black Phone was when it was released in 2022. (We certainly had a glowing review for it.) So for it to even match those previously set highs would have been an accomplishment. It’s a whole other kind of victory for it to fully supercede what the first film delivered.
Indeed, the sequel manages to rise above and eclipse its predecessor by being a completely different kind of movie, albeit still one tethered to the haunting central conceit of Finney and Gwen’s supernatural abilities, as it were. The first trailer garnered immediate Nightmare on Elm Street comparisons, and those are pretty on the money, with director Scott Derrickson and screnwriter C. Robert Cargill going broader and weirder with the snow-covered storyline.
Derrickson himself shared King’s post on Instagram, so one can assume that he was pumped to get that vote of confidence from such a legend of the genre.
Credit: Universal Pictures
I was on hand at Fantastic Fest 2025 for Black Phone 2’s world premiere, so I can speak not only to how fun it is, but also to how well it worked with a packed theater of likeminded fans: superbly. Everyone was justifiably amused, shocked, and horrified in equal doses, and I can say with conviction that Ethan Hawke’s monstrous Grabber is even more disturbing filmed in Super 8 than he is in a higher definition.
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Ethan Hawke showing off his Grabber mask in The Black Phone.
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What’s more, both Mason Thames and Madeline McGraw have advanced their already aces acting talents, and Black Phone 2 really is their shared movie. Sure, additions like Demián Bichir and returning co-stars like Jeremy Davies add to the value, as does Hawke’s masked creepster, but Thames and McGraw hold the fort with ease, and watching them is easier on viewers’ psyches this time around without all the violence against children.
But don’t just listen to me: take it from the guy who was responsible for bringing Joe HIll to life, Stephen King. (To be sure, Hill did give Derrickson and Cargill his ideas for where The Grabber’s story could go after his short story, so there remains a direct connection there.)
Check out the second full-length trailer for Black Phone 2 below!
Black Phone 2 will hit theaters everywhere starting on October 17. So if you missed out on watching it on the big screen the first time around, don’t make that same mistake, or we’ll be calling you, and calling you, and calling you…
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