The Black Phone kind of popped up out of nowhere and was well-received. Well, that means the Grabber had to come back in a sequel.
It looks like The Black Phone 2 takes a different arc from the first one. There isn’t a plot for the sequel yet, but the original story was:
After being abducted and locked in a basement, a boy starts receiving calls on a disconnected phone from the killer’s previous victims.
I have seen The Black Phone and I remember liking it, but I can’t think how it finished. The Grabber was killed, but he says:
Dead is just a word.
Here’s another word: cashgrab, although I think it’s actually two words. The Black Phone 2 stars Mason Thames, Ethan Hawk, Anna Love, Arianna Rivas, Jeremy Davies, and Madeleine McGraw.
Scott Derrickson is back in the director’s chair, and writing the movie with C. Robert Cargill and Joe Hill, all three of whom are credited with writing the first movie. Hill is the son of Stephen King. Blumhouse, who produced the first one, are producing the sequel.
The original movie had a budget of about $18 million, but went on to make about $160 million at the box office. It shows that more money doesn’t make a movie any better, I’m looking at you The Electric State.
Derrickson’s childhood growing up in Denver was a major influence on the first movie. The sequel is drawing on his experience with a winter camp in the Rocky Mountains. The harsh environment and weather contributed to the tone of the movie.
Originally, there was no plan for a sequel to The Black Phone, but Hill said he contacted Derrickson, a month or two after the movie came out, with some ideas. The first movie was a ‘supernatural thriller’, where the sequel will be more of a ‘horror movie’.
The Black Phone 2 will be in cinemas on the 17th of October.
