Ethan Hawke in the Solid Horror sequel

At some point in Black phone 2The Grabber, the villain played so memorably by Ethan Hawke, reunites with his would-be victim from the first film. “Did you think our story was over, Finny?” » asks the demonic masked figure in a mocking tone.

This seems a reasonable question, since the Grabber died at the end of the previous film, dispatched by Finn (Mason Thames). But we’re talking about the movie business, after all, and the death of the main villain is no barrier to making a sequel if the original film was profitable enough – which it certainly was with a worldwide gross of $160 million. Fortunately, this follow-up arriving four years later is no mere cash grab but rather an even more stylistically and thematically ambitious effort that largely succeeds in its aspirations.

When we reunite with Finn, it’s clear that he’s still suffering from the trauma of his past ordeal. He violently attacks a classmate and spends most of his waking hours in a marijuana-induced haze. It’s not surprising, given what he’s been through, and it seems perfectly understandable that he randomly answers payphones telling callers, “Sorry, but I can’t help you.” » (If you don’t get the reference, you obviously haven’t seen the first movie.)

Of course, escaping the past isn’t so easy when her younger sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) begins suffering from horrific dreams in which she channels not only their late mother (Anna Lore), who committed suicide, but also three young boys who we eventually learn were murdered by the Grabber early in his killings and whose bodies have not been discovered. The visions eventually lead her and Finn to Alpine Lake, a Christian camp in the Rocky Mountains, where they naturally become stranded during a severe snowstorm.

It turns out that death hasn’t exactly slowed down the Grabber, who seems determined to get revenge on Finn even from the depths of Hell. Much like Freddy Krueger, he is capable of exerting psychological and physical violence on people from their dreams, making Gwen particularly vulnerable to him.

Director Scott Derrickson and his co-writer Robert Cargill seem to know that their convoluted script is very ridiculous, but they lean into it so insistently that we go for it. They manage to invest the gruesome proceedings with genuine emotion in their depiction of the tortured family dynamic between the two siblings and their father (Jeremy Davies, repeating his role). And they inject interesting religious themes into their treatment of Christianity, the more repressive aspects of which are demonstrated by two unofficial husband and wife camp employees (Graham Abbey, Maev Beaty).

Every horror movie needs a great villain, and this burgeoning franchise definitely has one with the Grabber. Largely hidden behind a series of truly frightening and demonic-looking masks, Hawke delivers one for the ages, using his raspy, cigarette-ravaged voice to chilling effect in a virtuoso, mostly vocal performance that seems destined for future episodes.

Thames and McGraw, reprising their roles, are absolutely terrific as the traumatized teenagers ready to fight against evil, and there are superb supporting turns from Demian Bechir as the sympathetic camp owner and Arianna Rivas (A man who works) like her courageous niece. In an example of stunt casting that actually works, Miguel Mora, who played one of the Grabber’s victims in the first film, now plays the victim’s brother, who forms a romantic relationship with Gwen.

Derrickson is no stranger to the horror genre, having directed not only the first Black phone but also films like Sinister And The Exorcism of Emily Rose. He exercises stylistic mastery over the material, using both Super 8 and Super 16 film to create nightmarish sequences to truly eerie effect. Not to mention the disturbing score from Atticus Derrickson, his son, which will do nothing to lower your blood pressure.

There are times when Black phone 2 bears its stylistic influences – including not only the Nightmare on Elm Street films but many other 80s horror films – too heavy on its sleeve. But heavy borrowing is easily forgiven when the sets are delivered with the kind of panache they are here.