The Grabber (Ethan Hawke) is resurrected for more kid-stalking mayhem in Black Phone 2.

Yet Scott Derrickson’s icy sequel plays by considerably different rules than its 2021 predecessor. Taking a decidedly Nightmare on Elm Street-ish tack (with a healthy dash of Friday the 13th thrown in for good measure), the writer/director’s 1982-set follow-up (in theaters now) operates in a sinister slumbering haze that enhances its dark fantasticality.

Sacrificing jolting frights for fugue-state ominousness, it’s a film whose tension (and inventiveness) waxes and wanes, although courtesy of Hawke’s unforgettable masked fiend, it continues to boast an iconic horror movie visage destined to ruin viewers’ sleep.

Four years after the events of the first film (which was based on a short story by Stephe

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