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Coming as the revived bestselling author machine was continuing to produce screen translations, regardless of quality, the first installment felt like a lazy fanboy tribute. With its small town 70s backdrop, high school cast, gifted youths and disturbing local antagonist, it was nearly parody and, like the very worst of the author's tales, it was also awkwardly crowded.

Interestingly the inspiration originated from within the household, as it was based on a short story from the author's offspring, stretched into a film that was a unexpected blockbuster. It was the tale of the antagonist, a brutal murderer of children who would revel in elongating the ritual of their deaths. While sexual abuse was avoided in discussion, there was something inescapably queer-coded about the character and the historical touchpoints/moral panics he was obviously meant to represent, strengthened by the actor playing him with a certain swishy, effeminate flare. But the film was too ambiguous to ever really admit that and even without that uneasiness, it was too busily plotted and too high on its wearisome vileness to work as only an mindless scary movie material.

Second Installment's Release Amidst Studio Struggles

The follow-up debuts as previous scary movie successes the production company are in critical demand for a hit. Lately they've encountered difficulties to make any film profitable, from Wolf Man to The Woman in the Yard to the adventure movie to the utter financial disappointment of the robotic follow-up, and so significant pressure rests on whether the continuation can prove whether a short story can become a motion picture that can spawn a franchise. There’s just one slight problem …

Supernatural Transformation

The first film ended with our Final Boy Finn (the young actor) defeating the antagonist, supported and coached by the apparitions of earlier casualties. It’s forced director Scott Derrickson and his writing partner Cargill to move the franchise and its antagonist toward fresh territory, transforming a human antagonist into a ghostly presence, a route that takes them by way of Freddy's domain with a power to travel into the physical realm facilitated by dreams. But different from the striped sweater villain, the Grabber is clearly unimaginative and totally without wit. The mask remains successfully disturbing but the production fails to make him as terrifying as he briefly was in the initial film, constrained by complex and typically puzzling guidelines.

Snowy Religious Environment

The protagonist and his frustratingly crude sister Gwen (the actress) face him once more while trapped by snow at a high-altitude faith-based facility for kids, the sequel also nodding toward Freddy’s one-time nemesis the camp slasher. Gwen is guided there by a ghostly image of her dead mother and what could be their deceased villain's initial casualties while Finn, still trying to process his anger and fresh capacity for resistance, is tracking to defend her. The script is too ungainly in its artificial setup, inelegantly demanding to maroon the main characters at a location that will additionally provide to backstories for both protagonist and antagonist, supplying particulars we weren't particularly interested in or desire to understand. Additionally seeming like a more calculated move to edge the film toward the same church-attending crowds that transformed the Conjuring movies into major blockbusters, the filmmaker incorporates a religious element, with virtue now more directly linked with the creator and the afterlife while villainy signifies the demonic and punishment, belief the supreme tool against a monster like this.

Overloaded Plot

The result of these decisions is continued over-burden a story that was formerly close to toppling over, including superfluous difficulties to what should be a basic scary film. Regularly I noticed too busy asking questions about the processes and motivations of possible and impossible events to become truly immersed. It's an undemanding role for Hawke, whose face we never really see but he does have authentic charisma that’s typically lacking in other aspects in the ensemble. The setting is at times remarkably immersive but most of the consistently un-scary set-pieces are damaged by a rough cinematic quality to distinguish dreaming from waking, an unsuccessful artistic decision that appears overly conscious and created to imitate the terrifying uncertainty of experiencing a real bad dream.

Unconvincing Franchise Argument

At just under 2 hours, Black Phone 2, comparable to earlier failures, is a needlessly long and highly implausible case for the creation of a new franchise. If another installment comes, I advise letting it go to voicemail.

• The sequel releases in Australian theaters on October 16 and in the US and UK on the seventeenth of October