Movies including horror films have a long track record of
following up a hit with a what-were-you-thinking sequel. How it begins the
writer sold the rights to the movie studio. Which brought someone else in to rewrite
it. Then they give it to a producer who finds a director, costume and set
designers, cast and with someone else editing the hours of chaos down to a
finished product. If the initial project becomes successful enough to warrant a
sequel, everyone looks at each other with a ‘how the hell did we pull that off’
look. Studio green lights a sequel. But instead of using the same team that
made great movie, the coked-up studio heads are like we can bring anyone in,
pay them less, and make even more money. Well, it doesn’t normally work out. Usually
the sequel stinks. Well, everyone is back in Black Phone 2, it’s a great follow
up film to the original.
The pacing is brisk, even when it slows down there’s a sense
something is going to happen. The cinematography is crisp, beautiful even at
night or the dream sequences. It’s just perfect. No one likes a film that’s
filmed so dark you can’t make out the actors or what’s going on. Which pairs
well with the story. It also does the eighties how they really were. Payphones,
wood paneling, boxy TV’s, boxier cars, and drab clothes. Pay phones are so
creepy, I saw one in Redwood national forest standing lonely at the edge of an
empty parking lot covers in pine needles. Was creepier than the Gingerbread
house in Hansel and Gretel. It was so weird I took a picture of it. But a pay
phone ringing is chilling (unless you were a drug dealer in the eighties).
Movies nowadays have someone cell phone ring, its not the same. Cell phone ring
all the time. Now a payphone ringing you know something is wrong.
Ethan Hawke has a nak for being in movies that don’t seem
would be very good. Who wants to see a film about a kid trapped in the basement
with an old phone? Who wants to see a movie about a 1950’s New England boys’ boarding
school where they read poetry? Who wants to see a movie of a wealthy family
sitting at home for the night? It never seems like it would be a good movie,
but everything he is in is great. And he continues that with BP2.
The whole cast was fun to see back. There are a couple new characters.
Kinda of make you wonder if they are going to do a third one. Most of the loose
ends were tied up. Not sure if they will get Ethan Hawke back. But some studio
guy is going to slap the grabbers mask on some unknown actor and before you
know it we will have Black Phone 8: Grabber Takes Manhattan.
