Black Phone 2 Review: A Slasher Sequel with Icy Kills and a Fiery Ethan Hawke

Horror has always had a moral element, from the monsters conjured in folk tales to scare children into good behavior, to the Puritan streak in slasher movies that punish teens who do drugs and have sex. But rarely has morality been so stridently vulgar and unapologetically Christian as it is Black Phone 2 . Where else would you see a teen girl call out a condescending church mom for failing to take seriously the death of young boys by asking, “Were you always such a sanctimonious twat?”

Yes, Black Phone 2 is often moral and frequently moralizing. But it delivers its message with such energy, and its kills with such skill, that it transcends preachiness and remains effective horror cinema.

Black Phone 2 catches up with the now 17-year-old Finn Blake (Mason Thames) and his psychic s