The Grabber In 3D Towers Over Sunset And La Cienga For BLACK PHONE 2

By Michelle McCue | October 2, 2025

Opening in theaters on October 17 is the highly anticpated BLACK PHONE 2.

When THE BLACK PHONE arrived in 2022, it struck like lightning: a horror film both intimate and terrifying, rooted in the raw vulnerability of childhood. Adapted from Joe Hill’s short story, the film drew on writer-producer-director Scott Derrickson’s memories of growing up in Colorado, grounding its supernatural terror in unsettling realism. Audiences embraced it not only for its scares but for its honesty. The film earned more than $160 million worldwide, introduced the Grabber (Ethan Hawke) as a chilling new figure in the genre’s canon and established The Black Phone as one of the decade’s most distinctive original horror films.

The influences are rooted in Derrickson’s own history yet also nod to the genre’s lineage. “I am less interested in drawing from other people’s work than in expanding on what elements from my own work seem unique to me,” Derrickson says. “In this case, it was the use of Super 8 footage in very specific ways, drawing on my own memories at Colorado high school winter camps in the early ‘80s and channeling some of the bigger feelings I had when I was a teenager at that time. But I do think all the horror films I saw in the ‘80s still had a kind of invasive, inevitable influence. All the horror camp films – Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street being the biggest most obvious ones – and of course, some key imagery from the much more obscure 1983 film Curtains. If you know that film, the homage is clear and unabashed.”

WAMG caught a glimpse of the menacing Grabber in Hollywood this week, plus check out the new featurette ‘Mason Thames on Black Phone 2’.

Four years ago, 13-year-old Finn killed his abductor and escaped, becoming the sole survivor of The Grabber. But true evil transcends death … and the phone is ringing again.

Four-time Academy Award® nominee Ethan Hawke returns to the most sinister role of his career as The Grabber seeks vengeance on Finn (Mason Thames) from beyond the grave by menacing Finn’s younger sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw).

As Finn, now 17, struggles with life after his captivity, the headstrong 15-year-old Gwen begins receiving calls in her dreams from the black phone and seeing disturbing visions of three boys being stalked at a winter camp known as Alpine Lake.

Determined to solve the mystery and end the torment for both her and her brother, Gwen persuades Finn to visit the camp during a winter storm. There, she uncovers a shattering intersection between The Grabber and her own family’s history. Together, she and Finn must confront a killer who has grown more powerful in death and more significant to them than either could imagine.

Get tickets now.

From returning visionary writer-director Scott Derrickson, Black Phone 2 is written again by Derrickson & C. Robert Cargill, based on characters created by Joe Hill. The film is produced by Jason Blum, Derrickson and Cargill. The executive producers are Ryan Turek, Adam Hendricks, Daniel Bekerman and Jason Blumenfeld.

The cast includes Oscar® nominee Demián Bichir (The Nun, A Better Life) as the supervisor of the camp, Arianna Rivas (A Working Man) as his niece, Miguel Mora (The Black Phone) as the brother of one of The Grabber’s victims, and Jeremy Davies, returning as Finn and Gwen’s father, Terrence. Other new cast members include Maev Beaty (Beau is Afraid) and Graham Abbey (Under the Banner of Heaven).

The film’s director of photography is PÄR M. EKBERG FSF (Slingshot, Lords of Chaos). The production designer is Emmy Award nominee PATTI PODESTA (The Black Phone, Memento) and the editor is LOUISE FORD ACE (Nosferatu, The Northman). The film’s costume designer is Emmy Award winner AMY ANDREWS HARRELL (The Black Phone, The Good Lord Bird), the hair department head is NATHAN RIVAL (Trap, Ready or Not) and the makeup department head is Emmy Award winner COLIN PENMAN (The Apprentice, Star Trek: Discovery). The music is by ATTICUS DERRICKSON (V/H/S/85, Shadowprowler). The casting is by TERRI TAYLOR CSA (Five Nights at Freddy’s, Drop), SARAH DOMEIER LINDO CSA (Five Nights at Freddy’s, Drop) and ALLY CONOVER CSA (Drop, Speak No Evil).