Black Phone 2
Universal Pictures | Release Date: October 17, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
10
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Film ThreatRick HongOct 31, 2025
The sequel is a shout-out to horror movies of the past. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeOct 13, 2025
The movie strives to apply logic, inviting laughs (which are not unwelcome in the tense genre), but ultimately succeeds by devising a formula where two threats — ghosts and serial killers — come calling. Read full review
90
SlashfilmRafael MotamayorSep 21, 2025
The most impressive feat Black Phone 2 pulls off is finding a way to bring The Grabber back that feels coherent and actually adds to the character. We get some backstory on the child-abductor that comes across as deepening the character rather than just answering questions that no one asked. Read full review
80
Radio TimesJeremy AspinallOct 23, 2025
The first Black Phone was a serial-killer horror with a side order of supernatural, but this gripping sequel embraces the paranormal and gruesomeness in all its gory glory, too. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckOct 22, 2025
There are times when Black Phone 2 wears its stylistic influences — including not only the Nightmare on Elm Street films but many other horror movies from the ‘80s — too heavily on its sleeve. But the extensive borrowings are easily forgiven when the set pieces are delivered with the sort of panache that they are here. Read full review
80
NMEJordan BassettOct 16, 2025
This is a horror that’s in love with scary movies; a post-modern remix of genre classics filmed through an arthouse gauze that never obscures its goofy sense of humour. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 17, 2025
The Black Phone 2 stands as a strong companion piece to the original—firmly rooted in horror, maintaining continuity, yet not shackled by the tropes its predecessor embraced. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubTomris LafflyOct 17, 2025
A handsome follow-up that both seizes the predecessor’s sense of heartbreak (albeit at a lesser degree) and dials up its chills by transposing them onto an icy, blood-soaked youth camp in the Rocky Mountains. Read full review
75
The Daily BeastNick SchagerOct 17, 2025
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. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonOct 16, 2025
It’s a chilling expansion of the franchise, with visually inventive dream sequences and Ethan Hawke returning as the villain. Read full review
75
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiOct 16, 2025
It’s one of the great horror sequels, for about an hour. Then it’s a cautionary tale about how not to make a horror sequel, for about an hour. Read full review
75
The PlaylistSimon ThompsonOct 15, 2025
There are scares, surprises, and it feels different, but also like a natural companion piece to the first movie. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoSep 21, 2025
It’s a tick too long and has a section that’s far too expository for a film that’s at its best when it leans into surreal nightmare logic, but this weird movie works its fear factor in unexpected, creative ways. Read full review
72
PolygonTasha RobinsonOct 8, 2025
The sequel loses the small-scale, intense focus in favor of The Conjuring-level supernatural effects and action. At its best, it’s much scarier than the first movie. But it also comes with a level of full-on action-goofiness that Derrickson and Cargill avoided in Black Phone. Read full review
70
LooperAudrey FoxOct 22, 2025
Black Phone 2 hits, it hits – and that's the case pretty much as soon as they make it up into the mountains. With clever set pieces that utilize Ethan Hawke to his best advantage as an even more disturbing Freddy Krueger, Black Phone 2 ups the creepiness factor. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriOct 20, 2025
You might go nuts trying to figure out exactly how anything works in this movie. But in the right hands, this can be a strength too. It certainly enhances the overall sense of dread, since we’re now in a world whose rules haven’t been clearly defined. Read full review
70
Little White LiesAnton BitelOct 17, 2025
Ultimately, for all the focus on horrific ​‘cold cases’ from the past, this plays too nice with its characters in the present. Great horror is meaner-spirited and less happy-clappy. Read full review
70
The New York TimesBrandon YuOct 16, 2025
Derrickson has crafted a sequel that is remarkably different from the original — up in the frosty mountains, this is more of an ax-murderer ghost chase than a trip to a serial killer’s horrific basement — and with that comes a ratcheting up of grisly theatrics. Read full review
70
ColliderJeff EwingOct 8, 2025
Altogether, Black Phone 2 is a mixed bag that still has some clear winning attributes. Read full review
70
IGNMatt DonatoSep 25, 2025
Black Phone 2 is a template for how sequels can reach further and push for standalone appeal, bringing us as close to Freddy Krueger as we'll get until there's another A Nightmare on Elm Street. Read full review
67
Original-CinThom ErnstOct 20, 2025
There’s still plenty to admire: Derrickson’s eye for atmosphere, the bleakly beautiful snowscapes, and a handful of effective scares. But where The Black Phone haunted you with what might happen, Black Phone 2 simply tells you what will. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerOct 16, 2025
Black Phone 2 may be a power ballad to the original’s minor chord metal, but it still rocks. Read full review
67
IndieWireKatie RifeSep 21, 2025
A complaint that’s also common to contemporary horror films nags at The Black Phone 2, in that all of the best things about this movie come from other movies, whether they be the creative team’s previous efforts or iconic titles from decades past. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineRocco T. ThompsonSep 22, 2025
Throughout, Scott Derrickson collapses dreams, reality, past, and present sidelong into a singular cinematic haunted space. Read full review
60
Screen RantGraeme GuttmannOct 17, 2025
Black Phone 2 is still a solid horror film, with gory kills and exciting set pieces. But the question of why still lingers over the film, even as it delivers on its many promises. Read full review
60
EmpireHelen O'HaraOct 17, 2025
It’s not as scary or as effective as the first film, but points for the performances, and for trying hard to do something different and fresh. Read full review
60
Next Best PictureDan BayerOct 16, 2025
It’s easy to wish “Black Phone 2“ came together better, but you can’t deny that all the film’s individual elements are quite strong. It will chill you to the bone while watching, but it won’t haunt you for too long afterward. Read full review
60
Time OutOlly RichardsOct 15, 2025
There’s still plenty here to make you shiver, but in letting events out of the basement this sequel has also released much of the tension. Read full review
55
The Travers TakePeter TraversOct 17, 2025
Ethan Hawke brings back the mask that launched a thousand screams in a tricky treat of a horror sequel that’s perfect for Halloween Read full review
55
The Film VerdictAlonso DuraldeOct 16, 2025
Hawke remains delightfully disturbing, however, and some fans of the original may find the character’s return worthwhile, even if Black Phone 2 twists itself into narrative knots to make it happen. Read full review
50
Screen DailyNikki BaughanOct 16, 2025
It remains a superficial exercise in creepy fun, but – like so many horror sequels – retreading familiar ground proves an exercise in diminishing returns. Read full review
40
The RevealScott TobiasOct 17, 2025
Derrickson’s instinct to lean on a low-res, Super 8-style camerawork in the film’s frequent dream sequences is fitfully effective, rendering nightmares like spools of home movies that have been decaying in the attic. But here, he’s having to reanimate a dead property. Read full review
40
ScreenCrushMatt SingerOct 16, 2025
Black Phone 2 conjures an artful milieu out of those disparate elements, and it’s saturated with the chilly ambiance of a classic campfire ghost story. But the actual story it tells never quite measures up to its superior influences, or even the previous entry in this series. Read full review
40
The GuardianBenjamin LeeOct 16, 2025
At just under 2 hours, Black Phone 2, like M3gan 2.0 before it, is a needlessly long and hugely unconvincing argument for the birth of a new franchise. The next time it rings, I recommend not answering. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 17, 2025
Both Black Phones are derivative . . . But the derivations Derrickson went for in the sequel are simply not as arresting or interesting. Read full review
38
The Seattle TimesKatie WalshOct 16, 2025
If The Black Phone dabbles in crimes that are taboo, even unforgivable in its depiction of brutality against innocent children, Black Phone 2 commits its own unforgivable crime of being dreadfully boring. This movie is a snooze — and not just because all of the action takes place entirely during Gwen’s dreams. Read full review
25
The Film MavenKristen LopezOct 16, 2025
There's little to Black Phone 2 to recommend it. At nearly two hours the pacing kills any sense of momentum and the story boils down to everyone wandering in the snow looking for dead bodies. The cast is fine, but there's no meat to their characters and their performances are reflective of that. Read full review
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