So, how do you make a sequel when your main villain is definitively dead? If you’re Black Phone 2, the answer is simple: you borrow Freddy Krueger’s playbook and hope he doesn’t call to ask for it back.

Scott Derrickson’s 2021 hit took Joe Hill’s short story and spun it into a claustrophobic trauma-machine, steeped in 70s grit and grime. It was grounded, tense, and Ethan Hawke’s The Grabber was a terrifyingly human monster behind that demonic mask. This sequel, in a commendable move, avoids the trap of revisiting the same basement. Instead, it jumps the story four years forward to 1982 and shifts the focus onto Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), now a teenager grappling with her psychic abilities.

It’s a smart pivot on paper. McGraw carries the film, trading the first film’s foul-mouthed kid for a nuanced performance that bears the weight of her family’s trauma and the toll of her visions. The problem is the new playground they give her. The film swaps the uncanny suburban dread of the original for a snowy Christian winter camp and a full-blown Nightmare on Elm Street clone, with The Grabber now a supernatural entity who attacks in dreams.

This shift neuters The Grabber himself. He’s no longer an unthinkable, plausible suburban psychopath; he’s a vengeful spirit in a dreamscape, governed by a set of convoluted rules. Ethan Hawke does his best, but the character morphs from inexplicable and terrifying into over-explained mythology. The second half gets bogged down in tedious exposition dumps, revealing that Gwen and Finney’s (Mason Thames) mother was also special and was killed by The Grabber. This doesn’t deepen the mystery; it shrinks the universe and ties everything up in a package that’s far too neat.

It’s a shame, because when Derrickson is allowed to just direct, the film still works. The grainy, 8mm dream sequences are genuinely unsettling, reminiscent of Sinister, and the snowy, isolated camp atmosphere builds expert tension. But every time the movie gets on its feet, it leans back on Wes Craven’s legacy, preventing it from finding its own voice.

Black Phone 2 tries to expand the series’ signal, but mostly it just adds static. The first film was a call you couldn’t ignore. This one just feels like a bad connection.