Black Phone 2: Truth is Scary

Kathryn joins Melvin to discuss Scott Derrickson’s latest horror feature, Black Phone 2! The two get into what sets it apart from other franchises like A Nightmare on Elm Street, how it holds up against the first film, and how it’s… more Christian? Oh snap! 

Topics:

• (PATREON EXCLUSIVE)23-minutes discussing Sigourney Weaver saying at NYCC 2025 that there’s a “very strong first 50 pages” script of Alien that includes Ripley, and where she is at the time, and the two wonder both earnestly and cynically about the idea of a Ripley-included Alien sequel in the 2020s (PATREON EXCLUSIVE)
• First things first… is it A Nightmare on Elm Street meets Friday the 13th?
• Exploring the pervasive online joke that The Grabber, as a new “slasher icon”, is an industry plant, and why it may feel that way.
• The dialogue here is bad. Full stop. The drama works if you buy into it, but the bad dialogue is a heavy cost.
• Kathryn and Melvin both had this fear: is Scott Derrickson just gonna do Sinister again? Thankfully, the answer is more nuanced than that.
• The spirituality isn’t Deistic and the way Gwen prays and interacts with Jesus is as though Jesus is an active, non-corporeal character in the film.
• Talking Terrence, The Grabber, and Finn.
• There’s no doubt in Melvin’s mind that Scott Derrickson is evoking real-life Protestant Camp abuse tales with the drama and setting in Black Phone 2, including Kanakuk Kamp, LifeWay Camp, and Matt Chandler’s church.
• Kathryn, “Knowing the truth, believing the truth, and speaking the truth can be really scary.”

Recommendations:

• In the Mouth of Madness (1995) (Movie)
• Caveat (2021) (Movie)

Black Phone 2 is Rated R for strong violent content, gore, teen drug use, and language. It features Mason Thames, Ethan Hawke, Madeleine McGraw, Miguel Mora, Jeremy Davies, James Ransone, Demián Bichir, Arianna Rivas, Anna Lore, Maev Beaty, and Graham Abbey. Directed by Scott Derrickson. Black Phone 2 is available here.

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Melvin Benson is the Founder, Editor-In-Chief, and Lead Host of Cinematic Doctrine. Whether it’s a movie, show, game, comic, or novel, it doesn’t matter. As long as it’s rich, he’s ready and willing to give it a try! His hope is to see King Jesus glorified as far as the east is from the west!

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