Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Podcast (theatrical-movie-review-podcast): Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
BLACK PHONE 2 MOVIE REVIEW
Based on a Joe Hill short story, 2021’s The Black Phone was a surprise late-pandemic success, a modestly budgeted supernatural horror film that found a sizable audience despite not having any big stars, or recognizable IP. With success comes expectations – and sequels – so director Scott Derrickson and frequent collaborator, screenwriter C. Robert Cargill picked up the phone again, and called up the entire principal cast to return to this newly minted franchise. Four years after Finney (Mason Thames) escaped and killed a vicious serial killer known as The Grabber (Ethan Hawke), he’s struggling with PTSD and still hears voices from beyond the grave. Meanwhile, his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) continues to be haunted by nightmares of past murders. These terrifying visions lead the siblings to Alpine Lake, a remote winter youth camp where their mother was once a camp counselor. Joined by their friend Ernesto (Miguel Mora, playing the younger sibling of his deceased character from the original film), the teenagers go all Scooby Doo, and get themselves jobs as camp counselors so they can investigate Alpine Lake’s dark past. No sooner have they arrived than the camp gets snowed in, and these meddling kids find themselves beset by malevolent supernatural forces. Could this be the work of The Grabber? And didn’t he die at the end of the last film? Well, you know what they say, you can’t keep a good ghoul down. Neal, Nathan, Mike the Editor, and Marco hopped into the One of Us Mystery Machine, popped in our favorite Pink Floyd cassette, and braved the elements to bring you this review. Did we warm up to this hotly anticipated sequel, or did it leave us colder than a frozen lake? Listen to the review to find out!
DIRECTED BY: Scott Derrickson
STARRING: Mason Thames, Madeline McGraw, Ethan Hawke,Demián Bichir, Jeremy Davies, Miguel Mora, Arianna Rivas, Anna Lore, Graham Abbey, Maev Beaty
YOUR REVIEWERS
Marco Noyola (Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad, Audio Editor)
By day, Marco is a mild-mannered office worker, but by night he is a mild-mannered movie watcher. He does other mild-mannered stuff too.
“I’m not a film critic. I just play one on the Internet.”
Nathan Flynn (Screener Squad, Highly Suspect Reviews)
Nathan Flynn is the resident goofball of OneofUs.Net, often found overly caffeinated, slightly stoned, and ready to unleash the hottest takes imaginable. As the resident Letterboxd Lunatic, his movie opinions are as bold as his love for Top Gun: Maverick — a film he considers less of a movie and more of a religion. When he’s not passionately defending his latest cinematic obsession, Nathan manages a comedy club in downtown Austin, where he’s somehow avoided being heckled… so far. Around here, he’s usually the punching bag, but hey, someone’s gotta do it.
Neal Fowler
Born and raised in Austin, Neal has a lifelong passion for movies, anime video games, and media analysis and discourse. He has been writing film reviews for his personal blogs and social media for over five years and is now contributing to The Afternoon Tune on YouTube and OneofUs.net. He appreciates great film and art no matter the genre, budget, or form it takes. While not reviewing movies, he enjoys reading comic books, hiking the outdoors, and indulging in good food. Remember one thing though: he’s Batman.
Mike J. McAllister (Screener Squad, Staff Writer, Head Video Editor)
Mike J. McAllister is an award-winning creative jack of all trades, and is pretty competent with most of them. He is a writer, director, animator, video editor, and motion graphics artist. He has tried his hand at nearly every form of artistic expression at least once. He was born and raised in Western Pennsylvania where he fell in love with film, writing and special effects at an early age. His obsession with film would lead him to being locally known as a “human IMDb” and being on a first-name basis with every video store clerk in town. He would study film in Pittsburgh before taking his talents to Austin. Not letting something like Tourettes get in his way, he has produced a handful of animated short films that have won awards from film festivals all over the globe. He has also written several yet-to-be-produced screenplays and TV pilots, with some of them being recognized in screenwriting competitions. He has even created motion graphics and animations for several clients, from movie theaters to Twitch streamers. When not creating or watching films, he enjoys MST3K, classic video games and buying vinyl records. He loves dogs, dropping obscure pop culture trivia and watching travel videos. He currently resides in Austin Texas and can be followed on the Instamagrams at @ohheyitsmikejm. His body of work can be found at his homepage or you can take a gander at his somewhat-impressive IMDb listing here.
You can subscribe to the Highly Suspect Reviews and Screener Squad series of podcasts on iTunes, Spotify, and more, or use our RSS feed on whatever podcast service you use: https://oneofus.net/feed/theatrical-movie-review-podcast/ and please leave us a review!
Please think about becoming a paid subscriber to Oneofus.net, support our huge network of shows, and get access to tons of bonus shows and videos in our forums! We cannot keep this site going without support from our listeners. For added information about being a subscriber, the benefits, and the forums, please go here.
