This article contains major spoilers for “Black Phone 2.”
After several years away, seemingly for good, given that he died in the first movie, The Grabber is back for more. Indeed, after dying at the hands of brave teenager Finny in “The Black Phone,” director Scott Derrickson and writer C. Robert Cargill have reteamed with Blumhouse and Universal Pictures for “Black Phone 2,” which has been met with much acclaim. Though the old line of thinking, particularly with slasher films, is that “bigger is better,” one thing is shockingly small about this sequel. Namely, its kill count. At least in the present timeline, that kill count is zero.
In the sequel, The Grabber seeks vengeance on Finn (Mason Thames) as he preys on his younger sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), from beyond the grave. A 17-year-old Finn is struggling in the aftermath of his captivity as the 15-year-old Gwen begins receiving calls in her dreams from the ever-mysterious black phone. She begins seeing visions of three young boys being stalked at a winter camp known as Alpine Lake.
Gwen convinces Finn to visit the camp during a winter storm to try and solve the mystery. Surprise! The Grabber, going full Freddy Krueger, is there waiting for them – in Gwen’s dreams. What unfolds at Alpine Lake is a terrifying mix of dreamscape nightmares and real-life horror as the group searches for the bodies of these missing kids in the hopes of not only solving years-old cold cases, but to stop The Grabber forever.
What’s fascinating is that, for as scary and at times violent as “Black Phone 2” is, Ethan Hawke’s masked killer doesn’t actually manage to kill Finn, Gwen, or even any of the new, seemingly disposable side characters we’re introduced to. Everyone who dies, died in the past. To say that this is rare for a slasher movie would be an understatement.
Read more: 15 Horror Movies So Disturbing You Will Only Watch Them Once
The Grabber has a surprisingly low kill count in Black Phone 2
Madeleine McGraw as Gwen hiding behind a wall as Ethan Hawke as The Grabber approaches with an ax in Black Phone 2 – Universal Pictures
We come to learn that The Grabber was actually a former employee at the Alpine Lake winter camp, where he killed the three boys that Gwen was seeing in her visions. Through a bit of a retcon, we also learn that Finn and Gwen’s mom was actually killed by The Grabber, though it was made to look as though she took her own life. So it’s not as though there is no body count, but the body count comes entirely through flashbacks.
It’s not as though there are no slasher movies with little to no deaths in them. “April Fool’s Day” rather famously has no kills in it, even though it appears as though people are dying throughout. Generally though, slashers are appealing because of the body count. “Halloween Kills” features Michael Myers killing 30 people and injuring quite a few others. That’s an extreme example, but having no kills in the present is, put mildly, a bold choice.
Even so, Derrickson has walked a similar line before. “Sinister,” one of the scariest movies of all time, mostly features its kills through the so-called “kill tapes” found in the attic, with the present timeline kills coming at the very end of the movie. Derrickson and Cargill set out to do something different with this sequel, rather than take the obvious route. In an age when it feels like so many franchises can just be content to spin their wheels until those wheels fall off, it’s hard not to make note of and admire that big swing.
The whole “go bigger to be better” mantra with slashers has its limits. Jason Voorhees has killed more than 180 people on screen in the “Friday the 13th” movies, but at a certain point, it becomes difficult to simply go bigger. That’s how you end up with slasher villains in space, for better or worse. Not to say that nobody wants to see The Grabber in space, but this does leave room for growth, assuming we get “Black Phone 3” and beyond at some point.
“Black Phone 2” is in theaters now.
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Read the original article on SlashFilm.