In 2021, Scott Derrickson unsettled audiences with horror flick The Black Phone. The film featured a bone-chilling narrative that masterfully blended supernatural horror with raw human emotion. Many believed, including me, that Grabber’s story is over and fans might never see a sequel to it. But Derrickson had other plans, and almost four years later, he is back with the second film in the series, Black Phone 2. Shockingly, Grabber is back, but this time in a more terrifying way. The first film primarily focused on Finney’s (Mason Thames) abduction and Gwen’s (Madeleine McGraw) ability to have visions about her brother’s whereabouts through haunting dreams that guided her closer to saving him.
In the sequel, after Gwen begins seeing visions of three boys who were killed by the Grabber years ago, she and her brother Finney travel to Alpine Lake to uncover the dark secret that still haunts the place. As a result, the duo decides to close this horrifying chapter by stopping him for once and all. What I really loved about the film is how Gwen has now become the most important character in the storyline, and how that aspect provided McGraw a chance to play with the character in deeper, more emotional ways.
We caught up with the immensely talented Madeleine McGraw to discuss the sequel, her character, and how she showcased Gwen’s strength, fear, and determination through a performance that feels both raw and heartfelt.
After watching Black Phone 2, I felt you took Gwen further than what was written on the page. How much of that emotional layering—her grief, resilience, and power—came from your own interpretation versus what was directed on set?
Madeleine McGraw: Yeah, I mean, when I play characters, I really do, like, become them on set. As soon as those cameras are rolling, I am Gwen, you know? I feel like that’s the most important thing you can do — to be in the moment, be your character totally. And, I mean, I’ve gotten to play Gwen for a long time now, so I feel like that definitely had something to do with it, especially with our connection. But having to watch those really dark images, or even just seeing them — not even just at my age — I mean, I’ve never seen anything like that in real life, so it was disconcerting for me.
It definitely stayed with me afterwards; it took me a few days to recover from it, for sure. Also, I listen to music — I use it to help me stay in that headspace. I feel like the best thing you can do is just totally let it all out and give it your all. I was going through a lot mentally in my personal life at the time, so I was able to kind of dig into that, take from that, and really just let it all out on camera.
The dream world sequences where Gwen battles the Grabber’s spirit are visually stunning but emotionally demanding. Can you talk about filming those scenes—both technically and psychologically?
Madeleine: For sure. I mean, the dream sequence scenes are so beautiful, in my opinion. The Super 8 just looks gorgeous on camera, and that’s one of the things I love about Scott — he’s not afraid to take risks like that, because using film is very risky. We knew going into it that we might have to reshoot certain things multiple times, depending on how it was processed back in LA. They would send it there over the weekends, and that’s when we’d find out if the scene turned out visually good — and it really did; it looked beautiful on camera.
I also love how all of those scenes have so many layers and so much depth. Scott and I talked a lot about how we wanted each dream sequence to feel different from the others — to show this evolution of them getting darker, scarier, and more intense, along with Gwen’s changing reactions to waking up from them each time.
The chemistry between Gwen and Finney remains at the heart of the story. How did you and Mason Thames build on your sibling dynamic from the first film to reflect their shared trauma and growth?
Madeleine: I feel like, because we worked together in the first film, that definitely had something to do with it. I mean, working with them again, you know, we already had that, we’re already so comfortable with each other, and we know what these characters went through. We connect so deeply to them, and I mean, especially getting to return to these characters, I feel like it was such a big thing for us, and so we kind of had this, like, respect for them as well. I mean, they’ve been through such traumatic events, and we also got to see, work with each other a lot more on the second one. So, I’m sure that contributed a lot to that on camera.
If you could describe Gwen’s emotional journey in Black Phone 2 in one word—or one feeling—what would it be, and why?
Madeleine: Oh, that’s hard. I would say, I don’t want to spoil anything because I was going to use a different word, but I’ll just go with, I’ll go with ‘very intense’. I’ll go with intense for now.
‘Black Phone 2’ is now playing in theatres.