Evil doesn’t stay buried. And The Black Phone 2 trailer makes that chillingly clear. Unveiled at CCXP Mexico on June 1, 2025, the long-awaited sequel to 2022’s horror breakout The Black Phone reunites us with Finney Blake (Mason Thames) and, impossibly, The Grabber (Ethan Hawke), who growls, “You of all people should know that dead is just a word.”
The trailer marks the first major promo from Universal Pictures and Blumhouse for the October 17, 2025, release, and it is a more graphically grown story that once shocked audiences with its supernatural terror and childhood trauma.
The first film, based on Joe Hill’s short story, ended with Finney killing The Grabber in the climax. But in Black Phone 2, the past refuses to stay silent. Director Scott Derrickson returns with a new story, one where, as he told The Hollywood Reporter, “you’ve got a ghost that is a villain.”
Moving into high school years, Derrickson promises the sequel is “more violent, scarier, more graphic,” thanks to the age and emotions of its characters.
The Grabber Returns From Beyond
In The Black Phone 2, the dead don’t just whisper. They hunt.
The Black Phone 2 trailer teases Finney, haunted once again by The Grabber, this time from beyond the grave. The plot spins into the supernatural, with the haunted rotary phone still central to the story. This time, however, the ghostly voices may not all be allies.
Finney’s younger sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), whose psychic visions helped locate him in the original, is also back and tormented by dreams that drag her into their former prison. The trauma and aftermath of The Grabber’s reign will bleed into new territory, suggesting the killer’s legacy stretches beyond the basement and into the psyches of his victims.
Director Scott Derrickson told GamesRadar+, “…a high school coming-of-age movie demands more. It has to be more visceral. It has to be, I think, more graphic, scarier.” Derrickson’s real-life memories of harsh Colorado winters shaped the tone of The Black Phone sequel, which he says channels “the severity of the weather, the environment, and the surrounding Rockies.”
Expect bone-chilling landscapes to mirror the psychological horror.
The Black Phone 2 Is a Sequel With a Vengeance
Although The Black Phone felt like a one-and-done thriller, Hill’s idea for a continuation changed that. Derrickson shared with The Hollywood Reporter that Hill contacted him shortly after the first film’s release with new material, prompting the director to plan around the cast’s real aging.
“By the time I finish [another film], these kids are going to be in high school,” he reasoned. That led to The Black Phone 2 becoming a true continuation rather than a cash-grab prequel or spin-off.
The OG Black Phone film’s ending meant that The Grabber may have always had some awareness of the black phone’s powers. The sequel leans into that vagueness. Now, with Derrickson revealing that one of the ghosts is a villain, the lines between victim and predator blur further.
So, how would The Grabber be back if Finney snapped his neck? Blumhouse isn’t saying yet. But as the trailer proves, the dead still have a voice.
