Black Phone 2 opened in US theaters on October 17, 2025, with Scott Derrickson back directing and Ethan Hawke returning as the Grabber. It is rated R, runs just under two hours, and picks up four years after the first film. Here is what we know about the release, the trailer, the cast, the story and where you can watch it now.
The short answer
The film is out. Universal and Blumhouse released it worldwide the week of October 16 to 17, 2025, after moving it from an original June 2025 date. It went to digital rental in early November and Peacock is its streaming home in the United States.
Spoiler policy for this page: the release, cast and setup sections are safe. We fence off the ending with a warning box near the bottom.
| Detail | Black Phone 2 |
|---|---|
| US theatrical release | October 17, 2025 |
| Director | Scott Derrickson |
| Writers | Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill |
| Studio | Universal Pictures, Blumhouse |
| Producer | Jason Blum (with Derrickson and Cargill) |
| MPA rating | R (strong violent content and gore, teen drug use, language) |
| Setting | Winter 1982, a Colorado church camp |
| Returning stars | Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw |
Release date history
Blumhouse confirmed a sequel in 2023, not long after the first film became one of the studio’s biggest original hits. The initial plan put Black Phone 2 on June 27, 2025, three summers after the original’s June 2022 run.
Universal then slid it to October 17, 2025. We think that was the right call. A snowbound, dream-haunting Grabber movie belongs in the Halloween corridor, and the box office agreed. The film opened at number one in the United States and Canada with a little over $26 million.
Most international markets opened within a day of the US. Universal staggers its regional sites, so here is how the week looked for the big territories.
| Region | Opening date |
|---|---|
| The United States and Canada | October 17, 2025 |
| United Kingdom and Ireland | October 17, 2025 |
| Australia and New Zealand | October 16, 2025 |
| Mexico and most of Latin America | October 16, 2025 |
| Germany and much of mainland Europe | October 16, 2025 |
| Spain | October 17, 2025 |
If you are in a market not listed, check your local Universal page. A handful of territories in Africa, the Middle East, India and parts of Asia Pacific opened a week or two later, which is normal for a mid-budget R-rated horror release.
The Black Phone 2 trailer
The first trailer landed in June 2025. It opened on a frozen lake, a ringing payphone and Gwen waking up with the kind of nosebleed that tells you the dreams are no longer just dreams. A second trailer arrived in the run-up to October and gave away a lot more of the camp setting and the Grabber’s new rules.
A few things the trailers establish, all of which are safe to know going in:
- Finney (Mason Thames) is 17 now, angry and not coping well with what happened in that basement.
- Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) is 15 and her psychic dreams have escalated. She is now the one taking the calls.
- The phone in question is a frosted-over payphone at a church winter camp called Alpine Lake.
- The Grabber is dead. That does not stop him. He can reach the living through sleep, and what happens to you in the dream follows you back.
That last point is the biggest change from the original, and we will get into why it works below. If you searched “blackphone trailer” or “black phone trailer” and found the first film’s 2022 teaser instead, the easy tell is the snow. The original is a sweaty 1978 summer. The sequel is a blizzard.
Cast and crew
| Actor | Role | Returning? |
|---|---|---|
| Ethan Hawke | The Grabber | Yes |
| Mason Thames | Finney Blake | Yes |
| Madeleine McGraw | Gwen Blake | Yes |
| Jeremy Davies | Terrence Blake, their father | Yes |
| Miguel Mora | Ernesto Arellano, Robin’s younger brother | Yes (expanded role) |
| Demián Bichir | Armando, who runs Alpine Lake camp | New |
| Arianna Rivas | Mustang, Armando’s daughter | New |
Behind the camera, Derrickson and Cargill wrote the script together again, as they did for the first film and for Sinister (2012). Jason Blum produces. The score this time comes from Atticus Derrickson, the director’s son, who replaces Mark Korven’s work on the original.
The two casting notes that matter most to us: Madeleine McGraw is the lead now, and the film is better for it. She was the breakout of the original and the sequel is built around her. And Demián Bichir brings real weight to Armando, a grieving camp caretaker who has his own reasons for staying at a place nobody visits in winter. Bichir has Spanish-language scenes with Miguel Mora that give Ernesto far more to do than his brief appearance in 2022.
Where to watch Black Phone 2 right now
In the United States, the film is available to rent or buy through the usual digital storefronts, including Prime Video, Apple TV and Fandango at Home. The 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD followed in time for the holidays.
For streaming without a rental fee, Peacock is the destination. Universal’s output deal sends its theatrical films to Peacock within four months of release, which puts Black Phone 2 on the service no later than mid-February 2026. The first film cycled through Peacock the same way before turning up on other services, so expect the sequel to follow that path.
Outside the US, Universal titles typically land on Sky Cinema and NOW in the UK, and on Binge or Foxtel in Australia. Rental availability on Apple TV and Prime Video is close to worldwide.
The first film is the easier one to find. It has bounced between Peacock, Netflix and Prime Video in different territories, and it is cheap to rent everywhere. Watch it first. The sequel assumes you remember who was on the other end of each call.
What Black Phone 2 is about (spoiler-free)
It is winter 1982, four years after Finney Blake killed the man who kidnapped him. He has not told anyone much about that night. He smokes, picks fights and avoids the phone.
Gwen is the one hearing things now. Her dreams, the same gift that led police to the Grabber’s house in the first film, have gotten violent. She keeps seeing three boys being hunted through snow at a lake she has never visited. A black phone rings in these dreams, and when she answers, the voice on the line is not a friendly one.
The siblings trace the location to Alpine Lake, a Christian youth camp in the Colorado mountains, closed for the season and buried under a storm. Ernesto comes with them. Armando and his daughter Mustang are the only people on site.
What they find there connects the Grabber’s earliest crimes to the Blake family, and specifically to the mother Finney and Gwen barely remember. That thread is the emotional engine of the film, and it is where Derrickson is playing for keeps.
How it differs from the first film
The original was a kidnapping thriller with a ghost story inside it. Finney was trapped in one room and the dead victims coached him out. It was tight, grounded and mostly built on dread.
The sequel is a different animal. It is a supernatural slasher. Derrickson has been open about the influence of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), and he does not hide it. The Grabber attacks in dreams, dream injuries carry into the waking world, and Gwen has to keep herself awake to survive. Hawke plays the character as something larger and more menacing than the hollow man of the first film. He has grown into an evil that has had four years to stew.
The kills are nastier. Where the first film was rated R mostly for language and a single unforgettable death, this one earns its rating with on-screen violence against teens. Anyone who found the original intense but manageable should go in knowing the sequel pushes harder on gore.
| The Black Phone (2021) | Black Phone 2 (2025) | |
|---|---|---|
| Premiere | Fantastic Fest, September 2021 | Theatrical, October 2025 |
| US wide release | June 24, 2022 | October 17, 2025 |
| Setting | Summer 1978, suburban Denver | Winter 1982, Alpine Lake camp |
| Runtime | 103 minutes | About 114 minutes |
| Source material | Joe Hill short story (2004) | Original screenplay |
| Lead | Finney | Gwen |
| Subgenre | Kidnap thriller, ghost story | Supernatural slasher |
| Our scare level | 3/5 | 3/5 |
What stays the same is the thing that made the first film work: the Blake kids. The sibling bond, the awful father who is trying to be better, the sense that these two have survived something nobody else understands. Thames and McGraw have an easy, lived-in rapport, and the film gives Jeremy Davies room to show Terrence as a sober, frightened dad rather than the drunk who beat his daughter in 1978.
What the reviews say
Critics were split in a way they were not on the original. The 2021 film sits above 80 percent on the Tomatometer and shows up on plenty of greatest horror lists for the 2020s. The sequel’s Tomatometer landed noticeably lower, roughly two-thirds positive at the time of writing, with the average review praising Hawke and McGraw while knocking the Elm Street borrowing.
Audience reviews ran warmer than critics. The crowd that wanted a bigger, bloodier Grabber movie got exactly that, and the opening weekend crowd skewed young. Our own position: it is a confident, gorgeously shot sequel that trades the original’s claustrophobia for scale. If you loved the first film for its restraint, temper your expectations. If you loved it for the Grabber, this is the better showcase for him.
Should you watch it?
Yes, with two conditions. Watch the original first, and know what you are signing up for on gore.
Who it suits:
- Fans of the first film who wanted more Grabber. He has more screen time, more dialogue and a far scarier set of powers.
- Anyone who likes dream-logic horror. The sleep-deprivation tension is the best material in the movie.
- Viewers who want a winter horror setting. The snowbound camp is one of the best-looking locations Blumhouse has put on screen.
Who should skip it:
- Anyone who cannot handle violence against teenagers. The film does not cut away.
- Viewers who need the lean, single-location tension of the original. This is a bigger, looser film.
- First-time horror watchers. Start with the 2021 film instead. It is scarier in a gentler way.
If you liked this
Sinister (2012) is Derrickson and Cargill’s nastiest collaboration, with Ethan Hawke on the other side of the evil. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) is the dream-slasher blueprint this sequel openly borrows from. Talk to Me (2022) scratches the same itch of teenagers opening a door to the dead that they cannot shut.
The original, for anyone catching up
The Black Phone premiered at Fantastic Fest in 2021 and opened wide on June 24, 2022. It adapts Joe Hill’s 2004 short story of the same name, and the expansion is where Derrickson and Cargill earn their keep. Hill’s story is about 30 pages and almost entirely in the basement. The film adds Gwen, the father, the school bullies and the whole 1978 Denver neighborhood.
Finney is taken by a part-time magician in a van, held in a soundproofed basement and told nothing except that he should not try to escape. A disconnected black rotary phone on the wall starts ringing. The callers are the Grabber’s previous victims, and each one knows a little more about how to get out.
It was a hit. Blumhouse made it for around $18 million and it earned north of $160 million worldwide, which is why a sequel was never really in doubt. Ethan Hawke’s masked performance did most of the marketing on its own. If the Grabber’s split-face mask looks familiar, it was built by Tom Savini’s studio, which tells you the lineage this film wants to sit in.
Ending and lore details
Spoiler warning
The section below discusses the Grabber’s backstory, the mother reveal and how Black Phone 2 ends.
The central reveal is that Alpine Lake was the Grabber’s beginning. Decades before the Denver kidnappings, he worked at the camp and killed three boys there, dumping them through the ice. Those are the children Gwen keeps seeing. They have been trapped at the lake ever since, and the payphone is their only line out.
The second reveal ties the Blakes into that history. Their mother, Hope, had the same sight Gwen has. As a teenager she attended Alpine Lake and saw the murders in her dreams. The film frames her later death as the end of a lifetime of being tormented by what she saw, and it reframes the suicide that the first film only hinted at. Gwen inheriting the gift is no accident. The Grabber recognizes it.
The dream rules are the engine of the finale. Whatever the Grabber does to Gwen in her sleep shows up on her body when she wakes. Finney spends the back half of the film trying to keep her conscious, and the climax plays out across both worlds at once: Finney on the frozen lake, Gwen under it with the dead.
How it ends: the three boys and Hope’s spirit are the ones who finally pull the Grabber down. Finney gets a second confrontation with the man, this time knowing exactly who he is, and the film lets him stop running from the basement. The siblings walk out together. The payphone goes quiet.
Where this leaves a third film is open. The Grabber is gone again, but he was gone at the start of this one too. Derrickson has said he would only return if the story demanded it, and the ending does not plant an obvious hook. We would not bet against Blumhouse, though. The franchise has now made money twice.
FAQ
When did Black Phone 2 come out?
October 17, 2025 in the United States and Canada. Most other markets opened on October 16 or 17 of the same week. It was originally scheduled for June 27, 2025.
Is Black Phone 2 on Netflix?
Not in the US. The film is a Universal release, so Peacock holds the first streaming window. It is available to rent on Prime Video, Apple TV and other digital stores.
Do I need to watch the first film?
Yes. The sequel assumes you know Finney, Gwen, the Grabber and the victims whose voices come through the phone. The original is 103 minutes and widely available to rent.
Who directed Black Phone 2?
Scott Derrickson, who also directed the first film and Sinister. He wrote it with his longtime partner C. Robert Cargill. Jason Blum produced for Blumhouse.
Is it scarier than the first one?
It is bloodier and louder, with more jump scares and heavier gore. The original is more unsettling in a slow-burn way. We rate both 3 out of 5 for scares, but for different reasons.
Is Ethan Hawke really back as the Grabber?
Yes. He returns in the role, mask and all, with far more screen time than in the first film. The character is dead, which the story treats as a technicality.
What is Black Phone 2 rated and why?
R, for strong violent content and gore, teen drug use and language. Several teenagers are killed on screen, which is the main reason it sits firmly above the first film’s intensity.