The 2022 horror movie The Black Phone was an unprecedented success at the time of its release. Now director Scott Derrickson is returning for a sequel, appropriately-titled The Black Phone 2, and he is teasing that the follow-up is “more graphic” than its predecessor.
As explained in an interview, this stems from one of the key differences between The Black Phone and its follow-up. The original film revolved around a middle schooler protagonist, but with the time between films, the sequel will now revolve around this character in high school.
This has tempted Derrickson to push the direction of the film further. As he explains in an interview with Games Radar, it’s no longer a “middle school coming of age movie” but “a high school coming of age movie.” Here’s what Derrickson shared in full regarding The Black Phone 2:
“The main difference is that it’s a high school coming of age movie, in the same way that the original movie was a middle school coming of age movie, but those are two very different sorts of things. You know, 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 continued to discuss the changes that a person tends to go through between middle school and high school. As such, the characters in The Black Phone 2 will be used to illustrate these changes in addition to the story of the film.
“I think that the change that occurs in human beings between middle school and high school, that’s some of the biggest change you go through in your life. And so to be able to revisit these characters who’ve really developed as people in the four years between the movies was also very interesting to me.”
Many other details regarding this sequel to The Black Phone are still being kept under wraps. However, it’s clear that Derrickson and his team must have a really interesting concept to pursue. Especially when one considers the conclusion of the first film.
The Black Phone 2 is set to hit theaters on October 17, 2025. Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional updates regarding The Black Phone 2 as we have them. It should definitely get fans of the original interested, however, in seeing just how much further The Black Phone 2 goes with the material.