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Coming as the revived master of horror machine was still churning out film versions, without concern for excellence, The Black Phone felt like a sloppy admiration piece. Featuring a 1970s small town setting, high school cast, gifted youths and gnarly neighbourhood villain, it was close to pastiche and, similar to the poorest his literary works, it was also clumsily packed.

Interestingly the call came from within the household, as it was adapted from a brief tale from his descendant, expanded into a film that was a unexpected blockbuster. It was the narrative about the kidnapper, a sadistic killer of young boys who would enjoy extending the ritual of their deaths. While molestation was avoided in discussion, there was something clearly non-heteronormative about the character and the historical touchpoints/moral panics he was obviously meant to represent, emphasized by the actor portraying him with a noticeably camp style. But the film was too opaque to ever fully embrace this aspect and even aside from that tension, it was overly complicated and overly enamored with its wearisome vileness to work as anything more than an undiscerning sleepover nightmare fuel.

The Sequel's Arrival In the Middle of Production Company Challenges

Its sequel arrives as former horror hit-makers Blumhouse are in urgent requirement for success. Recently they've faced challenges to make any project successful, from the monster movie to The Woman in the Yard to the adventure movie to the complete commercial failure of the robotic follow-up, and so a great deal rides on whether the sequel can prove whether a brief narrative can become a film that can generate multiple installments. There’s just one slight problem …

Supernatural Transformation

The first film ended with our Final Boy Finn (Mason Thames) killing the Grabber, supported and coached by the apparitions of earlier casualties. This situation has required director Scott Derrickson and his co-writer C Robert Cargill to advance the story and its antagonist toward fresh territory, turning a flesh and blood villain into a ghostly presence, a route that takes them via Elm Street with an ability to cross back into reality enabled through nightmares. But in contrast to the dream killer, the villain is clearly unimaginative and entirely devoid of humour. The disguise stays appropriately unsettling but the production fails to make him as frightening as he temporarily seemed in the initial film, constrained by complicated and frequently unclear regulations.

Alpine Christian Camp Setting

The main character and his irritatingly profane sibling Gwen (the performer) encounter him again while snowed in at an alpine Christian camp for kids, the follow-up also referencing in the direction of Jason Voorhees the camp slasher. Gwen is guided there by a vision of her late mother and what could be their dead antagonist's original prey while Finn, still trying to deal with his rage and recently discovered defensive skills, is pursuing to safeguard her. The screenplay is overly clumsy in its forced establishment, awkwardly requiring to maroon the main characters at a location that will additionally provide to background information for main character and enemy, providing information we weren't particularly interested in or care to learn about. Additionally seeming like a more deliberate action to push the movie towards the same church-attending crowds that turned the Conjuring franchise into major blockbusters, Derrickson adds a spiritual aspect, with virtue now more directly linked with God and heaven while villainy signifies the demonic and punishment, faith the ultimate weapon against this type of antagonist.

Overcomplicated Story

What all of this does is further over-stack a story that was formerly nearly collapsing, adding unnecessary complications to what could have been a straightforward horror movie. Regularly I noticed overly occupied with inquiries about the hows and whys of possible and impossible events to feel all that involved. It’s a low-lift effort for the actor, whose visage remains hidden but he possesses authentic charisma that’s typically lacking in other aspects in the ensemble. The setting is at times atmospherically grand but the majority of the consistently un-scary set-pieces are flawed by a rough cinematic quality to distinguish dreaming from waking, an unsuccessful artistic decision that feels too self-aware and constructed to mirror the frightening randomness of experiencing a real bad dream.

Weak Continuation Rationale

Lasting approximately two hours, the sequel, like M3gan 2.0 before it, is a needlessly long and hugely unconvincing justification for the establishment of another series. The next time it rings, I recommend not answering.

• The follow-up film releases in Australian theaters on October 16 and in America and Britain on 17 October