Ep 279: New Black Phone, Who Dis?

It’s been 4 years since Finney took on the Grabber with help from the dead via phone calls, and now we’re back with a new setting, a new set of murders, and tons of dream sequences! Tune in to hear us break down “Black Phone 2” — from the way it shifted the focus to Finney’s sister, to how it created its own set of rules for the dream world, and whether the more emotional scenes worked well or felt over-the-top.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hello, and welcome to have your hard time. My name
is Tim Murdock.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
And my name is Matt Emmert. Hello, everyone, Welcome to
our final episode of October. Halloween's right around the corner, Tim,
right around the corner.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
I got it before we go on. My stomach just
made like a noise like er like that, So I
guess I'm hungry.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
I don't know if that read on microphone, but for
anybody was interested, you made.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
A you acknowledged it.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Oh. I heard Tim laughing, as I usually do. If
you've tuned into us before, you probably noticed. And when
Tim starts every episode, he's usually laughing. If you're wondering,
what is he laughing at? Changes every time? Oh my goodness,
every time.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
You know, I don't laugh in all our older episodes
where we interview Adrian Barbo, Adrian King, Adrian, who's that
girl there from the Halloween film?

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Age to Jody Linnell Key. Yeah, We've had quite an
October we released up until this episode. We released three
back to back Halloween franchise interviews. The first one was
with Andrew Grievis, who wrote a book Horror and Haddenfield,
where he interviewed tons of cast members. It was great.

(01:19):
We got to talk about the whole franchise and everyone
he spoke with. Then we interviewed Dwight Little, the director.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Of Halloween four.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
This inct Oh God, I got It's shakes, the return
of Michael Myers, And that was such a fun conversation
because he you can just tell he loved that movie.
He seemed like such a great guy.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
I really liked him.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, I really liked him. And then we interviewed Just
last week we released our interview with James Jude Courtney
ak Michael Myers from all three of the most recent
Halloween movies, and he is like the coolest guy I was.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
And I want to ask you because Halloween I got
super fans, super fan but of thank you. You're basically
an avocado.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
I'm a Halloween avocado. Everyone go on, So, do.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
You prefer Michael Myers to be called the Shape or
Michael Myers.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, that's a good question. And I know that they
call him the Shape because in the original Halloween he
was billed as the Shape and because he's always just
like stalking people in the background and that kind of thing.
With that said, I usually prefer Michael Myers because from
the beginning. You even in the first Halloween, you hear
that Michael Myers' kid killed a sister. He has a name,

(02:30):
and so I prefer Michael Myers. But I don't mind
the shape.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
I'm going to have a good answer. That's pretty good, Matt.
I'm gonna put you on the spot even before God
do it. How many times do you do you think
they say the name Michael Myers in the original Halloween?

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Oh my god, I mean, none of the characters other
than doctor Loomis, I think say it. That would be
a good trivia question because I remember, oh no, no, wait,
that's not true because the Myers House when Tommy Doyle
is saying and Laurie's dad says, okay, wait are we
saying Michael Myers or are just Myers full name?

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Full name?

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Okay, full name? I would say only doctor Loomis says it,
and I'm gonna go with like fifteen.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Let us know in the comments, let us know the
go if you know. No.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
But we want to first give a warm welcome to
any of our new subscribers who found us because of
these Halloween interviews. Thank you for tuning in giving us
a chance. We love getting different audience members in like
October is such a wonderful month to bring new people.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
In and a random Fridy thirteenth is a fun day.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
But there's none in October. So just so you know,
if you're a fan of the Halloween franchise, we actually
have a ton of other Halloween interviews we've done over
the last five years. Basically we've talked to Wendy Kaplan,
Tina from Part five, Jody little Keith like Tim Tim
said from h two O PJ Souls and Nick Castle
from the original, and Nancy Loomis Anna Alicia from Part two.

(03:53):
I love that one, Stacy Nelkin from Part three.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
I love that one.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Mary and Hagen from Part six. Like, we've talked to
a ton, So you know, before we were doing video
was just audio. But you can find a lot of
these interviews on YouTube. A lot of them are just
the audio. But yeah, for Halloween fans, we also.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Now you can see our beautiful faith.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yes, now you see our face. And if you like
Friday the Thirteenth, like Tim, oh wow, we've actually done
twenty two interviews with Friday the Thirteenth franchise. I'm gonna
go out on a limb go and I have nothing
to back this. Jump on this limb.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
I'm gonna jump on this limb. I think we've done
the most Friday the Thirteenth interviews in the world.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
I mean it could be like when you think about it,
most horror podcasts, well most heart podcasts, don't just do interviews.
We do interviews and movie reviews, but a lot of
them will just talk to everyone. We have our favorite
slasher series, Halloween and Friday the Thirteenth, and we've sought
out a ton of people from there, but we've definitely
talked to Yeah, twenty two and we have two more

(04:52):
on the way, and then one other thing. I just
want to give you a little teas for new subscribers
and everyone that's listening. Our next episode after this one
is a very special interview. It's a big one for us.
It's with Scream Queen horror Icon d Wallace. So if
you're like a Kujo fan, Hills Have Eyes, Critters et.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
What else did she is Halloween? Halloween?

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Well, I mean rob Zombies, big difference though, but just
she's been in so much Oh the Howling, Oh.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
My god, we learned a lot about the howling. She
taught us. She taught us.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
She taught us.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
She's like, hey, if you want to be aware wolf,
she taught us. This is what I mean what I'm
attempting to say. She gave us a lot of information
we did not know.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
And she is such a character. Let me just tell you,
I'm not just hyping this up because it's our next
interview and we're excited about it. She is so much fun.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
It was a fun hour.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah. So anyone who likes any of d Wallace's horror movies,
and she's done like two hundreds, so there's got to
be something you like. She was just great and she
is just so cool.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
I was just honest with us, Like I mean, everyone's
always honest with us. They tell us their deepest, darkest secret.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Let me just tell you stay tuned for if you are.
If you know our interviews, you know we end with
the same question every single time. It's what's something you've
never told any other interviewer about your experience?

Speaker 1 (06:15):
It's optional?

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Well, no, it's not optionalman, We're not going to put
them in jail. But what I'm saying is we don't
need them to give us something like salacious or gossipy
but she sure did. Let me just tell you it
was a good one. So stay tuned for that last
plug I'm gonna do is if you want to support us,
you can support us on Patreon. It's patreon dot com
slash happy Horror Time starts at just a dollar a month.

(06:39):
It really helps us continue doing what we do because
you know, we still have full time jobs, but we
try to do as much content.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
That's like a big boy job.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
Well you have a job to we we and so
it really helps us. And for five dollars a month,
you get all of our bonus content. We do two
bonus episodes a month and after show we have a discord,
we do holes, there's tons.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
We give you stickers, did you mention stickers.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Autograph stickers. Yes, So if you want to support us,
if you really like us on once some of that.
That's when we also in our bonus episodes we talk
about like past movies versus present ones. So it's a
lot of fun and we've got a ton of bonus
content out there. Okay, so that is everything and this
is our Now this is quite a departure from the
Halloween series because this is our only movie. Yeah, that's true.

(07:27):
This is our only movie review of October. And we
did this because we wanted to release all these Halloween
interviews in October. So we're like, Okay, let's pick one
movie to do a review of at the end of October.
And it just so happened that Black Phone two came out.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
And it's doing very well. I mean it's I think
it's the biggest movie right now.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
So well, yeah, yeah, take the biggest movie. Well, it
had the opening weekend last weekend. It it made like,
I think twenty seven million domestically. It had a really
great opening. And it's a sequel to The Black Phone,
which came out I guess in twenty twenty one, and
we were did.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
You like Black Phone the first one? I did. I
didn't like it. No, I mean I didn't like it
when we saw in the theater, I thought, oh, that's
pretty good. But when we watched it again to refresh
before Black Phone Too, I was much more into it.
But I don't remember the bullying scenes being so brutal.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Oh, the beating up, I thought that, and then the
dad being abusive.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
I was like, the dad and the bullies I thought
were more scary than the man than the grabber.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah, I loved the First Black Phone, and I mean
I think we actually reviewed it. I think back twenty
one one.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
Thing I said.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
I can't remember anything I said, and if I didn't
say I loved it back then, I guess I just
changed my mom because after watching it again, the reason
I really liked the First Black Phone is because, yes,
it has a supernatural aspect to it, but for the
most part, it's a killer hunting after kids, and the
supernatural aspect was just a minor part which made it unique.

(08:56):
He was getting phone calls from the dead previous victim
from a black phone. I'm a black phone. He was
getting phone calls and that's how he was able to
outsmart the killer. But everything else was grounded in reality.
And then his sister was like everything that was on
my screen in the First Black Phone, well, let me
just say that we went into Black Phone too. I
went in with high expectations, did you, I.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
Mean the trailer and you know it was weird because
like the kids from the original have grown up so much.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, they're totally wow, They're like this is It's weird,
Like I just don't remember.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
Growing up that fast. But I guess it's happened. I mean,
I'm almost thirty, well.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Eighteen years ago. The thing about right between the ages
of like thirteen fourteen and like sixteen seventeen is that's
puberty and you change big time, and so especially you
can see it well, and you can see it in
both of them.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
That kid is tall well.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
So so the two main kids are Mason Thames who
plays Finny, and Madeline McGraw who plays his sister Gwen.
And in the first one they they were both i'd
say maybe twelve or thirteen and eleven or something. And
in this one it looks like I think Mason or
Finny is a senior and I think she's like a
sophomore or junior. But like they look grown up. I

(10:12):
mean they are grown up teenagers.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
That opening where he is beating up that kid with
the blood, I was just like, what an opening, so.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
Well before we even get into it, like just overall,
I went into Black Phone two with high expectations, maybe
higher than you did.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
You were you hoping it was Black Christmas?

Speaker 2 (10:31):
Which one seventy four, two thousand and six or not
or nineteen twenty nineteen, Oh no, fuck, fuck no, fuck no,
you know I just let me just say this before
we get started. Like, I wasn't a big fan of
Black Phone two. I and we'll go through it all,
but I just I found myself feeling like it was

(10:54):
really over the top. It was way too supernatural, way
too dream world stuff. And I found myself not feeling
scared and not being as into it as the first one.
And it's a shame because I get it. This was
based off of a story and they didn't have another story,
so they had to come up with something new, and
they killed the killer. The grabber was killed in part one.

(11:18):
Sorry spoiler alert, but you know this is Black Phone two,
so he had to already be dead. But like, so
it was just not the first movie.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
I guess. I mean, you know in Nightmare Elm Street
Floor when the dog peas fire and brings back Freddy classic, right,
I was waiting for a scene like that in Black
Phone Too to explain everything that it was really just
dog Pea.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
It was dog pee, yeah, but I mean it really did.
We'll get into all the Nightmare on Elm Street parallels,
because this whole movie basically happens in the dream world,
but unlike Nightmare on Elm Street, when someone, like a
Nightmare on Elmsteed series, someone's dreaming and they're attacked by
Freddy and it's just them and stuff. But in this
movie they were mixing Gwen who's in the dream world

(12:00):
with the Grabber and he's attacking people in real life
but he's invisible, and I'm just like, there's too much what.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah, No, I really did need like a rule book.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
There was and there were no rules, and I guess
when you get into supernatural, right, I mean.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
The same problem actually happened in the nightmn Elm Street,
like because remember like Wes Craven's like made the rules
for the original Nightmroome streat and then they changed and then
in part two they were just kind of like he
comes out of the pool party and everyone's like what
I know. So I feel like this film was suffering
from the same kind of problem. Yeah, like, all of
a sudden, instead of a pool party, it was ice. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
Well, but in the first Nightmare on Elm Street, Wes
Craven's rules were pretty simple and easy to follow. Yeah,
Freddy was in was there when your nightmares and the
only way to kill him was to grab him when
you wake up and then he comes into the real
world and you can kill him. And yes, that's supernaturally,
but I understood that. Okay, get him into the real world.

(12:54):
You can kill him in Black Phone two. He's never
in the real world, but you can.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Nancy was a lot of times like I'm gonna pull
him out and you're gonna take the bat to Johnny
Depp and she goes, you're gonna, like, you know, beat
him up, and like I almost felt like she was
basically kind of saying the same thing through the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
I don't know about bringing him out of the dream. Well,
because she was starting to realize and she also had
super powers in her dream. She because remember she first
little things would happen outside the dream, like she got
his hat, remember, and so she's like, oh my god,
I just need to be holding on to something and
it'll come out of the dream. So she was like
slowly learning that and by the time she finally learned it,

(13:34):
her boyfriend's dead.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
And also in a night brun up Street, she gets
cut on her arm and the girl in this movie
got cut on her well no no, no, she got like
his hands were hot and they burnt her arm.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yeah, it was just it was weird. But anyway, the movie. Again,
props to the filmmakers because they got a movie out
of there, they got another movie out of because the
first one was so successful. I just didn't find this
one nearly as good or as grounded or as rewatchable.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
Oh no, definitely don't want to rewatch this, but I go.
I will say the first thirty minutes super strong. I
was into that. I was like, okay, good. Somewhere around
the middle, I was like, for some reason, our air
conditioning in our theater was a little not existent, so
I could have taken a little nap. But and then
the last twenty minutes, I was like, oh, okay, it's
picking up. It's picking up. There's like a big stroke,
there's a big scuffle, scuffle. But and then but there's

(14:24):
that middle part that just nothing was cohesive. And I also,
this is what I really really wanted. It made me
mad that the dad hit his daughter, and I was like,
first movie right right, like, because you and I have
seen a lot of horror films, and like, the one
that comes to mind right now is like Child's Play three,
where all the characters in the movie were that's a

(14:44):
girl to little Andy, or that were mean to Andy
got killed.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, in this.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
Movie, all the people that were mean nothing happened to them.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
Because there were no kills there were in this movie.
There were literally zero kills except for a flat in.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
That night reference. But we're not like Gore Zone Fengoria.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
But there's no steaks. If no one gets killed, I
grow steaks, yeah, and I don't mean like a t
bone yeah right, No, there are no filame mignones if
weon No.

Speaker 1 (15:18):
But what I was basically trying to say is we're
not like bloodthirsty for deaths. But I wouldn't have mind
if that dad, you know, was.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
God, well in this movie he had sobered up. Anyway,
Let's take a scene. Okay, so there's an opening scene
where we have a girl on a phone calling someone
and we don't know what she's saying, but she's talking
about how she's at Alpine Uh, she's at Alpine Lake camp.
And she's like it's in the mountains in the snow,
and she's like, can you help me? Blah blah blah blah.

(15:46):
And that's all we get, and we don't know who
she is, who she's talking to. Whatever we learn about
that I.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
Think these scenes were green screen, Like none of it
seemed authentically outside, right or did it just look so
beautiful it was outside?

Speaker 2 (16:00):
Don't. I don't focus on that as much as you do.
It's funny because like I just kind of buy it,
like yes, when it's really bad green screen or cgi.
Obviously I'm taken out.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
I mean I'm trying to remember and maybe you can
help refresh my memory. When she was talking on the phone,
could you see her breath? No?

Speaker 2 (16:17):
But again something that yes, I probably should look for,
but I don't. Yes, that's accuracy, and these are things
that you look for. At me, I was like really
fixated on, like who she talking to? Who is described?

Speaker 1 (16:29):
I didn't care. You didn't care. You're like, hey, is
there any more pupworn in in my bag?

Speaker 2 (16:34):
The two biggest things you're looking for is she wearing
a wig? And is that a green screen? Am I right?
I'm right.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
Well I also look at the story, of course, but
this story was kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
Well yeah, I mean ring ring, black phone. Yeah, Okay,
So then we get we catch up with Finny and
Gwen and basically it's been a few years since before
and if you remember in the first one, Finny was
kind of the shy kid, didn't have a ton of
friends and and he or actually he did have some friends,
but he wasn't a fighter. And obviously then the movie
going so on, he faces the grabber and he ends

(17:04):
up killing him. So now he's gotten this notoriety is
this like tough guy, but he's kind of abused it.
And we have a scene of him beating the.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
Shit up, which they were like, oh, his sister comes
just like stop and he's like, he goes, oh, this
new kid was asking me about my past and I
was like, big deal. Well, so they have to beat
him up.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
What you get gather from Finny is that he hasn't
as as is the the the trope in horror nowadays
is everyone is trauma, generational trauma, family. Well, you know,
and he hasn't dealt with it. I know.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
I mean, actually, I actually think this is the right
direction for society, because you know, if we don't talk
about our feelings, they're bottled up and you become Michael Myers.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
Only the zombie version, and we don't know his past.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
Say like, I think it's good that we talk about
our feelings.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Yeah, well, but the whole point of this is two
So Finny, Finny has not dealt with what happened to him.
And you know, it's pretty traumatic if you are kidnapped
by serial killer, kept in captivity for a number of days,
and murder, had to murder a serial killer. But he
basically his whole life is he smokes a ton of
pot oh, just so he can numb himself.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
I'm so glad you brought that up, because I don't
know much about pot I know, I mean, I've never
done it. So my question is, is like usually people
from the films I've seen and the friends I know,
they get giggly. He was getting angry, So how was
it not?

Speaker 2 (18:27):
I wasn't getting angry. He was getting like just like.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
But everyone angry. Why wasn't he giggly.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
Because everyone has different reactions. Usually giggly is like when
you first tried it, not like chronics.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
Likely is like, oh my god, this is something new.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
It's so weird when you've smoked a lot, like after
a while, it's just like a calming thing and you
you almost that's like your norm.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
His body built up like resistance to it, so he
was no longer how he was just still sad.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
He I think no, I think it was just like
the only way he could like numb the pain. It's
like people that drink to not have to think about
like serious stuff. He was smoking, so his mind could
just be kind of numb and he could just be
like relaxed and not have to think about everything. Because
we do get a scene of him imagining that he
sees the grabber outside. I liked, and he's flashing back

(19:20):
and literally saying the lines that he said while he
was in captivity. And I liked that too because it
was almost like if you went through a really traumatic experience,
you would be constantly thinking back about it, dreaming of it.
So it kind of made sense, you know. Yeah, But
like so that's where we are. And then we get Gwen,
his sister. Now, she was kind of a breakout star

(19:41):
from the first one. She had a great performance. You know,
she got beaten by her dad, which was awful, but
she was very convinced, no joke.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
Watching that scene was the most effective thing out of
both films. I just do not like to see kids
getting hurt. Well, yeah, really bothers me.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
Well, their father was an alcohol like he's since sobered up. Now,
and you know, they all they kind of joke with
him about like, don't drink whatever, because he was such
an asshole when he did. But basically, Gwen starts having dreams,
and she's having dreams of these kids that are getting
murdered at this camp called Alpine Lake Camp. And you

(20:17):
want to talk about disturbing, I've got to say that
every time she had a dream, they changed the the
the camera so it was like grainy footage. Maybe a
sinister in me.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
Have sinister And like you go to the New Beverly,
not as much as I do, but.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
The New Beverly for everyone, it's like a little The
New Beverly is like an old a theater that plays
things on thirty five millimeters.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
Yes, yes, yeah, I love that grainy look, which I'm
always like HD's We did HD for a reason, Yeah,
but it takes you back. But I'm not that old.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
Talkies.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
I like the talkies that like the Chaplain, he's so funny. No,
but like the footage reminded you. Do you remember when
we saw the movie Madman mad Men? Mad not mad
Men about like the newspaper smoking.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
People, No man Man, this summer camp killer, Yes, in winter.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
Yes, yeah, it was in winter. But the graininess reminded
me of Black Phone too. So of black I mean,
is that what we're talking about?

Speaker 2 (21:16):
Yeah, So what it reminded me of I was like, whoa,
I was trying to follow along with you. Okay, So
the people who made this movie made Sinister, and in Sinister,
if you remember, every time he put a VHS tape in,
it was grainy footage and that was very effective because
my VHS tape was something terrifying, like a family like
celebrating then they would be murdered and it was great,

(21:38):
but it was short and it was just each videotape
we got so many fing grainy dream sequences that I
was starting to feel like half the movie was graining absolutely,
like yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
I mean, like, don't get me wrong, it was dreamy.
The movie was dreamy and I but it was long
drawn out dreams. So and the way you know, I was,
it's like, why is Sinister so effective and Black Phone
two is not?

Speaker 2 (22:04):
Because it was short, specific segments in that grainy footage
that were terrifying. Yeah, and this one we're following forever.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
You would think that with Ethan Hawk's mask and everything,
which I thought was still pretty effective, but they used it.
They showed it almost too much. It's almost like too much.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
He doesn't come in till much later because we first
get these sequences of three different kids being brutally killed
by someone we don't know who it is.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
It didn't show the actual murder, did they.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
Well, they showed it in weird camera ang, so you're
not seeing everything, but you can tell they're getting murdered.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
Yeah, they get chased in the woods, which I thought
that was kind of the first time. The first time
it was terrifying. Yeah, second and third.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
Oh, and then they're floating under the water and they
start carving something in the eye.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
You know what movie did that best? It actually is
genuinely a good movie.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
Orphan.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
No, Orphan's good too. But the Omen two, Damie and
the Omen two, like they used, they're really on the
ice and it is so effective. I love that entire movie.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
How about the good Son. Well, so Gwen is like
freaking out because in these dreams she's sleepwalking. She even
walks all the way to where the grabber had taken
her brother, which, like, how is this girl walking across town?

Speaker 1 (23:25):
I thought she took her bike? Did she? So she
was sleep biking, sleep biking, which is taking the world
by storm.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
And also no, it's the new fad. If you are
not sleep biking, are you even living?

Speaker 1 (23:38):
You know, I go outside when I'm sleeping and I'm
looking for my bike.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
See, I like to sleep drive.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
Car.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
Like it was just these dream sequences were so long.
But basically, but you know what's.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
Interesting, the brother, who apparently was high, followed her and
like he jumped down into the basement. Also because when.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
You're high you can still function, especially.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
I wouldn't mean it like that. I meant like, I
love that he did that, like she was watching.

Speaker 2 (24:04):
The thing about these movies is that they's a really
close bond between the brother and sister. And I do
like that because in the first one, when after Finny
was taken, Gwen is constantly looking for him and doing
everything to find him. In this one, it's more Finny's
trying to take care of his sister because the focus
is more on her. But moving ahead basically, because she's

(24:24):
having all these dreams, Gwen finds out that her mom,
who had committed who had killed herself like a few
years ago, had been a counselor at this camp Alpine
late camp where she's been dreaming about these dead kids.
So she's like, Finny, we gotta go, let's apply to
be counselors. We gotta do this. And so she Finny
and their friend Ernesto, who, by the way.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
Yes, please tell this because this When you told me this,
I thought it was absolutely fascinating.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
So the actor who played Ernesto, he Miguel Mora. He
actually was in the first Black Phone playing his brother Robin,
who was murdered in the first movie, and so yes,
it's kind of weird that they brought the same actor
back to play the brother. But at the same time,
he looked totally different, different disposition, different hairstyle, everything that hair.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
By the way, in the first one, I don't know
if that little guy could beat up those three kids.
I mean, I mean there, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
I feel like when you're that young, it's all about confidence,
like seriously, like it's not because nobody has muscles, so
it's really about I do has At twelve, I was
were you pumping iron? Then? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (25:31):
But I don't want to brag right now, but I'm
going to I did the most pull ups my sophomore
year of high school.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
Continue, Wow, that is hey, you know, because I've always
said you peaud in high school?

Speaker 1 (25:41):
I really did. Oh glory days, Oh I have something.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
On other episodes, Tim loves to brag about how he
won best Dressed in high school.

Speaker 1 (25:51):
It's when it matters.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
And guess guess what I want in high school? Nothing?
I won nothing. I ran for treasurer and lost.

Speaker 1 (25:58):
Oh a great beard. I can't even go one.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
Well it's getting a little gray, but like, anyway, okay,
I'm all of me, all of me Okay, So anyway,
they go up to the camp. The camp is in
the fucking mountains and it's snowing so hard. They finally
get to the camp and right away they're like, oh,
no one else has been able to arrive. The snowstorm
has like cut off the road. So it's just you

(26:20):
got right.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
Well, we need to talk about they were he was Ernesto.
That's not naming this is it? Yeah? Oh okay? The friend,
the friend, yes, who has got the hots for the man.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
Does have hots for Gwen. Yes, it's cute.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
It is cute. So he's driving the car and for
some reason the boy from the original don't remember Oh Finny, Okay,
I should remember that there's doctor Finn on the Bold
and Beautiful.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
Well, also, there's only like three characters.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
Finny, what would think I was talking about something so completible?

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Oh okay, Sony.

Speaker 1 (26:48):
Finny hops out of the car and was just like
follow me.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
I was like, okay, first off, if it's snowing that hard,
that guy could barely see and he's like, hey, look
at me jogging in front. And what if there's like
a patch of vice also could kill him.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
Also, I was thinking about back in the this took
place in wait, what year did the eighty two? Okay?
There were weather forecasts, right, so you could see when
a storm, really dead storm is coming.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
So why did they do their drive. We live in
a society now where we've got twenty four hour news.
If they just had local news, maybe thirty six, and
if they were like.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
You know, they were like smoking.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
Pop smoking, and she was dreaming a dead piece.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
She was sweet sweet sleep biking. I really like, I
want to make sleep biking a thing like fetch. I
wanted to be a thing. Okay, Okay, it's never gonna happen. Okay.
So they finally get up to this camp and like
they meet the really the only people there as the owner,
his niece named Mustang, and this really religious couple named.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
Barbara, and she goes by Barbara.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
I don't remember the husband's name. Oh, we forgot to mention.
This is like a Christian youth camp, so it's like
very religious focused, and so there's some jokes in there
because obviously Finny is not very religious, and but Gwen
kind of is, and I guess their mom was, and
blah blah blah blah.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
And I actually really loved this camp the whole look
of it because there was a lake cold right, but
it was cold. I mean, like Fred thirteen fans have
always wanted Jason in the Snow, so I was like, oh,
this is kind of fun.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
But can't you watch the fan film Never Hike in
the Snow?

Speaker 1 (28:24):
Was there one? I haven't seen one in this I
saw one Never Hike Alone Fight thirteenth fan film, but
I thought there was a snow one there is, but
I haven't seen it.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
Oh got it.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
But did you know that there's a Halloween film called
Halloween Aftermath or something. I think it just came out.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
You should watch it. Is it aftermath as in like
after Halloween.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
I know Michael Myers, isn't it. Oh, so is Jamie Lee.
Jamie Lee. They got Jamie Lee like it's a fan
film for YouTube. She goes, what time I love Michael Myers.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
I love Laurie Strode trauma, generational trauma, I love Jamie
Leek my movie baby. Okay, So the first night, Gwen
has this like crazy dream she is, she's dreaming, she's sleepwalking,
and the thing is is like she's separated from her
brother and her nesto. And so when she's in trouble,

(29:15):
like like she can't wake herself up, they have to
wake her up. But getting to I don't remember the
exact sequence, It doesn't matter. Finny Fine. They finally bring
Finny into this because up until this point the movie
is just Gwen's. It's all Gwen's dreams, right.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
Well, the thing that I did not like because it
was a Christian camp. She couldn't be in the same
cabin as the two boys, and they know it's her brother, right, Like,
I'm like, come on, and so she has to sleep.
They're snowed in. They're like, hey, be in this empty
cabin in the middle of a snowstorm. Yeah, And you're
also having nightmares.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
So basically, I mean, there's not a time to have
But finally they bring the black phone in because there's
a payphone outside the camp that the director says, oh,
it hasn't worked for years.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
I actually really liked that line when he goes goes,
oh that that phone is better than disco.

Speaker 2 (29:59):
That's funny. Ye. They So the phone rings for Finny
and we find out that Finny actually, in the time
between these movies, he's constantly received So in the first one,
obviously he has a supernatural power where he can get
phone calls from the dead, and we do get little
aspects of it before he goes to the camp where

(30:19):
he hears payphones umri and he answers it and says,
I can't help you and just hangs out because he
doesn't want to deal with this power. Well, the phone
rings at the camp and he finds out it's the
Grabber on the other line, who is dead.

Speaker 1 (30:31):
Right, Like, did we get an explanation of how the
Grabber's back and making calls?

Speaker 2 (30:36):
Well, yeah, if any dead people can make calls to Finny,
then the Grabber is dead, so he can make a call.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
Yeah, an interesting placement of a phone right next to
the lake.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
I know, it's like a weird also, like even if
the payphone was working, like who set it up outside
in the cold in this like winter camp there, it's
always blizzarding.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
Right, And I mean I went to choir camp for
three years, that's right, and it was like a camp.
And I don't remember any payphone none.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
None. But did they the ones that weren't working, they
rang anyway, right, Yeah?

Speaker 1 (31:06):
And I always answered I was like Finny, I mean Grabber.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
So we find out the grabber. The whole thing is
the Grabber is pissed because Finny killed him, not only
killed him in the first movie, made him kill his brother.
He didn't make him, but because his brother found out
he was a serial kill.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
His brother makes an appearance to the girl.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
In a dream sequence. Yeah yeah, with an axe on
his head. So the Grabber is vowing revenge on Finny
for killing him and says, I'm not gonna kill you,
I'm going to kill the thing that means the most
you aka your sister. And then what proceeds is multiple
dreams with Gwen where the Grabber is just terrorizing her,

(31:44):
like terrorizing her, choking her, spinning her, cutting her and.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
Throwing her across the cook table.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
It's like got to the point where I was like,
either just kill her or leave her the fuck alone
because someone else.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
So you got Mustang and Barber.

Speaker 2 (32:01):
And so what's funny is that the other people see
Gwen in very nightmare on elm Street style being thrown
across the room.

Speaker 1 (32:08):
I know, he was very like Amanda wizwis Yes, going
up and down on the ceiling.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
It was very much like that because they see from
the perspective of nobody's there. But the camera keeps switching
to the grainy footage and it's the grabber that's doing it.
And so I'm just like, this is too much. Just
give me a phone that's ringing like.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
They should have. I mean, don't get me wrong, I
don't need a completely dumb down movie. I don't need that. Yeah,
but this was to the point where it was just convoluted.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
It was. And so we get to some at least
there is some more story in this word a couple things.
Number One, they find out big reveal, like we weren't
expecting this. The grabber used to work at the camp
and killed these kids.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
And by the way, when the who's the like the
head counselor. I will never remember his manifesto. That's not
his name?

Speaker 2 (32:55):
What Armando?

Speaker 1 (32:57):
Armando? I love the name Armando. Okay, So Armando was like, oh,
here's a picture of him, and he pulled the picture
off the wall. They could even like, I can't believe
in even in twenty twenty five, with Ai and all
the things we have, the picture of Ethan Hawk with
long hair. Camp is like, like cut and paste, why
are we doing this?

Speaker 2 (33:15):
Oh? Oh?

Speaker 1 (33:16):
Was it?

Speaker 2 (33:17):
Was? It actually Ethan.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
Hawk ethic face? But you could tell they were like,
that's just kind of like someone.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
Did like a poor photoshop and just like it'll pass. Yeah.
I'm like, well guess what it didn't. Tim caught that
along with those green screens. You hear that. Yeah, And
if don't even try to wear a wig in a movie, Tim,
I clock that.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
You know it's I'm looking at it.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
Hey, it's a skill.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
It's it's my only skill.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
It's not your own.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
But I also like sleep sleepwalk on a.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
Bike and sleep sleep biking. I sleep. I go with
the name I created it already manifesto.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
That's funny, Armanda.

Speaker 2 (33:50):
I okay, So they find out that he used to
work at the camp under the name like wild Bill
Hiccocks or whatever. Anyway, it's the initials. The dead kids
were carving in the ice, so they figured out w B. Yes,
so he murdered these kids, and they said, we okay,
well he's terrorizing people. He still has power because we

(34:11):
never found the kid's bodies. And it's almost like they
created their own rules. Did you feel like they were like, Oh,
all we gotta do is find the kid's bodies and
he won't have the power in the dream world.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
Right, And I'm like, I'm gonna let everyone know that
Quinn's our name. Unn Oh wait, I'll never get that right.
She finds them in the lake there apparently all three
of the boys are in barrels.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
Oh you're skipping to the end. Oh well, oh okay,
go on.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
Well I'm just saying like, because the movie, like all
the movie is terrorizing the daughter and then the dad
shows up and he's like, oh my god, kids, I'm
not an asshole.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
That's a very condensed plot. I mean there's a little
bit more. We do have one big sequence where Gwen
apparently now she can dream and connect to what her
mother experienced. The whole thing with Gwen is that she
has his psychic powers is clairvoyancy that she got from
her mom, and apparently she dreams that her mom had
figured it out that wild Bill was the killer.

Speaker 1 (35:11):
Yeh and sift bike.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
Oh well, so and so Gwen sees that her mom
actually got captured by the grabber and murdered by him
and was put like she had hung herself. So this
whole time they thought she had killed herself and she
dad because.

Speaker 1 (35:29):
This was actually very sentimental is that the right word. Yes, emotional?
Emotional scene, like the dad walks in and finds her
in I think was a garage or something. Yeah, like
I hung herself And he's like, oh my gosh, I
thought that was really good, good acting on the dad,
But I still wanted him to die in the phone.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
So the dad, you know, of course, blamed himself and
of course has traumatized their family. So Gwen finds us out.
She tells her brother, well, this whole time, the dad
was very concerned about them because of the weather. Again,
couldn't he have told them not to go then because
of the blizzard. But he gets borrows his friend's snowplow
and he goes up there to meet them. Remember, no

(36:06):
other counselors are there anything. But he gets through and
then they have which what proceeds to be for me,
the most awkward scene of the movie.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
It was like maybe they couldn't all film on the
same day, so like they were like, you stand here.
It was a triangle. It was a triangle the daughter
and the sun and they were all having their moments.
All the acting was super good.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
Well, okay, you don't think so, I don't know. I
think the three of them were standing in triangle formation
and it felt like a play because it was so
over the top emotional. Gwen is calling out the finny
that all he's doing is numbing his pain with pod
and blah blah blah. And then they call out the

(36:47):
dad for having, you know, using alcohol to substance, yes, exactly,
and having abused them. And then she tells him that
mom never killed herself and he's like, how do you know?
And she was able to recite what the dad said
when he found her, and he's like shocked and can't
believe it. She's like, because I have these dreams and
it mean something. Here's my thoughts on the acting. Tell Okay. Overall,

(37:10):
I think the acting from all parties was good, but
I don't know why. But there's something about so Madame McGraw,
who played Gwen. I think she's very talented, and when
she does really emotional scenes it's really great. But something
about the way she delivers just regular lines, it doesn't
feel natural.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
I don't know how I agree, especially when she tells
out Barbara, I mean, which that's always kind of funny,
but at the same time, it seemed really pushed, like hey,
I got a funny lion, I'm.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
Gonna dag it was everything was dirty, Like yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
It's like this is not working for some reason.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
It's so funny that because me, I would think I
would think that the really emotional parts in acting would
be the toughest parts, not just the regular, everyday natural stuff.
But for some reason, when she's doing when this actress
is doing, she's got these emotional parts, she's incredible, like
great standout kid performance. But when she's just like talking

(38:04):
about like, hey, wow was your day, it doesn't feel natural.
And so something about that scene when she's calling them
out on everything, it felt so much like a play.
It felt so over the top.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
It did the movie at some points actually did feel
like a play, and I thought for being a horror movie,
there was way too much dialogs exactly. Don't get me
wrong the scenes where she was getting terrorized, sure, but
I also think they should have just thrown in some
other actors, like some stunt castie, like I know that
there's there were the three boys in the barrels that
were coming out to we barely got We didn't get them.
We got them all grainy and like one was just

(38:36):
like playing a drums. That yeah, great.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
Again, imagine if you haven't seen this movie, you're and
you're hearing us talk about it. Imagine sinister that grainy footage.
But for like half the movie, like it gets a
little it fucks with your head.

Speaker 1 (38:51):
I think that's the point, and in some ways it
uh succeeds. But for me, I was like, Okay, we
already have and we've got like how many of those
films we have? Eight or nine?

Speaker 2 (39:03):
Yeah, So the fact that like picked something else, Yeah,
it's like okay, Like remember when he's like if I'm
gonna go to sleep for four hours, like if this
was a night when Olm Street. Look, which the thing
is is that they should have never killed their villain
in the first movie because he was human and when
you kill a human, not a supernatural person, they can't

(39:24):
come back. So I'm pretty sure when they made the
first movie they weren't planning on doing a sequel. It
was based off a short story and that was the story.
Then it made a ton of money for Blumhouse, and
Blumhouse loves to do sequels, and they had to come
up with a new story. Well, of course they wanted
to keep the Grabber and have Ethan Hawk, but they're like, Okay,
he's dead. I get where they're thinking. Was this is

(39:46):
what I want to say to the filmmakers, not that
they're listening, but like, I get why you had him
calling Finny because the whole thing is that Finny has
this connection with the dead where they can call him
and he can speak to out on a payphone. So
of course, now that the villain is dead, it makes
sense have him calling him. But Finny was so secondary

(40:07):
in this movie. The whole movie was him going after
a sister and Finny like trying to help and not
being able to Like, we need more have Phinni.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
Each person put in like try Reid definitely terror read
from Hey guys, I was I went to Alpine.

Speaker 2 (40:26):
She's like, hey guys, I was a counselor. I mean,
come on, did you see right?

Speaker 1 (40:32):
Yes? I mean I'm just I love I love stunt casting,
like I love when they like throw someone in. That
was like in you know, a film of Yesteryear.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
Yeah, ter Red would have been great. She would be
like like like freezing and she goes. So I just
I think that like it needed more than just the
grabbers calling Finny and going after his sister. And we're
gonna see tons of Gwen's dreams. So anyway, yeah, like
you said, no one dies in this film, like I
don't know other than the kids, and those are flashbacks.

(41:02):
I don't count that because I know that if you
want to be technical, yes, the three kids got killed
and so did the mom, but those were all flashbacks.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
And like even Barbara, who I thought for sure was
I was like, as soon as Barbara went like girl
to the young girl, I was like, oh, she's gonna
get yeah, because we all love this girls, so anyone
that's mean to the girl is gonna get it. Yeah.
And then Barbara just got her head slammed against the
ice again. I'm not like Blood Thursday. I'm just saying, like.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
We so let me get the final scene. Basically, they
realized that the three kids' bodies are in the lake,
and again they've created this rule. They're like, if we
can find the bodies, then the Grabber want a power. Well,
while they're there, apparently Gwen suffers from narcolepsy because she
can't stop from falling asleep even when they're all up,
So she falls asleep, and when she's asleep, she cannot
be woken up. And when she's asleep. Again, these are

(41:50):
their rules. The Grabber can is in the dream world,
but can also hurt people in the real world. So
we're seeing the Grabber running and attacking all of the
people on the lake, and they're just seeing invisible man attacking, right,
which kind of reminded me of the Invisible Man exactly.
But like again, it's like either you're in the dream

(42:11):
or you're not. But why did the Grabber get Yeah,
so Gwen is in the dream world and she's swimming
under the ice and apparently in the dream world she
hold her breath oh for five.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
Okay, so once she realized like, oh my god, I
can't do anything in my dreams.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
It was almost like three like in my dreams, I'm
bad and beautifuler, I'm beautiful, I am bad.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
I thought she said she's bold and beautiful. No she didn't, Okay,
So yeah, like she could swim under water for an
obscene amount of time, has gills.

Speaker 2 (42:39):
Yeah, so she's swimming and looking for the bodies that,
like Tim said, the three kids' bodies are in barrels,
which of course she perfectly found.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
Which I mean, they were all skeletons.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
As this is happening. First, the Grabber in probably my
favorite sequence, which was spoiled in the trailer. He's ice
skating in a very Curtains ask if you've seen The
Night teen eighty two film, Curtains are.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
Interviewed one of the actresses curtains too, Oh my god,
we did, Yeah, Leslie Donaldson and what's her name?

Speaker 2 (43:09):
From Black Christmas? And oh my god, that is going
to kill me anyway, but the she's the killer and Curtains.
But in Curtains there's the ice skating scene where she's
skating really like slow with that creepy ass mask. Yeah,
in this one, the Grabber is ice skating with an axe. Well,

(43:30):
first he like knocks barber and her husband over onto
the ice, like slams their head into the those.

Speaker 1 (43:37):
And I was like, oh, we're going to get a
dead scene.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
And knocks their dad into the ice, and I'm like,
oh my god, they're gonna kill her dad.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
Freeze when you fall into the ice.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
It's so cold that you probably would freeze like most
people in this movie. But then he starts trying to
strangle Finny.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
Now again I was but I.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
Was like, if you just wanted to kill Finny, why
not have killed him from the beginning and then killed
his system like anyway, So he's trying to strangle him.
And the thing is is that, like finally, after Gwen
gets all three bodies, he suddenly the grabber like doesn't
have as much power, and they proceed to beat the
shit out of him. But it looks even weirder about this.
This was the weirdest part. You would think that only

(44:21):
Gwen can see him, so only she can beat him up. No, Finny,
who can't see him, starts beating up an invisible person
but knowing exactly where to grab him, punch him, knock
him perfectly, And it was so fucking weird.

Speaker 1 (44:36):
Do you know what it reminded me of. It reminded
me of little Corey Feldman in the final chapter, took
that hatchet and was just hacking away at the end.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
Yes, but he could see Joe.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
I know what I'm just saying, like this, are these
two little kids are just going after an invisible well
I think she could see him, right?

Speaker 2 (44:51):
It was no, No, she could Yeah, but I'm just sorry.
I'm it's gonna bug me if I don't get the
black because she was so sweet in our interview, and
it is gonna bug me if I get her name,
Len Griffin. Oh my god, we loved Lynn Griffin and
the interview with her. She's such a delight. I can't
believe I forgot her name. But what's her name in
the movie? Sorry, oh my god. When you asked me

(45:15):
what Claire Harrison? Claire Harrison, they say her name alive? Yes, Okay.
So anyway, Finny is bashing the black phone, the black phone.
He's bashing the grabber, but he can't see him. But
again we're seeing. We're switching between seeing it from Gwen's
perspective and the grainy footage and seeing it the Grabber
getting his ass kick and seeing it from Finny's perspective

(45:37):
where he's punching nothing, and it's so bizarre and they
believe between that, then the dead kids like got rise
up and grab the Grabber and take him under the wall.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
Now that reminded me of like a what was that
like the ship on Disney, like the Skeletons, like in
the Pirates of the Caribbean. It was like grabbing his legs.

Speaker 2 (46:01):
But like, what I don't get is he's already dead,
So what are they I guess they're taking him to hell.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
Yes, well, actually there was a really beautiful shot of
like the Grabber and the three kids pulling him down
a La Jason and Jason lives with the rock and
everything was like to Fight thirteenth y everything everything, and
so like the three kids are taking him down that
it's almost like they're three Jason's taking down a big Jason.

Speaker 2 (46:25):
It was so bizarre and so obviously the Grabber is
now deficient. He was killed in the first one. Now
he's I guess, been brought to hell so he can't
come back and haunt people in their dreams Freddy Krueger style,
and he's finally dead. But like the very end, there
is a nice little emotional scene because we find out

(46:47):
the girl from the very beginning that was calling someone
in the was actually Gwen's mom. Oh, I cried and
she was calling Gwen. But at the very end, Gwen,
here's the payphone. And remember Gwen's never had that power.
Gwen is clairvoyant and has these dreams. She has enough power,
she has enough power. But Phinny's like the one who

(47:07):
gets the phone calls, well, there's a there's a Gwen.
Here's the phone ringing, and Finny doesn't and Finny's like,
I guess it's for you. So she answers it and
it's her mom and she's saying like she's proud of her.
And I even get choked up thinking about because that
was like a very sweet thing.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
That was an easy cry for me, Like I was
instantly crying.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
Well she It was a very sweet scene because like
Gwen again, the actress Madam mcgral, when she's doing these
really highly emotional scenes, she's so good and she's crying
and saying, Mom, I miss you, and anybody it would
bring you to tears. And then the mom even says,
I have a message for Finny from Rob and that
was Ernesto's brother who was Finny's friend. In the first one,
he says hi, and like, you know, he's looking out

(47:46):
for you, like kind of thing. So it was sweet.
It had a sweet ending, but overall, I just was
not impressed and I wasn't scared at all.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
Oh no, I wasn't scared at all. I was as
I said at the very beginning of this podcast, I
was much more scared in the first one from the
bullies and the father. Oh see.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
I thought the first one was very creepy because every
time that van pulled up at the balloons and when
he got kidnapped, it really was like true crime realist right, like.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
The facts that Like there was a lot of like
really good parts in the original where the kids walking
up the stairs and Ethan Hawk likes.

Speaker 2 (48:19):
Just sitting there with his shirt off. Yeah, I like
to sit there. We get it, you work out, I know,
or that great scene when he breaks down and runs
for it and gets tackle and Ethan Hawk runs behind
him and tackles him and is like about to slit
his throat.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
Like those were like built tension and executed excellently for
some reason, this movie just couldn't get it together. But again,
I wasn't one hundred percent board. I was maybe like
seventy percent board. Would I see it again? After talking
about it, I'm kind of curious, I'm like, what did
I miss? But I mean, overall, I'm not. I guess
I'm not seeking it out to see again, and I'm

(48:55):
not gonna like, hey, let's see, like we miss something.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
This is how I even though we only watched, we watched,
we revisited the first Black Phone just a week before
we saw the new one. I really like the first one.
Like if you told me we're watching the Black Phone
again tonight, like I would be okay with it. If
you told me, Matt, we're gonna sit down and watch
Black Phone two again, I would say I pass. I
just was not that into it. Again, I had the story.

(49:20):
I wasn't that into no stakes, with no kills, too
many really long drawn out, grainy dream sequences, and just
not enough going on between them. It was very focused
on the sister and just her dreams. Yeah, I mean
I and not so scary.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
The other people literally were like not necessary. It could
have just been the grabber of the girl.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
I was shocked. Well, I told Tim after we left
a movie theater that like, okay, so Finny who is
played by Mason Thames and he's a very talented actor.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
Yeah, and he's in that new movie called Regretting You.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
Yeah, he is was the main star of the first movie.
And I was just telling Tim, like, I wonder his
surprise when he got the script for the sequel and
he's reading it and he's like, oh my god, like
this is all Madela McGraw's movie. Like he is so secondary.
She is the star.

Speaker 1 (50:06):
I think they recognize what they have after you know,
I'm sure there was a huge reaction to like, oh
my gosh, whoever this girl.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
Is loved her?

Speaker 1 (50:13):
Yeah, she's like she's got spunk, she's got something.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
Yeah, Yeah, she was beaten by her dad. Let's give
her a man.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
That whole scene again, I've talked to this about three times. Disturbing,
Like it was disturbing. And like the scene where she's
just yelling at her dad crying. I think we've all
yelled at our parents like that while crying.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
Yeah that's but again, the more reasons why I think
she's so good at these really emotional scenes. But this movie.
There was so much dialogue that was delivered, and it
did and it felt some force, like you said, like
the parts they have. What we didn't explain is that
Barb is very very religious and she and Gwen keeps

(50:48):
kind of making fun of her, and Barb says she's
like possessed by the devil and Gwen just likes to
cuss at her. She just like the filthiest stuff. Yeah,
it was, you know, I was excited at that though
I know I did, but you know, I was excited
because it had a camp like for thirteenth that had
nevermonds like a Nevenelm Street, but it also had like
this too much dialogue just to keep it together, and

(51:10):
I was like that's I was like, why aren't we
having like slick chase scenes like no one's in this
movie to like have someone at the camp get killed
and then another person get killed and like you know,
again raise the steaks, get it scary.

Speaker 1 (51:23):
Not I don't necessarily want a body count, but it'd
be nice.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
And he also he just would always appear in the
room to her like there was no like stalking, like
there was no again, they didn't there wasn't a ton
of tension. It was. I found the parts with her
tortuoying well, the way he like when he spun her
around in the bed and was like slicing her. I
was like, this is turning into like saw. But she's

(51:49):
okay after every time, even though she has the.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
Wound, like took an accident like this to her give
slice it and I was like, how is she even
like functioning? And then she could also swim well while
she could.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
Also hold her breath for five to ten minutes.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
Yeah, that was all her superpower and a dream.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
But really by the end, when when it got to
the point where Finny was beating up nobody but knew
exactly where to punch and everything, I was like, I'm out.
That's when I like, there's so much. There's only so
much suspension of disbelief I can do in a movie,
and I can do it for supernatural aspects, but this
one they created these crazy rules for dream world and

(52:26):
what dead people can do to real people, and it.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
Was too much. The last twenty minutes on the ice,
on the ice, I don't feel like was filmed on
actual ice, Like it looked very green screen.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
Again, I totally didn't you thought it was real No,
I know, we couldn't film those types of scenes on
real ice. With that said, it didn't even register to me,
Like how did they film this? I ain't thinking about
that one.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
That's all I'm thinking about.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
I mean now they bring it up, like could you.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
Imagine, Like, yeah, it must have been in a studio.
Well yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
And also you could never film on real ice like
that because that'd be really dangerous.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
The camp was going through the ice. Oh shit, someone
really fell.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
Oops, now they're dead. Yeah, so I don't know, but
like and and when they leave the camp, and by
the way, none of the other counselors ever arrived, are
they going to continue the camp? Like?

Speaker 1 (53:17):
Actually they get paid, I mean like they were.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
Working paid for those couple of days. Yeah, and and
so also, my what do you think is gonna happen
with this franchise? I mean, it's making a good amount
of money. How would they ever make a black Phone three?

Speaker 1 (53:31):
I mean easy, everyone survived it be totally easy.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
But I mean the grabber, I mean I guess he
was already they break out, but he brought he was
brought to hell.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
I thought, I no joke, let's I can't predict the future.
But let's predict it right now together in this little room.
Finny's in College's in college. No, I think in like
three years there'll be another one, and I bet you
they'll be like like the cracking of the ice and
like him jumping out or something, or maybe they'll just
skip the ice. They'll be in Bermuda. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
I just like then, I guess you can't put a
dead person in hell. I don't know, like they would
have to keep really and also I don't know, like
I don't know if I want to see a part
three because I think I just think that if part
two couldn't, in my opinion, really get me excited about

(54:21):
this movie, then I don't know if there's anything they
could do in part three they would get it to
be more grounded because he's still dead and we would
have to have the dream world for most of the
movie again, you know what I mean, if like he
came back to life like Jason does all the time
Friday thirty, Sure, a real flesh and bud killer hunting
after these kids when they go to college.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
Two guys should show up with shovels. They dig them up.
He gets struck by lightning.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
No. No, but I don't know how many times he
says he didn't his body because it was his spirit,
you know what I mean. But that's what makes my
mind want to explode, because it's like he got killed again.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
It wasn't like it wasn't leaving tracks in the snow.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
No, because the black, the actual grabber was murdered in
his basement by Finny and then probably.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
Just oh before we wrap it up. I actually did
jump once, which time when Ernesto I'm sorry, Armando, he was.
He was in his office a really quiet oh yes,
he checked, like the radio came on. I was like, okay,
this is kind of suspenseful. And then he looked outside
and there was a snowman and then all of a sudden,
the snowman goes smack against the window. I actually jumped.

(55:31):
I was like, okay, I don't know where this is going.
And then guess what it was?

Speaker 2 (55:34):
Nowhere They went nowhere, and look it is. It's a
cheap scare. If you just put bang something really loud,
obviously people are gonna jump because anything. If I bang
this table right now, you fucking I probably would.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
I'm that easy. Yeah, But there also when when the
snowman smashed up against the window, there was like blood
on the snowman. I was like, what's going on.

Speaker 2 (55:55):
Jack Frost? Now they got Friday the Thirteenth nightmre imsy,
Jack Frost. They might as well thrown Halloween.

Speaker 1 (55:59):
In there, right, Well they kind of did. I mean
his mask a mask?

Speaker 2 (56:02):
Yeah, look I will let's let's end with some positive
things about the movie. I actually, I think the grabber's
mask is really incredible. I think it's a great It
would make a great costume for Halloween. I think it's
a very scary mask. It wasn't used well in this movie,
but I think that it's a really scary mask. I
think all the actors are pretty good and they can

(56:23):
sell the emotional scenes. And I think that the filmmakers
did probably the best they could when they've already killed
their villain.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
But it looked like a lot of money went into this.
Those sets were amazing.

Speaker 2 (56:37):
And well, they had the money.

Speaker 1 (56:38):
I'm sure if you've ever if you listened to any
of our podcasts in the past five years, it was
beautifully shot.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
Tim's favorite, Yeah, but it was beautifully shot. With that said,
I'm not a big fan of this movie. I don't
know if I would ever see it again. And I
was very disappointed because I was going off of what
I expected from the caliber of the first movie. So
that's just my honest thoughts on this movie. It sucks
because I wanted.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
It to be good. Like if I got a call,
a black phone call, black phone call, and I'd say
number two, okay, number two, someone's black phone two.

Speaker 2 (57:11):
I was like, is the dead spirit going number two? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (57:14):
He talks on the pod number two. Correct. I don't
want to end this on potty humor.

Speaker 2 (57:18):
Okay, well, so why don't we end this by wishing
everyone of Mary This huming weekend is Halloween, and we
hope everyone has an amazing, wonderful, spooky, crazy, happy Halloween.
And again, thank you for all of your support. For
people who have been watching us or listening to us

(57:40):
for years, to people who just started tuning in, thank
you so much. We really appreciate you and your support.
And there's tons more happy our time to come.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
What He's that exactly? Thanks everyone? Bye, Thanks for listening
to another episode of Happy Horror Time.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
If you'd like to support the podcast, please sign up
to be a patron at www dot patreon dot com
slash Happy Horror Time. As a patron, you get access
to all our bonus content, which now includes two new
bonus episodes every month, a monthly after show mini episode,
access to our Discord community so you can chat with

(58:22):
us directly, and the chance to review a film with
us in one of our bonus episodes.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
Patrons also get all our regular episodes ad free and
a day early our monthly newsletter, the chance to vote
in polls, and autographed Happy Horror Time stickers. I'm Matt
Emmerts and I'm Tim Murdoch

Speaker 2 (58:40):
And we hope you have a Happy Horror Time