On Friday Oct. 17, horror fans gathered at their local theatres to watch the highly anticipated movie “Black Phone 2.” Starring Ethan Hawke as the Grabber and Mason Thames as Finney, this movie was all about revenge–from the antagonist’s point of view, however. In the film, Finney (Thames) and his clairvoyant sister Gwen, who is played by Madeleine McGraw, head up to Alpine Lake Youth Camp due to strange visions she has been having that include their mother who had since passed years ago. Accompanied by Ernesto, Gwen’s love interest and Finney’s friend’s younger brother, they begin to unravel the mystery of the ringing black phone, only to run into the Grabber who is set on getting his deadly revenge on Finney from the grave–even if it means going through his sister, Gwen. 

To find out how the movie ends, it is currently playing in theatres or fans can stream it at home on Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV.

Following the release of “Black Phone 2,” students at Rancho Cucamonga High gave their feedback on what they thought of the horror film. 

“It was good because I like the style, I like how it was filmed, and I like the aesthetic of it,” junior Noah Homstad said. “I think that the story was written really good; it continued well off the first one.”

Freshman Bianca Torres Arce also gave her opinion on the movie. 

“I liked the movie because I liked how it was a lot scarier than the first one and I also liked how the storyline was going,” Torres said.

While some feel that the horror film was scarier than the first one, others disagreed and claimed it had too many predictable jump scares.

“I really liked it because there were a bunch of plot twists,” freshman Tammy Duong said. “The only part that I didn’t like was where you could tell when jump scares were coming or like, you can predict what was coming next, which kind of made it less suspenseful, but besides that, it was really good.”

Freshman Scarlett Supia also agreed it didn’t live up to scary expectations.

“I liked the movie, but I think it could have been a bit better because it wasn’t that scary to me,” Supia said. 

The film Black Phone 2 has proven to be a theatrically phenomenal movie and according to slashfilm.com, “pulled in $15.5 million internationally for a $42.8 million global start.” Although turning into an immediate horror fan favorite for many, it didn’t seem to please everyone.

“No, I didn’t like it. I felt like they were trying to make something out of nothing,” senior Jordin Washington said.

Washington continued to explain why she preferred the first movie.

“I feel like the first had a good concept and the second one was just not like the first one,” Washington said.  

Although both the original “Black Phone” and “Black Phone 2” are known, popular movies, there were differing opinions on which movie outdid the other. 

“I like the first one more, probably because it just builds the story better,” Homstad said. “The first one deals with more darker themes than the second one.”

Freshman Madison Romero agreed, claiming the first movie was “original.” However, many preferred the second to the first.

“I like the second one more because it had a lot of plot twists and it explained a lot of questions I had in the first, and it was a lot scarier,” Torres said.

Freshman Isaac Navarete also described how he preferred “Black Phone 2” over the first. 

“I liked the second one better because the first one was good because it was really interesting, but I just like the second one’s plot and how it turned out,” Navarete said.

While reflecting on their opinions of the movie, RCHS students discussed what their favorite part was. 

“I think the best part of it was when she [Gwen] was having the dreams about the Grabber skating around, I think that was cool and it was scary because it was an unsettling thing,” Homstad said. 

This scene of the movie proved to be very popular among the students. 

“My favorite part of the movie was when they were on the ice rink and the Grabber was chasing them on the ice,” Supia said. 

Duong described her favorite scene, which was different from the others. 

“My favorite part was when the Grabber swung Finn’s sister in a telephone box with the wire,” Duong said. “It was really good, I didn’t expect it at all.”

Overall, the majority agreed they would recommend this movie to other horror fans for a number of reasons.

“I would recommend it to others because it had a little bit of everything; it had a little bit of gore, it had a really good storyline, and it introduced a lot more characters,” Romero said.

Duong also agreed the movie had a lot to feature, claiming there were “wholesome parts” to the movie.

“I definitely would because it wasn’t that very scary, so I’m pretty sure other people could enjoy it even if they’re not, like a big fan of scary movies,” Duong said. “There were wholesome parts and there were funny and scary parts. It was overall really good.”

Homstad also recommends this movie to others because of the originality within the film. 

“Yeah, I would recommend it to other people because I think the concept is really original and there’s not enough of that nowadays,” Homstad said.