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Debuting as the re-activated Stephen King machine was still churning out adaptations, regardless of quality, the first installment felt like a uninspired homage. Featuring a 1970s small town setting, teenage actors, gifted youths and disturbing local antagonist, it was nearly parody and, like the very worst of his literary works, it was also awkwardly crowded.

Funnily enough the inspiration originated from within the household, as it was adapted from a brief tale from King’s son Joe Hill, stretched into a film that was a surprise $161m hit. It was the narrative about the kidnapper, a cruel slayer of young boys who would enjoy extending the process of killing. While assault was never mentioned, there was something unmistakably LGBTQ-suggestive about the villain and the historical touchpoints/moral panics he was clearly supposed to refer to, strengthened by the performer 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 too high on its wearisome vileness to work as only an unthinking horror entertainment.

Second Installment's Release During Studio Struggles

The follow-up debuts as previous scary movie successes the production company are in urgent requirement for success. Lately they've encountered difficulties to make any project successful, from the monster movie to the suspense story to the adventure movie to the total box office disaster of the robotic follow-up, and so much depends on whether the continuation can prove whether a short story can become a movie that can create a series. However, there's an issue …

Paranormal Shift

The first film ended with our surviving character Finn (Mason Thames) killing the Grabber, assisted and trained by the ghosts of those he had killed before. This situation has required director Scott Derrickson and his writing partner Cargill to take the series and its antagonist toward fresh territory, transforming a human antagonist into a ghostly presence, a path that leads them by way of Freddy's domain with a capability to return into reality enabled through nightmares. But in contrast to the dream killer, the Grabber is clearly unimaginative and completely lacking comedy. The mask remains successfully disturbing but the movie has difficulty to make him as terrifying as he briefly was in the first, constrained by convoluted and often confusing rules.

Alpine Christian Camp Setting

The protagonist and his frustratingly crude sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) encounter him again while stranded due to weather at a high-altitude faith-based facility for kids, the second film also acknowledging toward Freddy’s one-time nemesis the camp slasher. Gwen is guided there by a vision of her late mother and what might be their deceased villain's initial casualties while the protagonist, continuing to deal with his rage and recently discovered defensive skills, is pursuing to safeguard her. The script is excessively awkward in its forced establishment, inelegantly demanding to maroon the main characters at a setting that will further contribute to background information for protagonist and antagonist, filling in details we didn't actually require or want to know about. Additionally seeming like a more strategic decision to edge the film toward the same church-attending crowds that turned the Conjuring franchise into huge successes, the filmmaker incorporates a faith-based component, with virtue now more directly linked with the divine and paradise while villainy signifies Satan and damnation, belief the supreme tool against this type of antagonist.

Overloaded Plot

What all of this does is further over-stack a series that was already almost failing, adding unnecessary complications to what could have been a straightforward horror movie. Frequently I discovered too busy asking questions about the hows and whys of possible and impossible events to feel all that involved. It's an undemanding role for the performer, whose features stay concealed but he possesses genuine presence 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 damaged by a rough cinematic quality to distinguish dreaming from waking, an ineffective stylistic choice that appears overly conscious and created to imitate the frightening randomness of living through a genuine night terror.

Unpersuasive Series Justification

At just under 2 hours, Black Phone 2, like M3gan 2.0 before it, is a excessively extended and hugely unconvincing justification for the establishment of an additional film universe. If another installment comes, I suggest ignoring it.

• Black Phone 2 releases in Australian theaters on 16 October and in America and Britain on 17 October