At a glance
| Director | Scott Derrickson |
| Release year | 2025 |
| Runtime | 114 minutes |
| Genre | Supernatural horror |
| Starring | Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Ethan Hawke, Demián Bichir, Jeremy Davies |
Plot
Finney Blake survived the Grabber. The sequel does not pretend that closed the story. Finney and his sister Gwen, with their friend Ernesto, go to a winter youth camp, Alpine Lake, because Gwen’s dreams are pointing at the Grabber’s earlier victims. The camp is shut for the season. The phones still ring. The Grabber is dead, and the film treats that as a change of state, not an exit.
Armando runs the camp. The mystery is what happened there before Finney was taken. Gwen’s visions, which drove the first film’s rescue, are the map. The Grabber, played again by Ethan Hawke, is no longer a man in a basement. The film is about the first victims, and about a brother and sister who cannot leave the case in 1978.
Production
Scott Derrickson directed and co-wrote it with C. Robert Cargill, the same pair as The Black Phone (2021), which adapted Joe Hill’s short story. Blumhouse produced it. Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw return as Finney and Gwen. Jeremy Davies returns as their father. Ethan Hawke returns as the Grabber. Demián Bichir joins as Armando. Photography started in November 2024. The film premiered at Fantastic Fest on September 20, 2025, and opened in the United States on October 17. The budget was about $30 million. The worldwide gross was about $133 million.
Derrickson has said he would only make a third film if it were better than the first two. The score is by Atticus Derrickson. The first film’s basement and the black phone are the icons. This one moves the haunting to a camp and to snow, and keeps the mask. Hill is credited on the source story and as an executive producer.
Cast
- Mason Thames as Finney Blake
- Madeleine McGraw as Gwen Blake
- Ethan Hawke as the Grabber
- Demián Bichir as Armando
- Jeremy Davies as Terrence Blake
- Miguel Mora as Ernesto
Trivia
- The Grabber died in the first film. Hawke still plays him.
- Miguel Mora returns, as a different character than the one he played in the original.
- Derrickson and Cargill also made Sinister. The missing-child dread is the overlap.
- The camp is called Alpine Lake. The season is winter, not the first film’s suburb.
- Joe Hill wrote the short story the first film adapted. The sequel is an original continuation.
- Runtime is 114 minutes. It opened October 17, 2025.
Related on this site
Trailer
Go Behind the Screams
Universal’s official featurette on bringing Ethan Hawke’s Grabber back from the dead for the sequel.