Black Phone 2 And What’s Making Us Happy
Pop Culture Happy Hour
NPR
4.5 • 11.6K Ratings
🗓️ 17 October 2025
⏱️ 19 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life. |
| 0:05.0 | Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors. |
| 0:09.5 | On our new show, Sources and Methods. |
| 0:11.5 | NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people, |
| 0:15.3 | helping you understand why distant events matter here at home. |
| 0:18.8 | Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:28.5 | Grabber's going to grab, even from beyond the grave. |
| 0:31.7 | That's what Black Phone 2 is all about. |
| 0:33.8 | In the original, Ethan Hawk played a child of doctor slash serial killer who hid behind |
| 0:39.0 | a demonic mask. It's four years later, and the one kid who survived the grabber's killing spree |
| 0:44.7 | is having a hard time of things. To say nothing of his psychic little sister whose dreams are |
| 0:49.0 | literally haunted by the killer. I'm Glenn Weldon, and today we're talking about Black Phone 2 |
| 0:53.9 | on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. Joining me today is Jordan Cruciola. She's a writer and producer and the host of the podcast Feeling Scene on Maximum Fun. Welcome back, Jordan. Hello, thank you so much for having me at this reunion special. Exactly, because this is the OG crew. We reviewed the first one. Also with us is Kristen Mineser. She co-host the nightly on Hatch Plus. Hey, Kristen. Hey, great to be back with you, too. Great to be back. Let's start it up again. In Blackphone 2, it's 1982. Four years have passed since Finn, played by Mason Thames, escaped the grabber's basement by killing him. |
| 1:28.0 | Finn's in high school now and struggling because trauma. |
| 1:31.6 | His little sister Gwen, whose psychic visions help the cops find Finn, is being tortured |
| 1:36.3 | by Dreams of the Grabber murdering boys at a remote Christian camp. |
| 1:40.1 | Gwen is once again played by Madeline McGraw. |
| 1:43.0 | Together, because this is a horror movie and it's the kind of decision people only make in horror movies, |
| 1:48.8 | Finn and Gwen decide to visit the camp in question in the middle of a blizzard. |
| 1:54.1 | If you're asking how Ethan Hawks Grabber can come back for the sequel, |
| 1:58.1 | given that the character is dead, you really need to see more horror movies. |
| 2:02.1 | Black Phone 2 is written and directed by the same folks behind the original. |
... |
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