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Debuting as the revived master of horror machine was persistently generating film versions, without concern for excellence, the first installment felt like a lazy fanboy tribute. Featuring a 1970s small town setting, young performers, psychic kids and twisted community predator, it was close to pastiche and, similar to the poorest King’s stories, it was also awkwardly crowded.

Curiously the call came from within the household, as it was based on a short story from his descendant, stretched into a film that was a shocking commercial success. It was the story of the Grabber, a cruel slayer of young boys who would enjoy extending the process of killing. While sexual abuse was not referenced, there was something clearly non-heteronormative about the villain and the historical touchpoints/moral panics he was intended to symbolize, emphasized by the actor acting with a noticeably camp style. But the film was too opaque to ever really admit that and even excluding that discomfort, it was too busily plotted and too focused on its wearisome vileness to work as anything beyond an undiscerning sleepover nightmare fuel.

Follow-up Film's Debut During Studio Struggles

The follow-up debuts as previous scary movie successes Blumhouse are in desperate need of a win. This year they’ve struggled to make any project successful, from their werewolf film to the suspense story to the adventure movie to the complete commercial failure of the AI sequel, and so a great deal rides on whether the sequel can prove whether a brief narrative can become a movie that can generate multiple installments. However, there's an issue …

Ghostly Evolution

The first film ended with our protagonist Finn (the young actor) defeating the antagonist, helped and guided by the spirits of previous victims. This situation has required filmmaker Derrickson and his writing partner Cargill to take the series and its antagonist toward fresh territory, turning a flesh and blood villain into a paranormal entity, a route that takes them by way of Freddy's domain with an ability to cross back into reality enabled through nightmares. But in contrast to the dream killer, the villain is noticeably uncreative and entirely devoid of humour. The facial covering continues to be successfully disturbing but the film struggles to make him as scary as he temporarily seemed in the initial film, constrained by complex and typically puzzling guidelines.

Mountain Retreat Location

The main character and his annoyingly foul-mouthed sister Gwen (the performer) encounter him again while snowed in at a mountain religious retreat for kids, the sequel also nodding regarding the hockey mask killer Jason Voorhees. Gwen is guided there by a ghostly image of her dead mother and what might be their late tormenter’s first victims while the brother, still attempting to process his anger and newfound ability to fight back, is pursuing to safeguard her. The script is overly clumsy in its artificial setup, awkwardly requiring to get the siblings stranded at a setting that will further contribute to histories of hero and villain, providing information we didn’t really need or care to learn about. Additionally seeming like a more deliberate action to guide the production in the direction of the same church-attending crowds that transformed the Conjuring movies into major blockbusters, the filmmaker incorporates a religious element, with good now more closely associated with the divine and paradise while villainy signifies the demonic and punishment, faith the ultimate weapon against this type of antagonist.

Overcomplicated Story

The result of these decisions is further over-stack a story that was formerly almost failing, incorporating needless complexities to what ought to be a basic scary film. Frequently I discovered overly occupied with inquiries about the processes and motivations of what could or couldn’t happen to feel all that involved. It's an undemanding role for the performer, whose visage remains hidden but he possesses real screen magnetism that’s typically lacking in other aspects in the ensemble. The location is at times atmospherically grand but most of the consistently un-scary set-pieces are marred by a gritty film stock appearance to distinguish dreaming from waking, an poor directorial selection that seems excessively meta and designed to reflect the frightening randomness of experiencing a real bad dream.

Unpersuasive Series Justification

At just under 2 hours, Black Phone 2, similar to its predecessor, is a needlessly long and hugely unconvincing justification for the establishment of a new franchise. The next time it rings, I advise letting it go to voicemail.

• The sequel debuts in Australian cinemas on 16 October and in the United States and United Kingdom on October 17