Did you know there is a whole weird Snow Horror subgenre? The most popular films are The Shining, The Thing, Dreamcatcher, Misery, Whiteout, and 30 Days of Night (half of these were written by Stephen King). All these stories have a common theme of survival and isolation.

Black Phone 2 (2025)

Black Phone 2
blumhouse.com

The Blumhouse horror film Black Phone 2 came out in theaters in October for the Halloween season, and quickly found its way to streaming last month. Thanks to the Black Friday deals, I was able to get both Black Phone movies and wanted to comment on how surprisingly good Black Phone 2 is – and I’ll explain why.

The first Black Phone movie, which came out in 2021, was based on a Joe Hill (Stephen King’s son) short story. The movie, like the book, is about a teenage boy abducted by a serial killer The Grabber. The boy is kept in a room, where he talks to the Grabber’s previous victims through a black phone. The ghosts help the boy survives and it was pretty cool, thanks to the satisfying ending where he takes down the Grabber. Of course, it’s obvious to everyone that the phone isn’t even plugged in and hasn’t worked in decades. It’s a simple story that has a definite ending.

Thanks to the success of the first film, they wanted to make a sequel, but there is no second book! So director Scott Derrickson co-wrote a story with C. Robert Cargill, continuing the story four years later. The kidnapped boy from the first film and his sister went to work at a winter youth camp. Unfortunately, there was a massive blizzard that isolated the camp.

They uncover that prior to becoming the Grabber, the serial killer worked at the camp. Half the film is shot on this weird VHS-quality visual to indicate the dream world of the sister and half the film is in real life at the isolated camp.

Look, I know a lot of critics hated this movie, but I had a blast watching it. Part of what made it great was how similar it looked and felt to Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors… and I love watching the two siblings, played by Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw (both were in the first film). The only thing I did not like about this second film is that, because of the title, they have a stupid black phone in the middle of the street overlooking the ice lake. It’s just stupid.

Once again, the original Grabber victims help the siblings take down the Grabber. Yes, that’s right, the Grabber returns as a ghost. Seems weird that he has powers to slash and murder real people. The rules don’t make sense about ghosts and the real world.

Overall, this is a very, very different movie, compared to the first film, in both in tone and style. I was expecting the same type or rehashing of the first movie, so I was surprised at the new direction – and I love it! I want to see more adventures of the Blake siblings in another movie. I think perhaps, they can distant themselves from the Black Phone gimmick and just tell good stories about how the Blakes solve crime with the help of the ghosts of the victims… righting wrongs. If you must have a Black Phone in the story, maybe make it a portable rotary black phone in a suitcase.

Dead of Winter (2025)

Dead of Winter
vert-ent.com

I’m still getting used to the warm climate of Florida (it’s about 70°F during the winter). I definitely do not miss the unforgivable winter of Minnesota. I know what cold is like, so I feel like Dead of Winter, a semi-new crime/thriller film from Irish director Brian Kirk (who did directed some Game of Thrones episodes), doesn’t really capture the bleakness of Winter in Minnesota. The story is written by Nicholas Jacobson-Larson, from Los Angeles, so what does he know about Northern Minnesota?

For example, everyone seemed really under-dress for this weather. People are dressed in sweaters (no heavy coats) and a hat, it just doesn’t seem realistic, for what I’m assuming to be below zero degrees. I guess they filmed the whole thing in Finland, which looks very calm for a country deep in snow.

The story is somewhat unbelievable too. An old woman (grandmother-age from the looks of it) drives up to northern Minnesota, in the middle of nowhere to go ice fishing, in the winter. I guess the backstory is that she and her husband used to go ice fishing in the area. But he passed away, so now she goes ice fishing in his memory.

The old woman witnesses a kidnapping, and determined to rescue the victim from this couple – a man and a woman. She set up a trap for them, and the guy literally fell for it. The rest of the film, the old woman struggles in a cat and mouse game. Throughout the film, you see flashback of her past with her boyfriend/husband… and you found why she has to go ice fishing at this certain lake.

I don’t know what it is, but maybe the film was heavily influenced by Fargo. Everyone in this film has heavy Minnesotan accents, donchaknow? Plus, the criminals are just kooky and bumbling. They’re not exactly the most competition criminals… and again, seems like it was inspired by Fargo.

If you go into the film with the Fargo mentality, you’ll have a good time… although it was a pretty boring movie, in my opinion. If you’re looking for a realistic depiction, good action, or even horror (based on the ‘Dead’ title), you’ll be disappointed.