October 18, 2025
The original film recounts a series of kidnappings and murders of young boys perpetrated by a mysterious masked man dubbed "The Grabber" in North Denver, Colorado in 1978. Finney Blake (Mason Thames) was abducted by The Grabber and locked in a basement room. He had a sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) who manifested psychic abilities in her dreams. With the help of the spirits of previous victims, Finney was eventually able to kill The Grabber.
This sequel happens four years after the events of the first film. Finney was fighting back his bullies at school, while drowning out the trauma of his abduction by smoking weed at night. Gwen was having more vivid dreams in her sleep, where dead children were reaching out and asking her to find them. Ernesto (Miguel Mora), brother of Finney's best friend and Grabber victim Robin, asked Gwen for a date to a Duran Duran concert.
After that emotional set-up, the more scary things happen when Finney, Gwen and Ernie were stranded at the Alpine Lake Camp by a blizzard. There were only four people left behind there -- camp supervisor Armando (Demian Bichir), his niece Mustang (Arianna Rivas), employee Kenneth (Graham Abbey) and his Bible-thumping wife Barbara (Maev Beaty). Then the ghost of the Grabber (Ethan Hawke) came into the scene to whip up his mayhem.
This was a reunion of the three child actors -- Thames, McGraw and Mora (who played Robin before) from the first movie -- so it was great to see how they have matured in how they look and how they act over the four years since. There was more focus on McGraw in this sequel because it was Gwen who had vivid visions of the missing dead boys. She was also able to talk on the phone with her late mother Hope (Anna Lore) who used to work at the camp.
Totally changing from a true-crime type horror (with limited touches of the paranormal) into an all-out supernatural ghost-story type of horror (with scenes akin to demonic possession) could disappoint fans. The first film was widely-admired for its reality-based tension-building aspects. Since The Grabber was a ghost from the start, we are aware everything in this sequel was automatically supernatural. The flesh and blood threat of the first film trumped that. 5/10
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