Why is “Black Phone 2” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “strong violent content, gore, teen drug use, and language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a kissing scene between teens, a couple of flirting scenes, many scenes of children and teens being chased and murdered by a serial killer using an axe and a knife with bloody wounds and dismemberments shown, a woman hanged, teens suffering trauma, discussions of suicide, a teen using marijuana, a man recovering from alcoholism, several arguments, and at least 11 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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The teen boy (Mason Thames) that survived the first installment fighting “The Grabber” (Ethan Hawke) continues to struggle with fear and anger, when his younger sister (Madeleine McGraw) starts having dreams that lead her to an isolated children’s camp for answers to disturbing truths. Also with Jeremy Davies, Arianna Rivas, Miguel Mora, Demián Bichir, Anna Lore, Simon Webster, Jacob Moran, Maev Beaty and Shepherd Munroe. Directed by Scott Derrickson. [Running Time: 1:54]

Black Phone 2 SEX/NUDITY 2

 – A teen boy and a teen girl kiss tenderly. A teen girl lies in bed with a teen boy and he puts his hand on her shoulder (they are both clothed) and they talk about her nightmares.
► A man says of a teen boy, “I don’t like the way he looks at her,” referring to his teen daughter and his teen son quickly joins them to keep an eye on her. A man asks his teen son what he thinks about a teen girl and says that he thinks she is pretty nice, and the teen boy dismisses him. A teen boy asks a teen girl to go on a date to a concert with him and she accepts.
► A man is seen shirtless and we see his bare back, shoulders and partial abdomen.

Black Phone 2 VIOLENCE/GORE 8

 – We see a woman hanging by the neck and a teen girl sees her and a man struggling to help the woman down. A young boy is chased by a man carrying an axe and the child is hacked with the axe (we see bloody gashes as he is struck). We see a teen boy being burned, and his body is seen in flames as he screams (we later see a smoldering body on the ground). A man is struck in the side by a man with an axe and dragged around on a frozen lake (we see blood smear on the ice and the man yells); a woman’s face is slammed onto the ice (we see her very bloody face) and they are both slashed on the forehead (blood trickles down their faces). A man is struck in the head with an axe and we see blood gushing; a teen boy slams the man’s head against the ice several times and we see more blood and a teen cuts the man’s foot off using an axe (we see the bloody stump) and he is pushed into a frozen lake where three bodies cling to him and pull him under the surface as the water freezes solid. Two boys move toward a teen girl and a teen boy tries to reach her from outside a window; he crashes through the window and his head is cut in half (we see the pieces slide apart and blood and matter) and the girl screams.
► A teen girl hears noises coming from under a bed and she looks under it; the body of a boy with blood on his face comes out from under the bed. A teen girl is thrashed in real life and we see the action in her nightmare; she is thrown into a bunk bed, slammed into a wall, spins in the air near flaming ovens and a teen boy tries to help her; a woman is struck in the face with a thrown frying pan, and the teen is held on the floor by a man that holds an axe over her (we see a bloody gash open on her arm). A teen girl is chased by a man with an axe, he slashes her arm and we see blood gush from the wound. A teen girl is thrashed around and spins around in a phone booth splattering blood inside it. A phone booth blows up and throws a man. A teen boy is wrapped around the throat with a belt and pulled onto a frozen lake; he struggles to breathe and kicks his attacker off him (we see the attacker’s bloody jaw and teeth). A teen girl sees a boy trapped under a frozen lake and carving letters on the ice; we see his head split open.
► We see a boy’s decaying body under ice on a frozen lake and a man pounds on the ice to reach the body, as someone else pounds on the ice to break it and causes the man to fall in; something holds the man under the surface as he struggles (we see it is the other man pushing him down by his foot). Three barrels are pulled out of a frozen lake and we see the skeletal remains of three children inside them.
► A teen girl chases a teen boy (in a nightmare) through a forest and finds his blood-soaked coat on the ground; she sees an axe hit a tree stump and blood gushes from the tree onto the snow. Many nightmare sequences are shown with three boys being chased through dark and snowy woods before being killed by a man carrying an axe (we see bloody wounds on their faces and one child’s head appears to be cut in half). A teen girl wakes up (seemingly sleepwalking) numerous times to a phone ringing and follows the sound to answer it. A teen boy answers a ringing phone (we are told it is out of service) and we hear a deep voice addressing him by name. A teen girl wakes up from a nightmare with a burned handprint on her arm after someone in the nightmare touched her arm (we hear a sizzle and see the marks). A boy’s voice says that it is cold and dark where he and two others are and pleads for people to find them. A teen boy talks on the phone with a man with a deep voice as the man moves outside the phone booth (he is wearing a mask with horns and large teeth); the man says, “I want to hurt you,” and threatens to hurt those that the teen cares about. Two teen boys fight in a schoolyard; one throws the other to the ground and punches him several times in the face (we see his very bloody nose and face).
► A teen girl is awakened from nightmares several times and she screams and cries saying that she feels “crazy.” A teen girl says that she feels like she is cursed. A teen boy sees a person wearing a demon mask with horns and large sharp teeth standing in the brush in the distance and says, “If you try to touch me I’ll scratch your face.” A teen boy talks about a teen girl dreaming about where a person’s body was. A woman is alarmed by the obscene language used by a teen girl and boy. A teen girl says that something drove her mother crazy and that she killed herself. Two teens and their father argue a few times. A man with an axe in his head and blood on his face tells a teen girl, “You shouldn’t be here” (she seems to be dreaming and sleepwalking).
► We see a blizzard moving through a mountainous area and hear news reports of the storm and that two people had died. A car skids on ice during a snowstorm and a car passes emergency vehicles at the scene of a crash (we do not see injuries). A teen boy runs through snow on a road in front of a car to lead it safely to a camp entrance.
► A teen boy asks his father not to get drunk while he is gone and the man says that he is about to get his 3-year pin. A man says that tattoos he has are from the time he spent in prison. A teen girl is reprimanded for sleeping in the boys’ cabin at a camp. A teen girl and a woman quote scripture and are dismissive toward each other; the woman says, “Think on things that are lovely,” and the teen girl says, “Think on things that are truthful.”
► We see blood dripping in snow during the opening credits sequence. A teen girl is seen several times in a phone booth in an isolated snowy setting and she tells another teen on another telephone that she sees numbers being etched in ice in a dream. Several teen girls tease and laugh at another teen girl. A teen boy spits on the floor and leaves (we do not see goo)

Black Phone 2 LANGUAGE 6

 – About 11 F-words, 1 sexual reference, 4 scatological terms, 8 anatomical terms, 10 mild obscenities, name-calling (witch, woo-woo, weird, the grabber, stubborn, demon child, yellow bellied, dinosaur [anatomical term deleted], sanctimonious [anatomical term deleted], creepy, grievous festering [anatomical term deleted] wound, possessed, rotting [scatological term deleted], freak), exclamations (so choice, filthy mouth, shut-up, spitballing), 1 religious profanity (GD), 17 religious exclamations (e.g. Jesus, oh God, oh my God, religion stuff, Lord in Heaven, Holy [scatological tem deleted], thank God, a teen boy says that his mother would love it if he dated a girl who prays, a woman and a teen girl quote scripture during an argument, a woman tells a teen girl that she has the devil in her). | profanity glossary |

Black Phone 2 SUBSTANCE USE

 – A teen boy goes outside his house to smoke marijuana in several scenes, a teen boy smokes marijuana in a car and outside a camp cabin.

Black Phone 2 DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Torture, murder, fear, alcohol and drug abuse, death of a parent, suicide, anger, Christian behavior, ghosts, spirits, being cursed, serial killers, abandoning hope.

Black Phone 2 MESSAGE

 – Follow the truth to get the answers you need.