Director Scott Derrickson says Black Phone 2 takes a deeper look at the psychological aftermath of horror and revisits its young protagonist who survived a sadistic killer.

The sequel to Ethan Hawke-starrer 2021 hit is slated to release in Indian theatres on October 31, distributed by Warner Bros. Discovery. The film was earlier scheduled for an October 17 release.

Ethan Hawke returns as The Grabber in the new film, which takes place four years after Finn’s escape. Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw reprise their roles as Finn and his sister Gwen.

“It is 1982 when we pick up our main characters from Black Phone and immediately see who Finn has become in the wake of the events of the first movie,” Derrickson said in a statement, explaining his approach to the sequel.

“You know, it's very easy when you're doing a horror sequel to have your character be relatively the same after having vanquished the villain in the previous film, but I really wanted to be realistic about it. I thought if you were 13 years old and you've been kidnapped by a sadist child killer and held in a basement for a prolonged period of time, it would do a lot of psychological damage to you,” he added.

The filmmaker added that the film explores how Finn continues to grapple with the trauma from his past. “This way, Black Phone 2 is about that fear he has not been able to accept or process well, turning it to anger,” Derrickson said. “Now he has certain ideas about being fearless and fighting back the way he learned from his friend Robin in the first movie, which gets sort of deconstructed as he goes along.”

Derrickson said the sequel also places greater emphasis on Gwen’s character. “I almost feel like this movie is probably more her film than Finn's. I certainly wrote it with that intention,” he said.

“She is a 15-year-old high school girl who feels awkward about who she is and her freakishness and strangeness... suddenly thrust into the fantastical reality of her dreams, with these incredible things that are happening in them, convinced they are a communication from her dead mother,” the filmmaker added.

The director described the film’s setup as a mystery leading to a chilling reunion with The Grabber. “That's the setup for this story, where these siblings are being led to a winter camp through the clues of the dead children that historically were killed there. But, when they arrive, it all ties back to the Grabber. Then horror ensues…” he signed off.