trauma

It’s clear from the existence and execution of “Black Phone 2” that Universal and Blumhouse never expected 2021’s “The Black Phone” to be a hit. If there was ever an inkling that the first film might have been more than a quick and dirty ’70s-style riff on a boogeyman tale, there’s no way those in charge would have let their big baddie, the Grabber, be killed off at the end of the movie.

But a hit it was and so, for a sequel, supernatural elements must be spun out and ’80s slasher classics consulted, especially since it’s now four years later, in 1982. Masked serial killer the Grabber, played by Ethan Hawke (we never really see his face, though we do hear his voice), continues to haunt, torment and maim children, despite the inconvenience of death.

Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill co-wrote both films, with Derrickson behind the camera as director. The first was based on a short story by Joe Hill (the son of Stephen King) and is set in 1978 Denver, where plucky Finney Blake (Mason Thames) had to escape the clutches of kidnapper the Grabber while fielding phone calls from the ghosts of his previous victims, offering tips and tricks. What distinguished “The Black Phone” was its shocking approach to violence with its young characters, who all sported entertainingly profane potty mouths. While it was daring in its hard-R riskiness and played on our basest fears, it didn’t reinvent the wheel, or even try to. However, the film’s phone conceit played well enough and young star Thames was outstanding.

In “Black Phone 2,” Finney’s now a high school student, drowning his trauma in weed and schoolyard fights, sometimes the bully himself. He’s protective of his sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), who has the gift of psychic sight, but mostly he just wants to check out from his own brain. The sequel is primarily Gwen’s movie. She starts lucid dreaming and sleepwalking, receiving phone calls from beyond — like from their dead mother when she was a teenager beyond.

The messages bring Gwen, Finney and her crush, Ernesto (Miguel Mora), to a winter retreat for Christian youth, Camp Alpine, now run by Mando (Demián Bichir) and his niece, Mustang (Arianna Rivas). As it turns out, this camp is rife with the ghosts of young dead boys — the phone keeps ringing and it won’t stop until Finney picks it up.

If “The Black Phone” dabbles in crimes that are taboo and is even unforgivable in its depiction of brutality against innocent children, “Black Phone 2” commits its own unforgivable crime of being dreadfully boring. This movie is a snooze, not just because all of the action takes place entirely during Gwen’s dreams.

The film can’t shake its lingering scent of “Stranger Things,” but the filmmakers have also turned for inspiration to another iconic ’80s-set property: The whole movie is a “Nightmare on Elm Street” ripoff, with a disfigured killer stalking his prey through their subconscious. Those sequences are fine, action-packed if not entirely scary, but at least it’s something more rousing than the awake scenes, where the characters stand in one place and make speeches to each other about their trauma and backstories. The entire affair is monotonously one-note and dour, with only a few pops of unintentional humor.

You realize almost immediately what the deal is with these ghost boys, but the film takes its sweet time explaining it all. It’s a fairly simple story, so you do understand why Derrickson gussies it up with grainy dream sequences and shaky 8mm flashbacks, and a pretty terrific electronic score composed by his son, Atticus Derrickson.

It’s also a bit surprising that “Black Phone 2” turns out to be so pious and deeply Christian, which is a bit of an odd mix. For a film about Jesus and the power of prayer, it also features a scene in which a kid’s face gets sliced in half by a windowpane. Then again, horror’s trend toward the faith-based isn’t a surprise when you take a look at the success of the Bible-thumping “Conjuring” franchise.

However, it seems like this might be the Grabber’s last hurrah. You’ll root for the characters to vanquish him only because then the drudgery might finally end. Who knows, maybe it’ll be a hit and they’ll figure out another way to reanimate this utterly uninspiring horror villain. Personally, I’ve had my fill of the Grabber’s grabbing.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

OREM, Utah — One student holed up in his house for two days after witnessing Charlie Kirk’s shooting, nervous about going back to the Utah college campus where the conservative activist was killed. Another, unable to sleep or shake what she saw and heard, called her dad to come take her home.

As investigators spend the weekend digging deeper into suspect Tyler James Robinson, 22, ahead of his initial court appearance Tuesday, students who witnessed Wednesday’s shooting at Utah Valley University are reckoning with trauma, grief and the pall the killing has cast on their community.

Robinson’s arrest late Thursday calmed some fears. Still, questions persist about the suspect’s motive and planning, as well as security lapses that allowed a man with a rifle to shoot Kirk from a rooftop before fleeing.

The university has said there will be increased security when classes resume Sept. 17.

In Robinson’s hometown, about 240 miles southwest of campus, a law enforcement presence was significantly diminished Saturday after the FBI executed a search warrant at his family’s home. A gray Dodge Challenger that authorities say Robinson drove to the university appeared to have been hauled away.

No one answered the door at the home in Washington, Utah, and the blinds were closed.

The killing has prompted pleas for civility in American political discourse, but those calls have not always been heeded. Meanwhile, there has been a backlash against journalists and others for some comments and questions in the wake of Kirk’s death. Some have been suspended or fired.

On Friday, Office Depot said it fired a worker at a Michigan store who was seen on video refusing to print fliers for a Kirk vigil and calling them “propaganda.” On Thursday, a conservative internet personality filmed a video outside Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker’s home, urging viewers to “take action” after Kirk’s assassination. Pritzker’s security has been stepped up.

At a makeshift memorial near Utah Valley University’s main entrance in Orem, people have been leaving flowers. Cars looped nearby streets Saturday, honking horns, flying American flags and displaying messages such as “We love you Charlie,” “Charlie 4 Ever” and “RIP Charlie.”

In the area where the Turning Point USA co-founder was shot, a crew has begun taking down tents and banners and scrubbing away reminders of the killing.

Memorial brings stunned students together

Student Alec Vera stopped at the memorial after finally leaving his house Friday night for a drive to clear his head. Vera said he had been in a daze, unable to concentrate and avoiding people, since watching Kirk collapse about 30 or 40 feet in front of him.

“I just kind of felt the need to come here, to be with everyone, either to comfort or to be comforted, just to kind of surround myself with those that are also mourning,” Vera said.

One woman knelt, sobbing. Others stood quietly or spoke softly with friends. On the campus’ perimeter, trees were wrapped in red ribbons.

Several cars remained stranded in parking lots by students who left behind keys while fleeing the shooting. One student pleaded with an officer to let him retrieve his bike from beyond the police tape, smiling as the officer let him through. The university said people can pick up their belongings early this week.

Anxious about returning to campus

Student Marjorie Holt started crying when she brought flowers to campus Thursday, prompting her to change her mind about returning to campus this weekend.

Hours after the shooting, the 18-year-old said, she lay in bed, haunted by the horror she witnessed: the sound of a single gunshot as Kirk answered a question and then, “I saw him fall over, I saw the blood, but for some reason it couldn’t click to me what happened.”

Unable to sleep because of a pounding headache, nausea and the day’s trauma, she called her dad, who brought her home to Salt Lake City, about 40 miles to the north.

Returning to campus, Holt said, is “going to feel like a terrible — like a burden on my heart.”

Vera said the area where Kirk was shot is the campus’ main gathering spot — where students take naps, meditate, do homework and hang out.

“Seeing it when I go back, I will be pretty uncomfortable at first, knowing I have to walk past it each time, knowing what had just occurred here,” Vera said.

A ‘weird heaviness’

Student Alexis Narciso said he has flashbacks when he hears a bang, a honking horn or other loud noise. He was about 10 feet away.

“I just feel numb. I don’t feel anything,” Narciso said. “I want to cry, but at the same time I don’t.”

Jessa Packard, a single mother of two who lives nearby, said even with a suspect in custody, her feeling of unease hasn’t lifted. Packard’s home security system captured video of the Challenger that police say Robinson drove to campus. After the shooting, she said, law enforcement officers descended on her neighborhood, searching yards and taking security video.

“There’s this really weird heaviness and I think, honestly, a lot of fear for me personally that hasn’t gone away,” Packard said. “The fact that there was like this murderer in my neighborhood, not knowing where he is but knowing he’s been through there, coursing things out, is a really eerie feeling.”

Searching for closure from one campus to another

Halle Hanchett, 19, a student at nearby Brigham Young University in Provo, said she had just pulled her phone out to start filming Kirk when she heard the gunshot followed by a collective gasp. Hanchett said she saw blood, Kirk’s security team jump forward and horror on the faces around her. She dropped to the ground in the fetal position, wondering: “What is going on? Am I going to die?”

On Friday, she brought flowers and quietly gazed at the place where the kickoff to Kirk’s planned tour of American college campuses ended in violence.

“The last few days I’ve just, haven’t really said much. I just kind of like zone out, stare off,” Hanchett said, standing with her fiance as water fountains bubbled nearby. “The memory, it just replays.”

She’s praying for the strength to move forward, she said, “and take it as: ‘OK, I was here for this. How can I learn from this? And how can I help other people learn from this?’”

Suspect’s neighbor searches for answers

In Robinson’s hometown in southwestern Utah, neighbor Kris Schwiermann recalled him as a shy, studious and “very respectful” student who loved to read. Schwiermann, 66, was head custodian at the elementary school that Robinson and his siblings attended.

She said she was stunned by the news of his arrest, describing the Robinsons as a “very tight-knit family.”

Like the Robinsons, Schwiermann is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She said that they belonged to the same congregation but that the family hadn’t been active in the church in several years.

“I want to make sure that people know that we don’t have any ill feelings towards their family or him,” Schwiermann said. “He made the wrong choice.”

Bedayn, Schoenbaum, Wasson and Yamat write for the Associated Press. Bedayn, Schoenbaum and Wasson reported from Orem. Yamat reported from Washington, Utah, and St. George, Utah. AP writers Sejal Govindarao in Phoenix, Nicholas Riccardi in Denver and Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.

EXCLUSIVE: Four members of the Love Is Blind UK season 2 cast have opened up about the ‘trauma’ of reliving their wedding days.

*Warning – this article contains spoilers for Love Is Blind UK season 2.*

Season 2 of Love Is Blind UK has now come to an end, with the explosive reunion episode on Sunday night revealing which marriages have lasted months on from when the cameras stopped rolling.

In the Netflix show’s season 2 finale, we saw three couples tie the knot: Kieran and Megan, Billy and Ashleigh and Kal and Sarover.

Meanwhile, Bardha made the difficult decision to turn down Jed at the altar, and Katisha chose to walk away from her relationship with Javen ahead of their wedding day.

In the reunion, it was revealed that just one couple – Kieran and Megan – have stayed together, while the other two pairs called it quits months after filming had wrapped.

In an exclusive interview, four stars from Love Is Blind UK season 2 sat down to speak about their experience on the Netflix show, including the emotional ordeal of watching their wedding episodes back after their relationships had ended.

Admitting it felt like they were ‘living double the trauma’, Ashleigh began: Can we just talk about when we watched the weddings together? Because that was like…”

“That was horrible,” Katisha confirmed, as Ashleigh continued: “We were all curled up on one bed sobbing. Fetal [position], intertwined, all four of us just sobbing.”

Bardha then expanded: “It was really hard to watch, I think. And we didn’t realise how we were going to react.”

However, she went on to highlight the bond they had formed with one another, adding: “It was just so nice to have each other and support each other through that. Like, I don’t think I could have watched that alone.”

“We cried for each other,” Sarover reflected sadly, adding that they were “holding each other so tight”.

Looking back at their time on the show, Ashleigh elaborated: “This is real lives, this is real human beings.

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“We really got married, we really went through break ups and it’s been difficult, you know, with comments as well.

“You have to cancel that outside noise because we’ve been on a journey for a year where we’ve not been able to talk about it. So, we’re actually living double the trauma now.”

Sarover concluded: “It’s really bittersweet to watch it back because I really feel like we were all so in love during the filming and it’s bittersweet memories because of what happens later. It’s a tough watch.”

Meanwhile, Kieran and Megan were all smiles as they confirmed their marriage was still “all smooth sailing”.

They are the third lasting marriage to come out of Love Is Blind UK, as season 1 also saw Nicole and Benaiah and Bobby and Jasmine tie the knot, while former married pair Steven and Sabrina have also sadly parted ways.

Love Is Blind UK season 2 is available to stream now, exclusively on Netflix.

In this episode of Centre Stage, our guest is Dr Gabor Mate, a retired physician, author and Holocaust survivor who has written extensively on trauma and child development, as well as Israel and Palestine.

Mate talks about the colonial foundations of Zionism, how living under it has traumatised Palestinians and the ways mainstream media distorts the realities on the ground in Gaza.

Phil Lavelle is a TV news correspondent at Al Jazeera.