SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Black Phone 2. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk!
In Black Phone 2, Mason Thames’ Finney Blake is reintroduced to audiences carrying a lot of baggage. As a kid, he was able to survive the terror of Ethan Hawke’s The Grabber (a.k.a. the events of The Black Phone), but rather than coming away from the incident feeling like a hero, he is traumatized and is filled with anger, fear and sadness that he doesn’t know how to handle. Because of this, there is a whole lot of catharsis at the end of the sequel when the protagonist gets to confront his tormenter again… but it wasn’t just Finney who was getting a big emotional release from the moment, as the scene in the new horror movie apparently allowed the actor to release some real rage as well.
With Black Phone 2 now available in digital release, I had the opportunity to interview Mason Thames last week and talk about his experience making the movie, and one specific sequence I asked about was the final fight between Finney and The Grabber. The young hero demonstrates a hell of a lot of passion when he takes a handful of the killer’s hair and repeatedly smashes his face into the frozen lake they are standing on, and Thames spelled out how the moment was practically shot:
For those who aren’t familiar, rage rooms are places where people can go and vent any anger/stress they feel by smashing and/or throwing objects with their hands and/or tools. But while your average rage room includes destroyable items like flatware, old appliances and furniture, Mason Thames was given the chance to bash a realistic dummy.
He apparently got a lot out of it… and more than some folks on the crew were expecting. Continuing, the actor added that his rage actually inspired one of Black Phone 2’s producers to do a quick check in with his mother – who was on set and watching his performance. He added,
Mason Thames Recalls Filming A Black Phone 2 Scene So Intense It Made A Producer Ask His Mom If He Was ‘OK’
