2025 · Film & television

Black Phone 2

Name: Black Phone 2
Released: 2025

RoleSenior DMP artist

Year2025

StudioFolks VFX

ProductionUnited States

ServiceDigital matte painting

DirectorScott Derrickson

Released17 October 2025

Runtime114 minutes

CinematographyPär M. Ekberg

DistributorUniversal Pictures

Production companiesBlumhouse Productions, Crooked Highway

Filmed atToronto, Mississauga, and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

VFX vendorsFOLKS, BOT VFX

VFX supervisorIvan Moran

VFX shotsMore than 500 VFX shots

IMDbBlack Phone 2 ↗

SourcesWikipedia · Art of VFX · CGShort

The Folks VFX environment work spanned the winter-camp setting and the ice-lake finale, blending photographed Colorado landscapes with set extensions. Chumak contributed as a senior DMP artist at Folks VFX.

Black Phone 2 is Scott Derrickson's 2025 supernatural horror sequel to The Black Phone, released in October 2025 with Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw. The visual effects were made by Folks VFX (VFX supervisor Phil Prates) and BOT VFX, under production VFX supervisor Ivan Moran. A centrepiece was the frozen-lake finale, built by stitching real Colorado mountains and lake footage to a physical stage set.

Full credit details on IMDb.

How the environments were made

Black Phone 2 relocates its story from suburban streets to a snowbound youth camp at the edge of a frozen lake, where Gwen's dreams indicate bodies buried beneath the ice. Blumhouse filmed the practical camp sets and cast on location around Toronto, Mississauga and Hamilton through a Canadian winter, but the production required a more remote, dreamlike mountain world than the shoot could physically supply, especially for the sequences set inside Gwen's visions. On this project Blumhouse adopted large scale blue screen filmmaking for the first time and engaged FOLKS to build Dream Lake, the studio's name for a frozen environment composed from a mix of CG and matte painting across more than 200 shots. For the film's finale, FOLKS contributed heightened effects as part of a total of more than 500 finished VFX shots delivered on the film. Chumak worked as a Senior DMP artist, Folks VFX, on the film.

Source: CGShort · Art of VFX · Wikipedia

Questions about Black Phone 2

Who did the visual effects for Black Phone 2?

FOLKS and BOT VFX produced the visual effects for Black Phone 2. Ivan Moran served as the film's Production VFX Supervisor; Phil Prates supervised for FOLKS and John Britto supervised for BOT VFX. FOLKS constructed the film's frozen lake environment, Dream Lake, and supplied heightened effects for the finale.

What is Dream Lake in Black Phone 2?

For Black Phone 2, FOLKS built a frozen, dreamlike lake and mountain environment and named it Dream Lake, using CG together with matte painting over more than 200 shots. The environment formed part of a larger blue screen effort for Blumhouse that included more than 500 finished VFX shots on the film.

Where was Black Phone 2 filmed?

Principal photography for Black Phone 2 began on November 4, 2024, on location in Toronto, Mississauga and Hamilton, Ontario, with Pär M. Ekberg as cinematographer. Production wrapped on January 23, 2025, after a Canadian winter shoot that doubled for the film's snowbound Alpine Lake Camp.