In some films, all the ingredients simply come together in a deliciously cinematic way: there is an original, atmospherically dense template. The cast is impressive and, ideally, has already worked with the highly motivated person in the director’s chair. And this often results in a real insider tip for genre fans.
All of these ingredients were also present in The Black Phone by Scott Derrickson with a wonderfully evil Ethan Hawke. It can now be streamed on Amazon Prime. With the supernatural horror thriller, the Doctor Strange director was able to to live out what he was previously denied at Marvel.
The Black Phone adapts a short story by Stephen King’s son to the big screen
Disappeared children. A perfidious killer with a penchant for the magical and dramatic and creepy masks. A cramped basement and in it a phone that shouldn’t work at all – but someone is speaking through the receiver.
Does it all sound a lot like Stephen King? No wonder, because The Black Phone is based on the short story of the same name Joe Hill, behind which is none other than Stephen King’s son. His story, which is very reminiscent of King himself, is transferred oppressively to the screen, not least thanks to the passionate children’s mimes.
The year is 1978. A total of five children have recently disappeared without a trace in Finney’s (Mason Thames) hometown. When he himself is kidnapped by the sinister perpetrator, whom the press evilly dubbed the “Grabber”, everything initially seems hopeless. But the grabber is playing with his prey and locks Finney in a basement. There is also an old, broken and unplugged black telephone. A phone that still rings after not too long.
Universal
Mason Thames in The Black Phone
Meanwhile, not only are the police looking for the boy, but also his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw). She increasingly recognizes visions of her brother and his kidnapper in her strange dreams and sets out to search on her own.
Scott Derrickson also wanted to implement the horror in The Black Phone at Marvel – but wasn’t allowed to. The fact that the tension and claustrophobia of The Black Phone is transferred to us so well is thanks not least to director Scott Derrickson. His filmography is primarily made up of horror works such as The Exorcism of Emily Rose or Sinister
(also with Ethan Hawke).
But mainstream cinema from Marvel can also be found at Derrickson: he shot the first Doctor Strange and was actually supposed to make its successor. But that never happened because Marvel didn’t dareto take a bold step into the genre area.
When a director leaves a project, the legendary “creative differences” are often just an excuse. But as Derrickson revealed in an interview with The Playlist, this reason actually applies to his situation with the superhero studio. Because Derrickson didn’t want to make Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness anything less than one full-blown, full-blooded horror film. But Marvel just wanted to give him a compromise.
In such a case, Derrickson says he has a very clear opinion: All or nothing. According to him, a half-baked hybrid of two parties with completely different films in mind would result in a “monstrosity”. Since no one would have been happy with that, Derrickson left the field to a new director.
Ironically, his successor for Doctor Strange 2 was horror veteran Sam Raimi, who, for his part, also wasn’t able to really let off steam. Derrickson preferred to devote himself to The Black Phone, which you can now stream on Amazon Prime.
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