NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – It’s been nearly six years since Scott Derrickson’s last film hit theaters. That changed when his film “The Black Phone” premiered at New York City’s annual Tribeca Festival.
The film follows a young boy who is kidnapped by a serial killer, and locked in a cellar with a mysterious broken black phone. As the days pass and the boy begins to lose hope, the phone rings. On the line are the ghosts of the killer’s previous victims, angry and eager to do whatever they can to help the boy escape.
While the film is primarily based on the short story of the same name written by Joe Hill, in an exclusive interview with 1010 WINS Derrickson confessed that it also features callbacks to his own childhood.
“What the movie is,” he said, “is sort of a combination of that short story with a lot of my own childhood memories: people that I remember, anecdotes that I remember, and just the general vibe of growing up in north Denver in 1978.”
Comparing how Steven Spielberg incorporated a lot of his childhood into his films, he added “I wanted to be able to convey something that felt truthful about a particular time and place, and the things that these young characters had to deal with every day.”
Derrickson co-wrote the film with his frequent collaborator C. Robert Cargill. In it, Ethan Hawke makes a sinister turn as the serial killer, which is perfectly ironic considering that just a few years ago he worked with Derrickson on a different horror film titled “Sinister.”
In the interview, Derrickson also discussed how it felt to reteam with the actor. He said, “Ethan - and this is the honest truth - [is] my favorite actor I've ever worked with. I just love the guy…he’s the salt of the Earth, and just a remarkable talent.”
He also described the experience of working with both Cargill and Hawke as “a real joy”, and equated it to “getting the band back together.”
From “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” to “Doctor Strange”, Derrickson has had quite the career. Prior to making The Black Phone, he was tapped to direct a sequel to the latter. Then, in 2020, after exiting the project due to creative differences, he became a free agent. Although he could have gone on to do any film, he says this story spoke to him.
Because it’s the “most emotional” film he’s done, he also remarked that is was his “favorite” film he’s ever made.
“[It’s] about the resilience of children and about the overcoming of trauma,” he said. “And how traumatic experiences can be the very things that lend to our personal growth and to the best parts of ourselves,” he said.
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