Black Phone Director Scott Derrickson Talks About Ethan Hawke’s Serial Killer And His Creepy Mask

Scott Derrickson black phone Tackles difficult topics: A sadistic child killer named Predator, played by Ethan Hawke, kidnaps children you’ve never met. When making the sixth victim, the young man receives mysterious phone calls from children who had already arrived at Grabber’s Dungeon from an unplugged phone.

The movie Wagon and Bloomhouse, which opens in theaters, is based on the story of the same name by Stephen King’s son Joe Hill. “It combined the story of a serial killer with a ghost in a place I’d never seen before,” says Derrickson. the hollywood reporterHe remembered a time when he picked up a story at a bookstore in Los Angeles.

The film also stars Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davis, James Ranson and Miguel Casare Mora, and is written by Derrickson and S. Robert Cargill, a frequent contributor.

in conversation THRDerrickson talks about how he discovered the story, why Hawke was cast in the role of Predator, and how the cult mask came about.

There are light spoilers up front. Black phone.

When did you discover the story and what made you want to adapt it?

I found a short story the month it was published. [in 2007 in the United States]. We had lunch in Los Angeles, went up to the Skylight bookstore and entered the horror section. There were five or six books and 20th century ghostsThere was a Joe Hill anthology book. I stayed there and read the first story I thought was amazing, called “The Best New Horror”.” And that I have now selected and another writer is working. So I bought a book, took it home and read the rest, and “Black Phone” became a movie. It was always on my mind. I think I revisited it and maybe I picked it up five or ten years ago, I thought I’d try to adapt it. I had a feeling I would get this, I would try to do it and I would continue after exhalation. Doctor StrangeIt looked like a good time.

Did you have any doubts about it?

No, and that’s because of Joe’s story. It was the scariest thing imaginable: a sadistic child killer and his story about kidnapping his sixth victim, or whatever, and yet that story did two things. It combines a serial killer story with a ghost story in a place you’ve never seen before. it was very original, but Joe really writes in terms of love. He writes with great empathy for the characters. He’s not a cynical or evil horror writer. There are a lot of horror writers out there, and Joe is the complete opposite. So I thought the seriousness of the topic, even in the story, matches the compassion and love behind the writer’s point of view.

You and Ethan have collaborated before. How did you know he would be able to play such an evil role?

The first thing that happened was Ethan’s voice. I think a lot of actors have voices that aren’t memorable in their own right. His voice is really distinctive. I feel like Hollywood hasn’t used his voice enough. Why is he not the protagonist of the animated film? His voice doesn’t sound like someone else’s. And he has a high register that he can talk to very easily and a low register that he can talk to very easily, and for a predator, he uses both, and I knew he would. So it started with that. But I also felt that Ethan had really come to terms with himself. He was always a great actor. He’s always done a good job, but I feel like in the last couple of years, this is what we’ve seen with Matthew McConaughey, he’s just moved on to another level of expertise in his craft, where he’s so fluid, risk-averse. and without fear How to do. And I had a feeling the predator was in a role that he could take on at that particular point in his career. I think he read it and felt the same.

What conversations did you have with the kids on set?

People always think you’re dealing with a series of horrors in traumatic communities, in traumatic vibes. A horror scenario for kids is like Halloween. Halloween is a party for children, not adults. Halloween is a place where people run around with knives in their backs, blood coming out of their throats and skeletal remains everywhere, there is death, murder, mayhem and all the horrors. You see Freddie, Jason and Michael Myers everywhere. Children love it. The horror game is a lot of fun. I think the only real exception to this movie was probably the domestic violence scene. just said [Madeleine McGraw] Talk about it in advance. I talked to him about what that scene was like and I talked about what my life was like as a kid. I used to live in the house where you got the belt. It wasn’t a rare thing and it was for a lot of kids I grew up with. I just told him, “You really have to get there, not just because it hurts physically, but because it’s emotionally traumatic when you get so much threats and anger.” And he was so wonderful. I can talk to him and Mason as adults, they are very mature actors. And then we have another scene, I think it was a bullying action scene that was his favorite scene to shoot. He did all his tricks and said, “This is the most fun thing I’ve ever had to photograph anything.” But he came up to me and said, “Would it be nice if I could spend two minutes alone before shooting this scene?” I told her, “Of course, Madeleine. Sure, it might take 10 minutes, it might take 20 minutes,” and he said, “I think I’ll need about two,” which we did. The set was very quiet. He walked into the room alone. Then he left two minutes later. , and then we shot that scene, and he’s incredibly good at this scene.

Here’s a scene where Ethan is sitting shirtless and waiting for Finn. Nothing happens, but a lot happens and it’s very upsetting.

It wasn’t in the story. We wrote this scene very specifically, even from the camera angle, Finn stops on the stairs and the camera follows the doors and reveals a belt sitting on a chair. And then we found out that this is a game he calls “Naughty Boy”, which is also very scary. But you know, I wasn’t going to host her. It wasn’t in the script. And when we got to Ethan, he was in perfect shape. I replied, “Man, brother, you’re in great shape.” And he just said that as an aside, he says, “Yeah, I got in pretty good shape this fall. So, you know, if you need something with my shirt, I’m fine, you know? And I asked him, ‘Actually… would you do that? Would you mind doing this scene? He says, “No, it’s good.” It was really the result of Ethan showing the recovery we made.

How did the mask concept start and develop?

That was my concept. I don’t think he has a mask in the story. I do not remember. In the script, he only has two masks: the Devil’s Mask, which looks like an old cracked leather mask with a smile, and one that has eyebrows, a comedy-tragedy mask. After I joined Ethan Film, it was in pre-production and then I started thinking about two things. On the one hand, I thought, “Well, this mask is going to be how they’re going to sell this movie. This mask must be cult. “So I was really nervous and I probably spent more time working on the mask than preparing for anything else. But secondly, I started thinking, “I have Ethan Hawke, don’t you want to see him?” So I thought, “But the mask is the main thing for the character.” Then the idea of ​​sharing came to me, and what excited me was the thought: “Oh, if I had three masks like a smile, a forehead and a face, I would have nothing and it would break”. all in half wherever you can. Use the top and bottom, it looks like a total of nine masks.” So I thought I might choose a character who wears a mask for very specific emotional reasons. And so the mask design focused on that, looking at the script and thinking about what it was trying to apply in terms of Finn’s intimidation or fear or insecurity. I couldn’t draw anything and I didn’t have a specific image of the mask – we pointed the man laughing, An old black and white film. I provided this information to five different companies, one of which was the Tom Savin Company. Tom Savin is a legend in the world of creating mass horror effects and he’s back with a sketch that’s mostly found in the film. Only one sketch is broken by three masks and with exactly the same expressions. As soon as I saw him, I almost sighed. I would say, “Oh, that’s right.” So the rest of the time we were trying to physically build exactly what he was painting.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.