The Black Phone is not a true story, but it is inspired by real life events

The following article contains discussion of topics, including murder, that some readers may find disturbing.

The Black Phone has hit Netflix in the UK and Ireland if you fancy some dark chills this bank holiday weekend.

Written and directed by Scott Derrickson, the horror film reunited the director with Ethan Hawke for the first time since 2012’s Sinister. Hawke plays the Grabber, a child killer who kidnaps his next victim, Finney (Mason Thames), only to Finney to receive unexpected help from The Grabber’s previous victims.

Given the supernatural element of The Black Phone, it will come as no surprise to know that it is not based on a true story. However, Derrickson revealed that he was inspired by his own past.

“I grew up in an area in north Denver that was pretty violent, a lot of bullying, a lot of fighting, a lot of kids bleeding all the time. It was also right after Ted Bundy came through Colorado killing people. And the Manson murders had just happened,” he told news.com.au.

“When I was eight years old, my friend next door knocked on my door and said, ‘Someone killed my mother.’ My next door friend’s mother was killed. And there was a lot of domestic violence, even in me. my own home and in the homes of many of these children I knew.

“The parents punished them much more aggressively and so it was a very violent and scary place to grow up in many ways. And I tried to bring that environment realistically in the film.”

This occurs in Mason’s story before he is taken by The Grabber, as he, along with his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), live with an abusive father who is an alcoholic. In fact, for much of The Black Phone’s first act, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d walked into the wrong movie.

Derrickson takes the time to show the horrors of The Grabber with wrenching looks and stories of missing neighborhood kids. The focus is on Mason and Gwen as they deal with their father and the bullies at school.

The Grabber becomes more prominent once he kidnaps Mason, the main story of The Black Phone comes from Joe Hill’s short story of the same name, published as part of his collection 20th Century Ghosts in 2004.

Derrickson had optioned the story before, but it wasn’t until he left Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in early 2020 that he decided to do it.

And when he came to merge his past with Hill’s short story, it turned out that writing the film with C Robert Cargill became an outlet for the director to come to terms with his past.

“I felt like I put a lot of work into considering aspects of my past and the impact it had on my life and who I am becoming as a person. It was rewarding to have a place to put myself back together.” , he explained.

“Many of the kids in the movie are based directly on kids I knew.”

It’s a formula that worked, as The Black Phone scared off more than $160 million worldwide, leading to the announcement of a sequel in October 2023.

The sequel sneaks into theaters next June, so we’ll have to wait and see what real-life inspiration Derrickson takes for the next film.

The Black Phone is available to watch now on Netflix in the UK and Ireland. The Black Phone 2 will be released in theaters on June 27, 2025.

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