10 curious facts about the creation of The Black Telephone

From the inspiration to the most notable changes to the original story, get ready to see these films with new eyes.

Titles like The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sinister y Doctor Strange They made Scott Derrickson many fans (and critics). After contributing to the MCU, the director returned to horror with The black phonea film based on a story written by Joe Hill (son of Stephen King). The result was a success, so plans to make a sequel soon began. This has finally arrived in theaters, and to celebrate its premiere, we present you some curious facts about the making of The black phone and its sequel.

Fears that are transmitted

In the first movie, the director added a scene from the movie The Tingler. This is seen on television while Finney enjoys himself in his living room. It was not a random thing, but a very well planned moment. In his childhood, Derrickson had real panic when seeing this title, so he wanted to replicate it in the experiences of his protagonist. It was a way of passing the torch to another child who, like him, grew up marked by horror.

Necessary changes

If we go back to the original Joe Hill story, The Raptor does not wear a mask. As the script was being developed, Scott Derrickson felt that to “sell” the film and make the villain memorable, he needed a visual element. iconic. Thus, the mask became the aspect he worked on the most during pre-production.

Both the filmmaker and C. Robert Cargill, screenwriter of both films, mentioned that Each version of the mask represents a different part of the ritual and a different aspect of the personality from The Raptor. Joe Hill agreed with this change, as he understood the theory that this character transformed when he put on the costume.

many masks

Continuing with the face of the chilling villain, the idea was that The mask itself could tell a horror story. To achieve this, the final design was entrusted to special effects experts from the company of the legendary Tom Savini, a key figure in the makeup of this genre.

It is not a single mask, but a set of three pieces that The Raptor can combine, and which allow him to “change his face” even in the same scene. Thus it alternates between a smiling expression, a frown or a complete absence of a mouth. Masks from ancient Greek theater served as inspiration, as did Ethan Hawke’s face. In the end, little more than 30 pieces for the entire shoot.

The finished pieces were created from a mix of fiberglass and resin, covered with felt and filled with foam. Additionally, the filmmakers built replicas for the stunts, but with light rubber and latex.

Johnny Gosh

During a sequence of The black phone The kidnapping of a newspaper delivery boy is mentioned. This is based on the true case of Johnny Gosch, a 12-year-old newspaper delivery boy who disappeared in West Des Moines, Iowa, in 1982. His case became one of the first in the country to gain widespread national coverage, and her photo was one of the first to appear on milk cartons as part of a campaign to find missing children. Sadly, Johnny never showed up.

Although The black phone is fiction and is inspired by several sources (including serial killer John Wayne Gacy), the disappearance of Johnny Gosch is a key reference that marked the era and the fear of child predators.

From clown to Raptor

Joe Hill conceived The Raptor as a fat man who presents himself as a clown, and that is why he uses balloons to get close to his victims. The suggestion to change the clown for a magician came from Hill himself, who wanted to avoid direct comparisons or seem like a copy of the evil clown of It (Pennywise), which had recently had great success in the movies. Thus, the change in The Raptor made the plot present him as mysterious and even sadistic.

Scares that give pleasure

During an interview, Derrickson said that Jason Blum (the film’s producer and one of the main heads at Blumhouse) gave him a black phone in a glass case. The director was in the middle of moving to his new house, and when he arrived there, he found the object high on a wall. “I was sitting in my living room, and I heard a phone ringing in the basement. I thought, ‘Oh my God!'” Such a gift was the way in which the executive gave the green light to the making of this film.

Why is there a sequel?

Although the first film ended with the death of The Raptor, Blumhouse and Universal Pictures soon authorized a sequel. Far from making the film just to make more profits, Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill devised a change in the villain: he would no longer be a physical presence, but something supernatural. In fact, from the first installment there are very well planted clues.

“When I saw the first movie, there was something that made me say, ‘Oh, it’s a trap door to the second one. They’ve put something in.’ And I thought, ‘I don’t even know if they know they put something in the movie, something that’s the obvious door to the second one.’ So I pitched this idea to them, and they both thought it was great,” the screenwriter told ScreenRant.

The Raptor on skates

As Black Phone 2 takes place in a winter camp, the snowy environment dominates several of the scenes. In the first trailer there is a moment where The Raptor is seen on skates, and although on paper the idea might sound strange, visually it is terrifying. About the creation of this scene and its origin, this is what Scott Derrickson told Collider.

“I was terrified that it was the biggest nonsense in history. We were unapologetically inspired by a 1983 horror film called Curtainswhich has a wonderful scene with a masked killer on roller skates. It’s just one scene, but that was the origin of the idea. The problem was I couldn’t put him on skates, you know? So the most difficult production design element was the Grabber’s feet. We didn’t spend any more time on anything, and we didn’t get it done until very late in post-production.”

The ax

One of the most difficult scenes in the first film involved the final showdown between Finney and The Raptor. This involved an ax which, according to its director, became the biggest obstacle to finishing the film. As he said in the bonus material when the film reached home format, Rarely do you get a CGI ax that is believable. To achieve the blow that Finney delivers to his captor, practical effects and other computer effects were used. Additionally, Ethan Hawke wore a giant wig to simulate the gun actually hitting his head.

Mason Thames

The young actor, who has now starred in films such as Despite You and How to Train Your Dragon, did his casting during the pandemic. In fact, it was my first time auditioning via Zoom. He didn’t have a very good internet signal at the time, but he still managed to impact those in charge of the project. While the movie is terrifying, your experience was much more enjoyable. He got along very well with Ethan Hawke, became great friends with Madeleine McGraw (his sister in fiction), and even the director asked him to stop smiling all the timebecause he had to look scared by what he experienced on screen.

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