Welcoming thrillers and chillers likeThe Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do ItandMalignantinto cinemas around the globe, 2021 was a terrific year for horror at the movies. Amidst the stand-out hits, one title knocked audiences off their feet with its story, direction, and performances —The Black Phone. Taking a page (or several) fromJoe Hill’s short story of the same name, filmmakerScott DerricksonpairedC. Robert Cargillto co-scribe the screenplay and signed on a leading cast that includedMason Thames,Ethan Hawke, andMadeleine McGrawto answer the call and bring the author’s terrifying tale to life. Thanks to its crushing box office success, staggeringly positive feedback from critics, and a dedicated following, the director went on to receive the green light — from both Hill and Universal Pictures — for a sequel.
Now, just a few months out fromBlack Phone 2’s October 17 release, Hill was happy to give Collider’sChris McPhersonsome insight into the follow-up production while the pair chatted about Hill’s latest feature-length project:Natasha Kermani’s adaptation ofAbraham’s Boys: A Dracula Story.
Praisingthe filmthat allowed the haunting story to continue, Hill said, “The Black Phone was such a great picture. Scott and Cargill did such a great job with it.” As for what awaits fans in three months, the author added,
“The sequel’s out this October. I haven’t seen the film yet, butthe script was terrific, so I’m very excited for that.”
Will There Be Any More Joe Hill Adaptations?
Now thatAbraham’s Boysiscelebrating its releaseandThe Black Phone 2is set to ring in theaters this October, what’s next for Hill? Digging into the projects he’s loved so far and what he can see for the future, Hill told McPherson:
“I think Abraham’s Boys is a wonderful adaptation. I’m grateful that it exists.Best New Horror is scary and could be interesting. I think that could make an interesting film. Pop Art did make an interesting film. That was the third story in the collection. It’s about the friendship between a juvenile delinquent and an inflatable boy named Arthur Roth. Arts made of plastic filled with air, weighs six ounces and if he sat on a sharpened pencil, he’d die. And back in, I want to say about 2005, 2006, a director named Amanda Boyle made a lovely short film out of it. I think you can actually get it on iTunes. And I sometimes think, ‘Wouldn’t Pop Art be funny if it was like a Pixar film?Wouldn’t it be a funny DreamWorks animation story?’ So, I don’t know. There’s some other chillers in that collection. But I think just to have had two stories adapted from this is kind of unbelievable run on the table.”
Abraham’s Boys: A Dracula Storycrawls out of the crypt and into cinemas on July 11.
Black Phone 2
