TV - Movies
Is The Black
Phone Based
On A True
Story?
By SAM SKOPP
Director Scott Derrickson's latest horror film “The Black Phone” has many fans wondering if any parts of the story were based on true events. While outright impossible supernatural happenings are somewhat frequent throughout "The Black Phone," the more grounded aspects of its story were inspired by real-life experiences from director Scott Derrickson's childhood.
Derrickson explained that he set the film in North Denver, Colorado in the late 1970s, mirroring the time and place of his own upbringing. "There was a lot of violence — everybody got whipped by their parents, there was fighting on the way to school, on the way home from school, at school," he said. He even recalled a time when a friend recounted the kidnapping and murder of his own mother.
He shared further insight into his inspiration stating, "It was also right after Ted Bundy [...] and the Manson murders [...]" he said. "Parents punished children much more aggressively, and so it was a very violent, scary kind of place to grow up in a lot of ways. And I tried to bring that environment realistically into the movie." So, while details like The Grabber and Finney's psychic sister may be wholesale inventions, the setting does indeed have a basis in reality.