Exclusive: How BLACK PHONE 2 Was Influenced By THE MATRIX

Director Scott Derrickson and writer C. Robert Cargill are bringing The Grabber back from the dead with Black Phone 2. Hitting theaters later this month, the sequel to 2022’s The Black Phone is going full Freddy Krueger with Ethan Hawke’s masked killer, as he now has the ability to get you in your dreams. Separating the dream world from reality took some serious effort on the part of the filmmakers, particularly during the scripting phase. 

See also: Would Scott Derrickson Make Another SINISTER Movie? Possibly!

Fango’s own Angel Melanson had the chance to speak with Derrickson and Cargill following the premiere of Black Phone 2 at Fantastic Fest. The movie uses Super 8 film to help the audience distinguish between what is a dream and what is reality. Cargill revealed that the script was directly influenced by 1999’s The Matrix, one of the most important sci-fi movies ever made. Not that the movies are terribly similar, but when it came to writing the screenplay, there was some crossover. As Cargill explained: 

“We talked about it from the script phase. One of our touchstones was The Matrix and how they had formatted the script to make people be able to understand, which world are we in? We talked about how to try and make that work and communicate that to the reader so that people just reading the script would understand. We knew it would work on the screen because Scott really did know what he was gonna shoot but trying to figure that out on the page and make sure it made sense was its own complicated thing. 

The trailers for Black Phone 2 have highlighted this Super 8 surreality, which call to mind the kill tapes in Derrickson and Cargill’s Sinister from 2012. That was a way, visually, for the filmmakers to distinguish the final product. On the page though, making that clear was also important. That’s where The Matrix, which also had to deal with multiple realities, came into play. Derrickson, speaking further on the subject, said that it was very important for him to make sure things were always clear for the viewer. Per Derrickson…

“There’s a lot of back and forth between the different realities in the movie and it became very clear to me directorially that [it would be a problem] if there wasn’t an easy, clear, unmissable way for the audience to know when we were in the real world and when we were in a dream state of some sort.” 

“Those are things that were my biggest concerns. I probably spent the most time designing the look of the movie around that,” Derrickson added. “You want it to be effortless for the audience. You don’t want them confused.”  

The film sees both Mason Thames (Finn) and Madeleine McGraw (Gwen) returning alongside Hawke as The Grabber. The synopsis for the sequel reads as follows: 

“As Finn, now 17, struggles with life after his captivity, the headstrong 15-year-old Gwen begins receiving calls in her dreams from the black phone and seeing disturbing visions of three boys being stalked at a winter camp known as Alpine Lake.

Determined to solve the mystery and end the torment for both her and her brother, Gwen persuades Finn to visit the camp during a winter storm. There, she uncovers a shattering intersection between The Grabber and her own family’s history. Together, she and Finn must confront a killer who has grown more powerful in death and more significant to them than either could imagine.” 

Black Phone 2 hits theaters on October 17. You can check out our full interview with Derrickson and Cargill below. 

Related Movies

• 

  Black Phone 2 2025
• 

  The Matrix 1999