‘Black Phone’ writer-director teases brutal gore scenes in sequel

Black Phone series is set to air on screen soon with bold eerie touch.

Scott Derrickson’s directed TV series starring Mason Thames and Ethan Hawke first aired in 2021.

In conversation with SFX Magazine, Derrickson explained how the follow up will be more intense and gore, now that Finney (Thames) is a teenager.

"The reason I wanted to do a high school movie was that it has more interesting emotional stakes," said the director.

After escaping the Grabber's (Hawke) clutches and putting his killing spree to a permanent end in The Black Phone, Finney investigates a winter camp with his younger sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), who’s had visions of the killer stalking three young boys from beyond the grave.

Derrickson continued, "It requires a different tone than a middle school coming-of-age supernatural movie. You just invariably are going to need to be more violent and more aggressive and maybe more shocking, to escalate aspects of the movie beyond what the first movie did."

He explained that much of audience had matured since the first season, noting that "he teenagers who grew up really loving The Black Phone, they’re older now. They’re the kids who paid to see Terrifier."

Due to that shift, he said, the sequel carries "more intensity and more gore." He also added that the film received an R rating "specially for gore."

Black Phone 2 had its world premiere last month at Fantastic Fest in Austin. The season will be released worldwide on October 17.