Joe Hill on BLACK PHONE 2, The Grabber’s Sinister Return, and Where the Story Could Go Next

When The Black Phone hit theaters, it quickly cemented its place as a modern horror favorite. Now, with Black Phone 2 in theaters, fans are thrilled, and terrified, to see The Grabber make his chilling return. But where did this idea even come from? According to Joe Hill, it all started with the mask.

“The mask was crafted by Tom Savini and Jason Baker,” Hill recalls. “I saw the mask with its swappable mouths: Sometimes the devil face is grinning, sometimes it’s frowning, and sometimes he has no mouth at all.

“I saw that mask and thought, ‘Oh, I think there’s gonna be a whole bunch of these movies.’ It struck me as instantly iconic in the way Freddy Krueger’s glove is iconic, in the way Michael Myers’ mask is iconic.

“I thought, ‘This is nightmare fuel, and people are going to want a lot of it.’ I thought he had the potential to become one of these big, memorable ongoing horror villains, and if that’s going to be the case, I’d rather he be in good movies than bad ones.”

Black Phone 2, from Universal Pictures, is now playing nationwide. It arrives the same week as Hill’s massive new 900-page novel King Sorrow, which will be released on October 21. But even with a book release looming, Hill’s excitement about the Black Phone universe is impossible to miss.

The first film, directed by Scott Derrickson and co-written with C. Robert Cargill, was based on Hill’s original short story. The sequel expands that world, and this time, Hill was the one pushing for it to happen.

“They didn’t know if they wanted to do a second film,” Hill says. “The first film was beautifully self-contained, so it’s not obvious that there should be a second film. But the thing is, it was just sitting right there.

“There’s this phone that Finney, our hero, uses to speak to people who have died. And I just thought, ‘What if the next person who calls him on it was The Grabber in Hell? I told that idea to Scott and Cargill, and Cargill especially was like, ‘Yes!’ I had some other concepts that they liked — some of them they passed over and some of them ended up in the film. We were just guys spitballing, seeing where we could land.”

Black Phone 2 brings back Ethan Hawke as The Grabber, along with Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw as Finney and Gwen. This time, it’s Gwen who begins having haunting dreams that connect her to the spirit of the killer her brother escaped.

Hill knew that if a sequel was going to happen, it needed to be in the hands of Derrickson and Cargill again.

“If there was going to be a sequel, I want it to be Scott and Cargill who did because I had confidence they would deliver quality,” Hill says. “They would deliver something really fun to watch, and the hallmark of their work is a deep affection for their characters, and a sense of warmth even in the iciest of films.

“Black Phone 2 is pretty chilly, but you sense that warmth for the lead character, for the kids. If there’s going to be a sequel, let’s hopefully get them to be persuaded to do it, and then it will be good.”

As for Black Phone 3? Hill isn’t ruling it out, but he’s waiting to see how fans respond.

“We’ll see if people want more. At the time we’re doing this interview, I have seen some numbers on the Thursday previews and they look pretty good.

“I’m pretty hopeful for where the film is going to land financially. But people vote with their dollars. If people want Black Phone 3, they’ll let us know by banging down the doors to go see Black Phone 2.”

And if there is a third movie, Hill already has a direction in mind.

“One of the things which is fun about Black Phone is the first story is about Finney in danger and his sister trying to save him,” Hill says. “He’s the lead, and she’s the key second character.

“But in this film, there’s a flip where Gwen is the lead character and her brother is trying to save her. To me, the logical thing is if there is a third film, they are dual stars where they’re sitting trying to save each other. Maybe there’s a way to do that, maybe there isn’t … we’ll have to see.”

Whether or not Black Phone 3 happens, it’s clear that Joe Hill and The Grabber have unfinished business.

Source: Variety