The Black Phone, based on a short story by Joe Hill, son of legendary horror master Stephen King, stars Ethan Hawke as The Grabber, a soulless miscreant who embodies every parent’s worst nightmare. Evil personified, The Grabber is a magician who spends his spare time as a sadistic masked serial killer-turned-kidnapper. It is directed by Scott Derrickson (Deliver us from Evil, Dr. Strange), who reveals in a Q & A after an LA screening at the Harmony Gold theater (June 22) the ways in which he feels personally connected to this horror/thriller.

Set in Denver in 1978, the story follows Finney Shaw (Mason Thames), a 13-year-old boy who’s being held in a soundproof basement by The Grabber. When a disconnected phone on the wall starts to ring, Finney soon discovers that he can connect with previous victims.

Derrickson, 55, talks about the origin story of his latest thriller. “The idea came to me when I was in the process of stepping off of directing the Doctor Strange sequel. I had been in therapy for three years, mostly dealing with the violence [I experienced] in childhood,” he says, candidly. “I lived in a working-class neighborhood and there was a lot of violence in the household.”

Having grown up in Denver in the late 70s, Derrickson has a geographical connection to the story. “Ted Bundy had just come through Colorado killing a bunch of women, and the Manson murders had happened, Halloween had just come out [1978], and it was this idea of the hidden killer who could snatch you and take your life that was a very real thing for kids at that time.” He pauses. “It’s wild because those killers in the 70s were not caught, but then in the 80s, when [John Wayne] Gacy appeared, they started getting caught. It’s very, very hard to catch them, because people, especially in the Midwest, were really ashamed of having been attacked by pedophiles. And it seems like it all came to a head. So that really made sense to me in this film, that they’re all very confused about how to get this killer.”

Casting Ethan Hawke as The Grabber was an interesting choice, and in a role we haven’t yet seen the twice-nominated Golden Globe actor play in his 35-plus year career.

“Well, he’s the only person I offered the role to, but I didn’t write it with him in mind,” says Derrickson. “Joe’s short story wasn’t called The Grabber – he was a clown, also fat, and very much based on John Wayne Gacy. And when Joe Hill read the script, It (the 2017 horror film featuring an evil clown) had just come out, and he said, ‘Can’t be a clown. You’ve got to get rid of that.’ And it was his idea to make him a magician instead, which I thought was a great idea,” he explains. “I knew the character was going to be behind a mask, so my first thought was, ‘I need somebody with a really distinctive voice.’ I jumped quickly to Ethan. I’ve always thought that his voice is remarkable. Nobody sounds like him, and the kind of range and multiple personalities that just exist in him, even when you’re talking to him conversationally, is incredible. And so, I just thought, ‘Boy, he would bring a lot to this.’ And I called him, told him I had the script. He told me, ‘I don’t really play villains.’

With nothing to lose, Derrickson persevered and sent it to him anyway. “I thought, ‘He’s never going to do this.’ Then I woke up next morning and there was a voicemail from Ethan. It was in the voice of The Grabber that you hear in the movie, saying one of the lines from the script.” He smiles. “I never thought I’d get a movie star to play that role. I was elated that he wanted to do it.”

With box office receipts in excess of $76.8 million, on a budget of $18 million, all signs point to an upcoming sequel. While there is no confirmation of a franchise, Ethan Hawke told comicbook.com about the idea of revisiting The Grabber, “If Scott was involved, yeah …. Sometimes sequels feel born out of a storyteller’s compulsion to continue talking to you. And sometimes they feel born out of a desire to make money off of the same poster again. So I want to be the first – there’s a difference.”