JP Nunez
If you saw The Black Phone, you know it doesn’t leave much room for a sequel. It wraps up its story pretty nicely at the end, so it’s tough to see where a part two might go. Nevertheless, Blumhouse and director Scott Derrickson are talking about a potential follow-up, and it’s not hard to understand why.
The film grossed over $150 million worldwide on just an $18 million budget, so of course, the studio would want to make a sequel. It was inevitable that they would at least consider it, and now, Derrickson himself has confirmed that sequel talks are in fact taking place. Here’s what he said about a potential part two:
There’s already a lot of conversation, a lot of pressure being put on it. I mean, the movie cost $18 million, and it’s going to ultimately make probably $160-170 million worldwide. So they want another one. Of course, they do.
Now, if you’re anything like me, you’re probably a bit skeptical about this news, at least initially. For starters, horror sequels are notoriously bad. Sure, there are some good ones, and there are even a few great ones, but the vast majority of them are pretty forgettable at best.
Secondly, and maybe even more concerning, as I said before, The Black Phone doesn’t really leave any room for a part two. It’s very much a one-and-done kind of story, so it doesn’t seem like they even should make a sequel to it.
That’s how I felt when I first heard this news, but then I learned something that instantly changed my mind. A few months ago, Scott Derrickson himself said this about a potential follow-up:
Joe Hill pitched me a wonderful idea for a sequel to Black Phone that, if this movie does well, I’m gonna do it. He’s got a great idea, I really liked it…Joe’s very protective and personal about his material, but he came to me with the idea and I was like, “That’s how you do a sequel to Black Phone. That’s terrific.”
The key here is that Joe Hill came up with this idea himself. Not only is he a great storyteller, but he’s also the author of the short story The Black Phone is based on, so if it’s his idea, I’m totally on board. He’s the one person I really trust to come up with a sequel idea, so despite my initial misgivings about this news, I’m actually really excited about it now. The Black Phone is one of my favorite horror films of 2022, so I can’t wait to see how Derrickson, Hill, and Blumhouse continue this fantastic story.
