Scott Derrickson’s ‘V/H/S/85’ Segment Is Secretly ‘The Black Phone 2.5’
As we grow closer to the release of Scott Derrickson’s The Black Phone 2, it’s time to look back to what the director was doing last year.
The Black Phone was released back in 2022, and followed Finney Blake (Mason Thames) and his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw). When Finney is abducted by The Grabber (Ethan Hawke), he must use the mysterious black phone in the Grabber’s basement to speak with the deceased victims of The Grabber to find a way out.
The Black Phone was adapted by C. Robert Cargill from the book 20th Century Ghosts, written by Joe Hill, who is the son of legendary writer Stephen King. While working on The Black Phone, Joe Hill pitched Scott Derrickson an idea for a sequel to the book, which Derrickson and Cargill promptly began writing.
But did you know this wasn’t Derrickson’s only times adapting 20th Century Ghosts and its characters?
What Is The ‘V/H/S/85’ Segment “Dreamkill” About?
For the V/H/S/85 anthology film, the 2023 instalment of the V/H/S franchise, Scott Derrickson directed one of the segments, titled “Dreamkill”. The segment follows a police precinct who are sent VHS tapes that show brutal murders that are yet to happen. When these murders do happen, the police scramble to find how the tapes were recorded, when a young boy Gunther Blake (Diethel Derrickson), the son of one of the policemen, Bobby, admits to sending them to the police and that they’re recordings of his dreams.
The identity of the killer is later revealed, but to find out who it is, watch the film on Shudder below.
How Is ‘V/H/S/85’ Connected To ‘The Black Phone’
Besides being about the same things (dreams about “real” unknown violent crimes), and being directed by the same director, V/H/S/85 and The Black Phone also share the same canon.
Gunther Blake, the teen at the centre of the story (which is set seven years after The Black Phone) is actually cousins with Gwen and that both Gunther and Gwen have the ability of psychic dreams, something we reported on being a big role in The Black Phone 2.
In an interview with Megan Garside of GamesRadar, Derrickson explained: “There’s a little Easter egg [in V/H/S/85] where it is revealed that Gunther’s cousin Gwen had the same psychic dreams. Well, that’s referring to Gwen from The Black Phone.”
Scott Derrickson is best known for directing Doctor Strange, Sinister, The Black Phone and its sequels, Apple TV+’s The Gorge and much more.
The Black Phone 2 hits theatres next month and stars Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Ethan Hawke, and Anna Lore.
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