The Black Phone Was Forced to Make a Major Change Because of IT

The Black Phone is now available to stream on Peacock, and there have already been talks of making a sequel. The movie currently has an 83% critics score and an 88% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. ComicBook.com‘s Charlie Ridgely gave the movie a 4 out of 5 and called it a “killer thriller” that “grabs your attention and never lets go.” Horror fans loved “The Grabber,” the killer played by Ethan Hawke, but he was almost a little different. According to author Joe Hill, Hawke’s character was originally a part-time clown but they changed him to a magician due to the success of IT and the popularity of Pennywise. Hill also happens to be the son of Stephen King, author of IT. 

“I had one big creative contribution, which is — I don’t know if we want to get down in the weeds. I had one big creative contribution, which was when I read the first draft, it was very, very faithful to the story and, in the short story, when Finney is kidnapped by The Grabber, the guy introduces himself as a part-time clown,” Hill explained to Screen Rant. “He still was a part-time clown in the film, in the screenplay, which was kind of a natural evolution, because the character somewhat echoes the crimes of John Wayne Gacy. But I read the script and, I can’t remember if IT had come out at that point or was just about to come out, and I said, ‘Guys, I don’t think he can be a part-time clown, not with Pennywise about to explode on the American consciousness. I just think there’s room for only one deadly clown. So what if we made him a part-time magician instead?’”

Hill continued, “I sort of had some stuff to share with them about a whole bunch of magician acts in the 1920s and ’30s that featured the magician fighting the devil, and the magician would actually play both parts. He would come out wearing a devil mask and do evil sorcery and then he’d come out as the heroic magician to fight back. I said, ‘We could do something based on that and what a devil could, if we’ve got some devil imagery that could be pretty scary, as scary as a frightening clown.’ That said, I couldn’t have, in my wildest dreams, anticipated how iconic Tom Savini and Jason Baker’s mask for The Grabber would be. That is a really extraordinary image and I think is a big part of why the film was such an instant hit. People look at that mask and it’s iconic the way Freddy Krueger’s glove is iconic, the way that Michael Myers’ mask is iconic. That thing was crafted to haunt your sleep at 2 AM.”

The Black Phone takes place in the 1970s stars Ethan Hawke as a serial kidnapper and killer that has been nicknamed The Grabber. The film also stars Mason Thames in his first-ever film role, playing main character Finney Shaw, who gets abducted by The Grabber and must find a way to escape his clutches. In addition to directing, Doctor Strange helmer Scott Derrickson adapted Hill’s book into the screenplay alongside longtime collaborator C. Robert Cargill.

The Black Phone is now streaming on Peacock and hits Blu-ray and DVD on August 16th.