Scott Derrickson
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A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Directed by Wes Craven
influenced Black Phone 2 (2025), Sinister (2012)
Themes Visuals
…makes unabashed nods to the Nightmare on Elm Street films…
There’s also a sly thread of homage running through Black Phone 2 that connects it to A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, particularly the original and Dream Warriors.
There is lots of 80s Grrl Power here that seems to draw inspiration from the Nightmare on Elm Street (1984-1997) franchise…
The writer director does name two obvious influences by name (A Nightmare on Elm Street, as well as The Shining), crediting most of the feel of the film to 1982 slasher movies.
…at times this strays perilously close to Nightmare On Elm Street territory, with danger in both the heavily grained video of the dream world and the crisply shot real one to be faced and fought.
Every dream in A Nightmare on Elm Street was totally different; each kill was presented with all kinds of wild gore and prosthetics.
Friday the 13th (1980)
Directed by Sean S. Cunningham
influenced Black Phone 2 (2025)
Themes Plot Characters
You might expect something reminiscent of The Shining given the Stephen King energy present throughout the first film, but you’ll end up mostly getting an experience that feels like the later Nightmare on Elm Street films; DNA from a bevy of slashers made its way into this one, but Black Christmas and Friday the 13th stood out to me as notable ancillary inspirations.
Oh yes, it’s very much A Nightmare on Elm Street meets Friday the 13th, but only in good ways.
…it stops trying to be Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and Stranger Things all at once and starts actually becoming them.
This studio is trying so incredibly hard to make The Grabber one of horror's iconic slashes, alongside the likes Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, and Jason Vorhees.
Director Scott Derrickson and co-writer C. Scott Cargill evidently felt the best way to accomplish this was a mashup of the summer (well, winter) camp slasher vibes of Friday the 13th with the somnambulant escapades of A Nightmare on Elm Street.
…drawing from a patchwork of sources that includes Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Stranger Things, and even the analog, Super-8 texture of Derrickson and Cargill’s Sinister series…
If you've ever watched Annihilation, you have a pretty good idea of what you'll see down there.
The Gorge becomes a sci-fi/action movie that reminds me of Alex Garland’s Annihilation. While there is nothing as indelibly horrible as Annihilation’s nightmare bear, The Gorge offers some interesting things to look at, nonetheless.
…they find some sub-Annihilation production design and we find that things aren’t exactly what they seem.
These parts of the film are reminiscent of Annihilation, both in concept and visually as well, so it won’t win points here for originality.
It lives somewhere between an Annihilation homage and a Resident Evil remake…
…it’s more like the kind of genetically mutated world featured in Alex Garland’s Annihilation, and at least that means some trippy visuals as various giant Groots and skull-spiders swarm our protagonists like a video game set to crushingly hard.
…the action beats of a typical Resident Evil video game…
…the type of zombies you’d find in a horror video game like Resident Evil…
There are shootouts and fight scenes, sometimes feeling like a Resident Evil movie.
I can totally see it being a level in a RESIDENT EVIL video game.
From here, the movie largely plays out like a video game adaptation, drawing especially from Resident Evil (the games, not the PWSA movies, to be very clear), with big guns, varying creatively designed big and little bads, and some not-so-smoothly integrated exposition drops.
The Gorge melds T.S. Elliott and the Ramones with sci-fi action-horror reminiscent of Resident Evil, Doom, and The Last of Us, all with a dash of romance thrown in for good over-the-top measure.
The Shining (1980)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
influenced Sinister (2012), Black Phone 2 (2025), Deliver Us from Evil (2014), The Black Phone (2022)
Themes Visuals
The writer director does name two obvious influences by name (A Nightmare on Elm Street, as well as The Shining), crediting most of the feel of the film to 1982 slasher movies.
You might expect something reminiscent of The Shining given the Stephen King energy present throughout the first film, but you’ll end up mostly getting an experience that feels like the later Nightmare on Elm Street films; DNA from a bevy of slashers made its way into this one, but Black Christmas and Friday the 13th stood out to me as notable ancillary inspirations.
…set near the Overlook from THE SHINING (the red-coiled space heaters do give the cabin interiors a Hellish glow)…
In a film that plays like "A Nightmare on Elm St." without the humor crossed with "The Shining."
…while the frostbitten weather recalls The Shining — which of course sprang from the mind of Hill’s father, author Stephen King.
Just think how many incredible, iconic horror movies are set against a snowy backdrop – The Thing, The Shining, Misery…Black Phone 2 is not one of them.
Inception (2010)
Directed by Christopher Nolan
influenced Doctor Strange (2016), Black Phone 2 (2025)
Themes Visuals
In movies like Christopher Nolan’s Inception (2010) and Wes Craven’s original Nightmare on Elm Street, the plot requires the dreams to meld into reality…
Non-specialists would not want to bet their lives on being able to identify which dimension the film occupies at any specific moment, but from a visual point of view the upshot is that Doctor Strange enters a dazzling zone in which whole slabs of the New York cityscape fold down, multiply and assume new configurations in ways that take their cue from Inception but go far beyond it in visual spectacle.
The latter trick, which turncoat ex-disciple Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) uses for more nefarious purposes, lends the film a staggering visual effects innovation, in which the building-bending seen in Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” is taken to an extreme that would blow even M.C.
The look is a little bit The Matrix, a little bit Inception, a little bit Dark City, and all acid trip.
Unapologetically folding the likes of “The Matrix” and “Inception” into the fabric of the Marvel Cinematic Universe , “Sinister” director Scott Derrickson reaches into the mirror dimension (whatever the hell that is) and retrieves the year’s most (only?) visually dazzling blockbuster.
True, Nolan has already mined this visual style half a dozen years ago in Inception, but it’s put to good effect by Derrickson.
The Exorcist (1973)
Directed by William Friedkin
influenced Deliver Us from Evil (2014), Sinister (2012), Black Phone 2 (2025)
Visuals Themes
…and how about dabs of “The Exorcist” and “The Shining,” and even “Carrie”?
His young son crawls out of a box screeching, looking not unlike Linda Blair doing the spider-walk thing in that cut scene from The Exorcist.
I was strongly reminded of Ellen Burstyn creeping into her attic in " The Exorcist ," holding only a candle.
Then again, I don't recall anything occurring after we got cable and HBO (back when it only aired after 5 pm and on the weekends) and thus were able to watch uncut horror movies such as "The Exorcist" and "The Shining."
William Friedkin's The Exorcist casts a long, dark shadow on all who seek to replicate that film's sense of dread.
Is he challenging anyone to defeat him like Pazuzu did to Lankaster Merrin in “The Exorcist”?
…the two engaging in Love Actually-style signage from their distant towers…
“What do you get if you cross American Sniper, The Last Of Us, Stranger Things, Aliens and Love Actually?”
…un gran cuaderno y una pizarra para intercambiar mensajes (y que a más de uno le recordará a aquella mítica escena de Love Actually).
At one point they start writing notes to each other that they can read with their binoculars, a la Love Actually.
Love Actually-inspired note cards and flexing their own sniper skills leads to the two breaking protocol and meeting one another on Drasa’s side of the gorge.
They first communicate via signs (a la “Love Actually”)…
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
Directed by Chuck Russell
influenced Black Phone 2 (2025)
Visuals Characters Plot
The finale is directly lifted from Dream Warriors.
I guess I always knew that, given my predilection for “X-Men” stories, “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors”, “Stranger Things,” “Doctor Sleep,” and more.
By the film’s 3rd act, Black Phone 2 devolves into Dream Warriors territory.
Cribbing off the idea that the dead can still communicate to Finney, Hill, Derrickson, and C. Robert Cargill lean into a Freddy Krueger-style mechanic. The undercurrent of Nightmare on Elm Street III: Dream Warriors is hard to ignore, and while Black Phone 2 is never quite as effective as that movie, there’s clear admiration from the crew involved.
…a little more Freddy in Dream Warriors than he deserves.
…our gang of ghost hunters play out their interdimensional battles with him as though this were A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors – on ice…
The look is a little bit The Matrix, a little bit Inception, a little bit Dark City, and all acid trip.
Unapologetically folding the likes of “The Matrix” and “Inception” into the fabric of the Marvel Cinematic Universe , “Sinister” director Scott Derrickson reaches into the mirror dimension (whatever the hell that is) and retrieves the year’s most (only?) visually dazzling blockbuster.
And that seems to be the governing philosophy behind this second-rate knock-off of everything from The Matrix to Ant-Man.
Just as smart, the film’s director, Scott Derrickson (taking a giant leap from the Blumhouse cheapie-chiller Sinister, not to mention Hellraiser: Inferno) stylistically nods to puzzle-box brainteasers like Dark City, Inception, and The Matrix to conjure a cinematic universe that couldn’t be further removed from the usual Marvel spandexapaloozas.
That's no knock on the movie itself, which director Scott Derrickson – the horror guy from Deliver Us from Evil, Sinister and The Exorcism of Emily Rose – has kicked up a notch with a visual dazzle and wit unseen around these parts since The Matrix and Inception.
Visually and conceptually, Doctor Strange owes more to the inverted physics of Inception and the East-meets-West chop-socky of The Matrix trilogy.
Se7en (1995)
Directed by David Fincher
influenced The Black Phone (2022), Deliver Us from Evil (2014)
Visuals Themes
While the marketing materials present The Black Phone as something in the vein of Se7en - and there are some definite nods to Fincherism in the film - it owes much more to Stephen King.
The grim look reminds us of other thrillers such as "Se7en" (1995) and "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991).
There are also dribs and drabs of Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) and Se7en (1995), but in its heart of hearts, Deliver Us from Evil has a bad case of Friedkin envy.
The movie also unfolds during perhaps the gloomiest, rainiest week seen on screen since “Se7en.”
And after a while, the film’s grim, desolate settings come off not so much as a landscape of moral squalor (as in Se7en), but as a tedious attempt to add gravity to a thoroughly generic horror tale.
This turns out to be a pity because Ethan Hawke’s The Grabber immediately reminds me of Pennywise in Stephen King’s It since both of them are vicious antagonists who abducted children in the small town.
In a lot of ways, it’s like a minature version of It, written by Hill’s legendary father Stephen King, in the way it combines a child’s view of the world with the dangers lurking in it.
Once The Black Phone transforms into a full-on story of survival, it channels Stephen King features It and Stand By Me in that children must work together to overcome impossible scenarios that would be difficult to face even as adults.
IT ’s Pennywise is creepier – it’s tough to beat a demonic clown – but The Black Phone ’s The Grabber serves up solid competition among horrifying antagonists in films based on Stephen King or his son Joe Hill’s twisted stories.
Literary fans of the horror genre might be quick to associate the black balloons – that seem to be there just to draw attention to writer Joe Hill’s association with father Stephen King, and the red balloons in the latter’s “IT”.
There are obvious comparisons to It (Joe Hill is Stephen King’s son, after all, and shares with his father a penchant for stories about human goodness and frailty mixed with the supernatural), as well as Stranger Things , which is deeply influenced by King’s work.
Stranger Things (2016)
Directed by A.J. Bruno
influenced Black Phone 2 (2025)
Themes Music Characters Plot
…drawing from a patchwork of sources that includes Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Stranger Things, and even the analog, Super-8 texture of Derrickson and Cargill’s Sinister series…
The music by composer Atticus Derrickson is also spot-on, adding an eeriness to the film that feels very “Stranger Things” or “It Follows” in its treatment.
I guess I always knew that, given my predilection for “X-Men” stories, “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors”, “Stranger Things,” “Doctor Sleep,” and more.
…it stops trying to be Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and Stranger Things all at once and starts actually becoming them.
…although “Mustang,” a teenage cowgirl character, feels like someone out of a Howard Hawks film, not necessarily a Stranger Things-adjacent ’80s horror pastiche.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Directed by Tobe Hooper
influenced The Black Phone (2022), Black Phone 2 (2025)
Themes Visuals Dialogue
This is what makes horror villains like Leatherface and Buffalo Bill so terrifying, the realistic threat of danger.
All of this combined gives the film a nostalgic feel, reminiscent of vintage photographs and the era of striped baby tees, flared jeans, and “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” playing in theaters.
Finney and Robin talk about the 1974 horror movie “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” which Finney says his strict father would never allow him to see because he’s underage.
More important than this, the dialogue evokes films of the era, pointedly referencing The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) – which gives a solid idea where the filmmakers heads were at and what they were trying to achieve (down to the casting of Thames, whose appearance is eerily reminiscent of actors from that time that it felt as if we recognized him from one of those films).
That authentic 70s vibe extends to the rest of the production, including characteristically fluffy hair, conversations about Happy Days and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , with copies of Starlog magazine prominently displayed in a grocery store.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Directed by Jonathan Demme
influenced The Black Phone (2022), Black Phone 2 (2025), Deliver Us from Evil (2014)
Themes Plot Visuals
This is what makes horror villains like Leatherface and Buffalo Bill so terrifying, the realistic threat of danger.
The grim look reminds us of other thrillers such as "Se7en" (1995) and "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991).
A whole escape sequence involving a combination lock is as stressful as it gets, and the film pays off in crowd-pleasing fashion while, most importantly, feeling earned, even while a climactic bit of misdirection is an obvious lift from “The Silence of the Lambs.”
Film bu yönüyle yer yer The Silence of the Lambs (1991) ve Scream (1996) filmlerini akla getiriyor.
While Deliver‘s cinematography never rises to the level of its spiritual cousin, James Wan’s The Conjuring, Derrickson’s clever juxtaposition of the horrific and the clinical earns a comparison to The Silence of the Lambs.
Em agosto, já havia sido disponibilizado o primeiro trailer, mostrando que o vilão gordo da literatura fora substituído por Ethan Hawke, com uma máscara e cartola que trazia referência a Lon Chaney em London After Midnight.
Desde ya que El Teléfono Negro no es para nada novedosa o “de quiebre”, sin embargo su arribo es motivo de celebración porque se extrañaba muchísimo una odisea atrapante y osada alrededor del latiguillo a priori quemado del homicida en serie en busca de una presa siempre dócil, planteo que hoy por suerte se complejiza y se expande a través del genial trabajo actoral de Thames y un Hawke que despunta como un villano antológico con una galera y una máscara diabólicas semejantes al Lon Chaney de La Casa del Horror ( London After Midnight , 1927), legendaria epopeya muda y perdida de Tod Browning, y al Doctor Caligari de Werner Krauss de El Gabinete del Dr. Caligari ( Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari , 1920), obra maestra de Robert Wiene.
Later, Finney is seen watching the 1959 horror movie “The Tingler” on TV one night, which is a scene inspired by director Derrickson doing the same thing when he was a child.
Composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s score is occasionally reminiscent of Christopher Young’s work on Sinister , offering skittering and discomforting notes to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
We expected more authorship from a rookie director, something much closer to a Scott Derrickson (Black Phone, Sinister) or Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar) film than to Annabelle so to speak.
In some ways Smile takes after the likes of The Ring, It Follows and even Sinister where our protagonist finds themselves cursed, and need to look for a way to get rid of it.
Remettant à l’honneur une horreur qui évoque aussi bien les ambiances lugubres d’un Sinister (Derrickson, 2012) que les introspections psychologico-horrifiques d’un Roman Polanski (époque Le locataire ), Smile fait vraiment plaisir à voir, en étant à la fois intelligent et diablement efficace.
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
influenced The Black Phone (2022), Black Phone 2 (2025)
Characters Themes Plot
Finn is how we expected the kids from Stir of Echoes (1997) or The Sixth Sense (2006) after years of dealing with paranormal pain and anger no one understands…
With supernatural dread lifted directly from the likes of Stir of Echoes and The Sixth Sense , The Black Phone features a breakthrough performance from Madeleine McGraw while Ethan Hawke’s hauntingly memorable turn as The Grabber is felt in a hair-raising sense; like someone who has unknowingly snuck up behind you and waits in your peripheral for that dramatic reveal.
While some of the spoken lines defy logic (one character seems obsessed with his memories of Finney's pitching arm), each seemingly insignificant detail comes together in an exhilarating climax, reminiscent of early M. Knight Shyamalan films like Signs and The Sixth Sense.
Relying too heavily on quick jolts and jump scares, some moments of The Black Phone feel like the more PG-13 moments of The Sixth Sense .
And the supernatural elements of “The Sixth Sense” (and numerous other horror flicks).
Undertone is Pontypool, Skinamarink and Sinister for an age of podcasts, ASMR and Creepypasta.
Throw in a little "Sinister" mixed with heavy creepypasta influences, and you've got yourself a film that feels more than a touch predictable.
…much of the second act of the film bears similarities to Sinister (Justin even uncovers a demonic connection later on, identifying a figure that’s essentially Bughuul from Sinister)…