Before 2012, you’d be forgiven if you didn’t think it was possible for filmmaker Scott Derrickson to become a master of the horror genre. He’d had three directorial credits to his name up until that point: the forgettable Hellraiser sequel, Inferno, the mediocre horror-courtroom drama The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and the unfortunate The Day the Earth Stood Still remake. While surely a competent director, it’s safe to say no one was necessarily clamoring for the next Scott Derrickson feature. That all changed in October of 2012 with the release of Sinister, a genuinely disturbing low-budget horror effort that remains one of the creepiest movies within the genre over the last ten years.
After directing Deliver Us From Evil, and a little Marvel movie called Doctor Strange, Derrickson returned to the shadows with The Black Phone, based on a short story by Joe Hill and starring newcomer Mason Thames. That film shares more than a few things in common with Sinister — star Ethan Hawke, co-writer C. Robert Cargill, producer Jason Blum among them, and lots of creepy kids. With The Black Phone’s recent home release, we thought now would be the perfect time to pit Derrickson’s two best horror films against each other in this particularly dark and spooky edition of… FACE OFF!
This episode of Face Off is written by Eric Walkuski, narrated by Shawn Knippelberg, and edited by Stephen White. But don’t let us have the final word — tell us in the comments which Scott Derrickson horror flick is your pick — Sinister or The Black Phone?