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The Black Phone: Ethan Hawke stars in new horror film from Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions

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Ben O'SheaThe West Australian
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Ethan Hawke as the Grabber in The Black Phone.
Camera IconEthan Hawke as the Grabber in The Black Phone. Credit: Supplied

Somewhere in New York, shrouded in the inky black of night, three children are thinking about the monsters lurking under their beds.

It’s the stuff of nightmares for most kids, but not the offspring of Jason Blum — his children can’t get enough of it.

You see, when it comes to telling scary stories, it’s hard to imagine anyone more prolific than Blum, whose Blumhouse Productions company burst on to the horror scene with 2007’s Paranormal Activity.

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His IMDb page lists more than 30 projects currently in various stages of production, and you have to scroll down a ridiculous 56 listings to find his latest movie The Black Phone, starring Ethan Hawke, which hit Australian cinemas this week.

So, do we even have to ask what kind of bedtime stories Blum tells his kids?

“They are very creepy and scary,” he laughs on a Zoom call with The West Australian.

After spending the best part of 20 years convincing us to be afraid of monsters, ghosts and psychopaths in movies such as Insidious, The Purge and the new Halloween trilogy, it’s almost refreshing to hear this filmmaker takes the same approach with parenting.

“There are only monsters hiding under the bed,” he laughs.

Producer Jason Blum, creator of horror hits such as Get Out, Insidious, The Purge and the new release The Black Phone.
Camera IconProducer Jason Blum, creator of horror hits such as Get Out, Insidious, The Purge and the new release The Black Phone. Credit: Patrick Fouque/Paris Match/Contour

The Black Phone is set in late-1970s Denver, and juxtaposes the suburban dream of white picket fences and high school baseball games with a downright terrifying serial child abductor who locals refer to as the Grabber.

The Grabber seems like the stuff of urban myth until he snatches the lead character, a youngster named Finney, played very well by Mason Thames.

Over the course of the film’s taut 103 minutes, Finney must plan his escape from the Grabber’s basement, with the only assistance coming from a supernatural source the viewer never fully understands until the dramatic conclusion.

There are a couple of things that separate The Black Phone from typical genre fare such as this, the biggest of those being the presence of the Oscar-nominated Hawke, who gives an effortlessly menacing and vanity-free performance as the Grabber.

Blum has seen more than his fair share of villains over the years, and the producer rates Hawke’s Grabber as one of the best.

“For me, the Grabber became iconic,” Blum says.

“I mean, that’s an annoying word to use from one movie, but I hope we get to do many more (Grabber movies).

And there’s every chance a sequel or spin-off may eventuate, given The Black Phone itself was a reunion for Blum, Hawke and director Scott Derrickson, who all worked together on the 2012 supernatural horror film Sinister.

“Sinister was Ethan’s first scary movie he ever made,” Blum explains.

“I talked him into doing a scary movie, we’ve been friends for a long time and he doesn’t like horror movies, but I talked him into it and he likes them now.”

That speaks to a level of trust, which also extends to Derrickson, who made quite a name for himself with horror movies such as Sinister and The Exorcism of Emily Rose before Marvel Studios came knocking with an offer to make 2016’s Doctor Strange.

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Mason Thames in a scene from "The Black Phone."  (Universal Pictures via AP)
Camera IconMason Thames in a scene from The Black Phone. Credit: AP

It was a triumph, so it should have been a relative no-brainer for Derrickson to helm the sequel, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and, indeed, he and Marvel had finalised a deal for that to happen.

But creative differences during pre-production saw him depart the project, and, with newfound time on his hands, Derrickson wound up pitching The Black Phone, an adaptation of Joe Hill’s short story of the same name, to Blum.

Marvel’s loss was definitely Blumhouse Productions’ gain.

“That’s right, I squirrelled one away from (Marvel Studios president) Kevin Feige, although I don’t think he really noticed, I think he’s doing just fine,” Blum laughed.

Being as prolific as Blum is, the producer is the first to admit not every Blumhouse film is a cinematic masterpiece, but he has a canny knack for turning micro-budget horror films into box offices success stories, while also giving us critically acclaimed movies such as Whiplash and Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Us.

“I’m proud of Get Out, it did everything; it was critically acclaimed, was a huge hit, and it said something about racism,” Blum admits.

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Ethan Hawke as The Grabber in a scene from "The Black Phone."  (Universal Pictures via AP)
Camera IconThe film centres around a serial child abductor who terrorises late-1970s suburban Denver. Credit: AP

“So I guess that’s perfect if you can check all the boxes, but you can’t run a company trying to make Get Out every day, trying to emulate and trying to repeat that, I really make a concerted effort not to do that.

“If another Get Out comes along again, in another shape or size, I hope we do it, but I don’t look to make (commercial and critically acclaimed movies with a message) every time out of the gate, otherwise we’d only make a movie once every eight years.”

Instead, Blum is happy to opt for a more-is-more approach, while sticking to his core beliefs around what constitutes a good story.

Sometimes that means reviving legacy IP, such as the Halloween franchise, which the producer sees as a challenge he can’t resist.

Talking about Halloween, specifically the iconic, emotionless mask worn by serial killer Michael Myers, Blum hopes Hawke’s Grabber mask will similarly become a staple for Halloween costumes in the future.

But he won’t expect to profit if it does.

“You know, you don’t make a lot of money from licensing — excuse me, I’m sure Disney has made a lot of money from that — but we have never made any kind of material amount of money from licensing costumes from our movies,” he laughs.

“A lot of (the people who dress up as characters from my movies wear handmade costumes and) it is incredibly satisfying, it’s the best thing.

“The first time that happened was The Purge, and I saw people dressed as Purgers and I loved it, I mean, that’s really, really, really satisfying for sure.”

It’s a terrifying prospect to imagine the streets of New York teeming with people dressed as the Grabber this October, but you can bet there’ll be three kids who won’t be scared at all.

The Black Phone is in cinemas now.

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