‘The Black Phone’ director explains why we’re all obsessed with murderers and monsters

Let’s be honest with ourselves. We’ve all been caught munching on popcorn, cuddled up on the sofa, binge-watching the latest true crime documentary. If you haven’t, you’re lying. For some unknown reason, we’re all inexplicably drawn to macabre works of art, cinema and literature. This morbid curiosity about death and the sinister motives behind murders is what coerces us into committing and scheduling several hours of our lives to hour-long documentary episodes about real-life crimes.

Our fascination with violence, murder and crime stems from an inherent human tendency to be attracted to dangerous situations, perhaps even fantasizing how we — as viewers — would react, should we ever find ourselves in that same situation. The Black Phone director, Scott Derrickson, explains in an exclusive interview with DiscussingFilm about the fundamentals behind the science of fear and fascination when it comes to horror and its unsettling themes.

According to Derrickson, who isn’t wrong by any means, we’re all fascinated by murderers and monsters, which is precisely the abstract force that encourages us to purchase movie tickets or binge a Netflix documentary. When asked about his lead character, The Grabber (played by Ethan Hawke), whom audiences were given just enough information about to establish a motive, but not enough to satisfy, Derrickson reveals that he deliberately kept The Grabber’s backstory vague and open to interpretation to keep the element of mystery — which in turn drives fascination.

I think that’s a great sign. They feel that way because he’s so fascinating and they want to know more. It’s the same reason why people watch true crime documentaries, because they want to know more, especially about serial killers. I’ve watched dozens of serial killer documentaries because I want to know more about the serial killers, you know, what makes these strange anomalies tick? What makes these monsters do what they do? Of course, in many cases, there is no answer. You can look at Richard Ramirez and say, “Yeah, he was abused as a child, these things happened to him, and so that’s where the violence came from.” Maybe, sure? But lots of other kids go through that same kind of abuse and don’t become sadistic homicidal maniacs. And then Jeffrey Dahmer had good parents and a normal upbringing, so what’s his backstory that we’re missing?

Then, Derrickson is asked why he thinks — personally — audiences are attracted to monsters and mayhem. Touching on sociopathy and referencing Heath Ledger’s Joker, who’s arguably one of the greatest on-screen villains of all time, Derrickson answers that question to the best of his ability. He simply shines a light on the obvious; the less we know about a villain, and the more hazy their motivations, the more intrigued we become. Essentially, the more we don’t know about a serial killer, the more we want to know, which is essentially the push-and-pull relationship that filmmakers — especially those dabbling in the horror genre — establish with an audience. As the saying goes: treat them mean, keep them keen.

I think that when it comes to sociopathology and true psycho killers, part of what makes them interesting is their otherness and the fact that there is no story that could explain the mystery of what it is that they do. And I think the best villains that we’ve seen in genre filmmaking don’t try to reduce them to some backstory that explains why they are the way they are. Why is Heath Ledger’s Joker the way he is? He tells us three or four stories about how he got those scars – probably none of them are true. Maybe one of them is true? The point is, we’ll never know and that just adds to his mystery. If Hannibal Lecter had a story that said, “This is why he became a cannibal and started eating people.” Suddenly, Hannibal Lecter wouldn’t be that interesting. So when people say they want more, good, I want them to want more. You know, that’s the mystery of this kind of sadistic killer.

The Black Phone tells the story of a teenager named Finney (Mason Thames) who is abducted by a notorious child napper and serial killer known as The Grabber. When locked in a soundproof basement with no means of escape, Finney uses a disconnected phone to The Grabber’s previous victims, who will stop at nothing to make sure that Finney doesn’t share the same fate. Sitting comfortably at a 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, The Black Phone is available to own on Digital, Blu-ray and DVD now.