Director Scott Derrickson has revealed that the setting for Black Phone 2 draws direct inspiration from the iconic horror film The Shining.
The sequel to his 2022 supernatural hit takes the story into a new, bone-chilling location, Alpine Lake Youth Camp, nestled deep in the snowy Rocky Mountains. This remote setting is the same location used for the exterior of the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 classic, based on Stephen King’s The Shining.
Speaking in an interview with Collider, Derrickson explained how important setting and weather are in shaping the mood of his films. “I really like to use weather as a character if I have an opportunity to do it,” he said. “The winter, Rocky Mountain camp environment was also an inspiration for me to say yes to doing the movie.”
He also pointed out how the new setting ties into a lesser-explored horror subgenre. “There aren’t a lot of winter camp horror movies. It’s almost always summer camp like Friday the 13th. I went to both as a high school kid, and the winter camps were more powerful and memorable,” Derrickson said.
The new film brings back Ethan Hawke as The Grabber and continues the story of Finney and Gwen, played by Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw. Set four years after the events of the first movie, Black Phone 2 explores how those traumatic events shaped the now-teenage characters.
Derrickson shared that he pulled heavily from his own life to inform the story’s emotional depth. “I poured so much of my childhood and early middle school years into The Black Phone,” he said. “In high school, I spent more and more time in the Rocky Mountains. I’d ski every weekend and go to these incredible winter camps. That kind of environment, the blizzards, the isolation, was mesmerizingly powerful to me.”
Interestingly, Black Phone 2 almost didn’t happen. While Universal was quick to greenlight a sequel after the first film’s success, Derrickson wasn’t sold on the idea until author Joe Hill, whose short story inspired the original film, sent him a pitch. While parts of it didn’t land, one idea stood out and sparked Derrickson’s imagination.
What truly sold him, though, was the opportunity to explore the characters in a new life stage. “If I waited and made another movie first, these kids would be in high school,” he explained. “That became a very exciting prospect… a high school coming-of-age horror film instead of a middle school story.”
With real-life memories, a legendary horror setting, and an evolving cast of characters, Black Phone 2 promises to deliver a fresh, snowbound nightmare when it hits theaters in October 2025.
