'The Black Phone' explained: A real life killer, childhood memories shaped the adaptation

The phone is dead. And it's ringing.

So reads the tagline for "The Black Phone," Scott Derrickson's haunting adaptation of Joe Hill's short story. The script, which Derrickson co-wrote with his producing partner Robert Cargill, stars Ethan Hawke as The Grabber, a sadistic kidnapper who stalks young boys in suburban Denver in the 1970s.

Hill, the son of horror maestro Stephen King, deftly blends several horror tropes (ghosts, invisible killers, clairvoyance and other supernatural elements) in his telling of the story, which centers around Finney (Mason Thames), an introverted 13-year-old who becomes The Grabber's latest victim.

The adaptation comes 10 years after Derrickson and Hawke first collaborated on the chilling Blumhouse horror "Sinister." "'Sinister' is an important film in my life," said the actor by email. "It was simple and clean in the best way. For me, 'Sinister' felt like the first film of the second half of my career. It gave me the opportunity to begin to play older, more complicated men. It was a beautifully written role and it was easy to try and give a personal performance inside a genre film, which is a rare opportunity."

Here's how Derrickson and Cargill expanded Hill's 10-page short story into a feature length film.

Turning 10 pages into a full length movie

Derrickson was attracted to the , which was published in 2004, for its compassion and distinctiveness. "From the first time I read