The Black Phone Villain Was Originally Going To Be A Clown, But Then IT Happened – /Film

In case you didn't know, "The Black Phone" author Joe Hill is the son of Stephen King. Hill has always been conscious about living in his father's shadow, as is clear from his pen name (short for his middle name, Hillstrm). That's why when he was reading Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill's script for "The Black Phone," he had one request for a change.

When the Grabber abducts the film's hero Finney (Mason Thames), he's dressed like a magician, but the original script stuck with the short story's angle of the Grabber being a "part-time clown." In an interview with ScreenRant, Hill explained that his one major creative input on the movie was reimagining the Grabber as a magician rather than a clown:

Hill explained that his inspiration for the change was stage magician acts of the early 20th century when a single magician would act both as the devil performing witchcraft and as a heroic magician fighting back. With the seed of that idea planted, special effects team Tom Savini and Jason Baker designed the creepy masks that became a centerpiece of the film.

Hill compared the mask to Michael Myers from "Halloween," but another apt comparison would be Bughuul, the demonic villain of Derrickson's 2012 film "Sinister." Compare Bughuul's face to the Grabber's mouthless mask and see for yourself.

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The Black Phone Villain Was Originally Going To Be A Clown, But Then IT Happened - /Film