The Black Phone director Scott Derrickson reveals a last-minute change to the film

Ethan Hawke as The Grabber in The Black Phone — (Image credit: Blumhouse)

The Black Phone director Scott Derrickson has revealed a major detail about the film's finale was changed at the last minute. The film stars Ethan Hawke as the sinister, child-abducting Grabber – and follows his latest victim, Finney (Mason Thames) as he attempts to escape the man's clutches. Spoilers for The Black Phone ahead!

Still here? Then you've seen the horror movie, and you'll know that, towards the end, Finney sees the ghost of Robin (Miguel Cazarez Mora), who is one of the Grabber's previous victims. Robin then helps Finney escape from the basement.

"In the script, Robin wasn't in the room. It was just a phone call," Derrickson told The Hollywood Reporter. "A day or two before we shot that … it suddenly hit me out of nowhere. I was like, 'Oh, the audience wants to see that kid again. We got to see him again. It's not going feel right if we don't see him again.' I was like, 'Where's that kid?' and they were like, 'We just flew him home.' I was like, 'Get him back. You got to fly him back.'"

The director also elaborated on how the scene came together, revealing he came up with ideas on the spot about how to stage the scene while alone on set. "I end up doing it all in one shot," he explained. "I think a good director always has an antenna up trying to hear what this movie really wants to be. If you do that, you can sometimes make decisions that are bigger than you."

The Black Phone is in theaters now. For everything else coming this year, check out our guide to all of 2022's movie release dates.

I'm the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.