Take a look at the feature-length movies Scott Derrickson has brought to life as one of the most interesting directors in the horror genre.
Scott Derrickson is a popular director, most known for his affinity for horror movies. He has directed and produced many projects throughout his career so far, and most of them are some kind of horror movie. Throughout this century he has worked with many other popular actors and directors as well, and was even invited to direct a Marvel movie, though Doctor Strange did take a leap away from his usual repertoire.
Despite the success of Doctor Strange and the fact that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is considered a horror movie, Derrickson stepped away from the project as director due to creative differences. The movie still went on to be a huge success with new director Sam Raimi, but it could have been a lot different if Derrickson had stayed on board. Despite this, Derrickson is still directing movies in his signature style, and of course there are plenty already out that you can enjoy as well. Here are the best movies Derrickson has directed, and if you want a scare you should definitely give some of them a look.
Hellraiser: Inferno is Derrickson’s first feature-length film, and is the fifth in the Hellraiser movie series. The main character, Joseph Thorne, is a corrupt police detective, often ignoring his duties while on the clock with various activities including drug use. When he is on the scene of a murder he discovers a strange puzzle box and brings it home due to his fascination with puzzles. Once solved, however, things start to change.
Not only does he start hallucinating, but he connects the first murder to a killer known as The Engineer, who begins murdering everyone Thorne knows once he starts searching for The Engineer. Of course, things aren’t really as they seem, and Thorne is in for a surprise as he tries to solve the case and figure out the hallucinations. Due to its release being direct-to-video, there wasn’t a lot of publicity around the movie in general, but those who did watch it generally praised its direction and writing.
The Day the Earth Stood Still is a loose adaptation of a movie of the same name from 1951. It is a sci-fi drama about first contact with the aliens, where they believe they are coming to save Earth from the humans and their destructive force. When Klaatu the alien first leaves his ship, he is immediately shot (indicative of the film's dim view of the human race), but he is able to recover from it, and reveals he was there to discuss saving Earth.
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After he is sent to be interrogated instead, Klaatu escapes with scientist Helen and her stepson Jacob. When the real plan to save Earth from the humans is discovered, they both try whatever they can to convince him to give the humans another shot. Though reviews about the actual story of the movie were mixed, many critics praised Derrickson’s visuals and said that despite the actual content it did still look good.
The origins of Deliver Us From Evil are a little confusing, as it originally claimed to be based on a book titled Beware the Night, but it was actually written and directed by Derrickson. NYPD officer Ralph Sarchie answers what seems like a typical domestic violence call but finds strange scratches on the floor. Before he can really think more on it, though, he is called to the zoo, where a woman has thrown her kid into a lion’s enclosure. He ends up finding the woman in the lemur pen, and it seems she has lost her mind.
More and more of these strange cases pop up around his area, and he quickly begins to tie them together, soon believing there is a demon loose in this world and has been possessing all of these people. Critics seemed to love Derrickson’s atmospheres, but they felt the plot was a little lackluster. Even so, it’s still got a few good scares throughout its run.
Loosely based on the true story of Anneliese Michel, The Exorcism of Emily Rose is an anomaly: part legal drama, part horror. Father Richard Moore is a Catholic priest who is charged with negligent homicide after the attempted exorcism of Emily Rose. The movie focuses on the court case surrounding his charges, but each time someone takes a stand and offers testimony, the actual events are seen through a flashback. As the court case progresses, strange things begin to happen to Moore’s lawyer, and he believes she is also susceptible to the demons he was trying to get rid of. It is a unique story in the genre and offers a lot of thrills.
Sinister is a supernatural horror film focusing on a true crimes writer as he attempts to solve a mystery. Ellison Oswalt (in a wonderful Ethan Hawke performance) moves his family into a new home where an entire family, minus one child who disappeared, was killed. He is hoping that, if he can write this story and find what happened to the missing child, then he can write another successful book and become popular again. However, when he discovers old film reels that depict the gruesome murders of several other families, he quickly discovers there was a long trend of families who died in this house.
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He believes it to be the work of the pagan deity Bughuul, who kills families and takes one of their children to consume its soul. Worried he just put his own family in danger he moves them back out of the house, but he may have just sealed their fate in doing so. It was received well by critics, and is even called the scariest movie ever, according to experiments monitoring heartrates.
One of the few movies on this list that can’t be considered horror in any way is Doctor Strange, one of the many movies of the MCU. Doctor Steven Strange is a highly renowned neurosurgeon, but his life’s work is quickly taken away from him when he is caught in a car crash and his hands are irreparably damaged, never able to be as steady as they once were again. As he seeks a method to help he discovers the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj and joins their ranks, quickly getting himself swept up in a power struggle between the Ancient One and one of her former students that went rogue, Kaecilius. The film was well received, and Derrickson was praised for his ability to bring his cinematic touch to the movie with the magic scenes, despite the movie not being horror.
The Black Phone is an adaptation of a short story of the same name written by Joe Hill, and finds Derrickson working with a now-villainous Ethan Hawke again. Set in 1978, several children have gone missing in a suburban town. Finney Shaw becomes another victim when a serial killer known as The Grabber captures him and locks him in a soundproof basement with a disconnected phone. He attempts to escape using the voices coming from the phone of his previous victims, but at the same time, his sister Gwen is having psychic dreams that lead her to trying to find him and help him escape too. The Black Phone originally premiered at Fantastic Fest to rave reviews last year, but isn’t set to release theatrically until later this month. Mark your calendars for June 24th if you want to see Derrickson’s best movie to date.
Katelin McDougald is a writer who is also an avid fan of many things in the entertainment industry. Movies, TV shows, books, video games—you name it! Though she loves fantasy through and through, action and adventure, as well as mysteries, are among her favorites too!