Scott Derrickson (born July 16, 1966) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for his work in the horror genre, directing films such as The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), Sinister (2012) and The Black Phone (2021). He is also known for the superhero film Doctor Strange (2016), based on the Marvel Comics character.
Derrickson's debut feature was Hellraiser: Inferno, the fifth installment in the long-running Hellraiser film series. It was released straight to video in 2000. Following this, Derrickson and co-writer Paul Harris Boardman spent several years doing script-doctoring work for studios. "I was paid to write or rewrite 13 screenplays," Derrickson said, "None of them got made. I was earning a good living but all of my creativity would be read by just a handful of executives. It caused a kind of soul sickness in me."[3] In 2004, he conceived the story for Land of Plenty for German director Wim Wenders.[4]
Derrickson co-wrote and directed The Exorcism of Emily Rose, which was loosely based on a true story about Anneliese Michel.[5] The film won the 2005 Saturn Award for Best Horror or Thriller Film and in 2006 was named in the Chicago Film Critics Association's list of the "Top 100 Scariest Films Ever Made." Theatrical box office gross for The Exorcism of Emily Rose was over $144 million worldwide.[6] It received the award for Best Horror Film at the 32nd Saturn Awards.
In August 2011, Derrickson teamed up with producer Jason Blum to write and direct Sinister, a mystery-horror film starring Ethan Hawke.[8] The $3 million picture was released in theaters by Summit Entertainment on October 12, 2012, and received generally positive critical reviews.[9]Sinister earned over $48 million at the U.S. box office and over $78 million worldwide. Derrickson co-wrote but did not direct the film's sequel.[9]
Deliver Us from Evil (2014) was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer,[10] and is based on a 2001 non-fiction book entitled Beware the Night by former police Sergeant Ralph Sarchie and Lisa Collier Cool; its marketing campaign highlighted that it was "inspired by actual accounts". It was released on July 2, 2014,[11] and grossed $87.9 million against a $30 million budget.
In December 2018, it was announced that Derrickson would direct the Doctor Strange sequel entitled Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness which was planned for a May 2021 release.[13] In January 2020, Derrickson announced that he had stepped away from directing duties as a result of unspecified creative differences, after which Sam Raimi took over. Derrickson remained involved with the film as an executive producer.[14] Derrickson's departure from the film allowed him to put more focus on The Black Phone.[15]
In 2021, Derrickson directed an adaptation of Joe Hill's short story "The Black Phone", from a script he co-wrote with C. Robert Cargill.[16] Produced by Blumhouse Productions and Universal Pictures, The Black Phone re-teamed Derrickson with Ethan Hawke and James Ransone, and was theatrically released to positive reviews on June 24, 2022. The film was very personal to Derrickson, as he claimed it had grown out of three years of therapy. He also said that it was a way for him to explore "the traumatic nature of [his] own childhood".[15] It received the awards for Best Horror Film and Best Adapted Screenplay at the 47th Saturn Awards, Best Wide Release Movie and Best Screenplay at the 2023 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, and the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Screenplay.[17][18]
^Hansen, Eric T. (September 4, 2005). "What in God's Name?!". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 6, 2020. Retrieved July 3, 2019.
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