Movies
The Best Scott Derrickson Movies To See Before You Watch THE GORGE – Streaming On Apple TV+ February 14
Debuting on Apple TV+ on February 14 is director Scott Derrickson’s THE GORGE, starring Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy and Sigourney Weaver.
Two highly-trained operatives (Teller and Taylor-Joy) are appointed to posts in guard towers on opposite sides of a vast and highly classified gorge, protecting the world from an undisclosed, mysterious evil that lurks within. They bond from a distance while trying to stay vigilant in defending against an unseen enemy. When the cataclysmic threat to humanity is revealed to them, they must work together in a test of both their physical and mental strength to keep the secret in the gorge before it’s too late.
In a recent interview Derrickson said THE GORGE is much like Until Dawn and Silent Hill, “I love those games, and I do think that gaming has sort of set the bar for gunplay action, especially if you’re really with a single character or two characters, you kind of can’t beat it.” (Games Radar)
Check out what Apple TV+ did to promote the movie over Sunset Boulevard.
Derrickson is one of my favorite directors and I’m looking forward to his latest film as well as the upcoming BLACK PHONE 2. A poster with “directed by Scott Derrickson” guarantees I’ll go to see his film even without a synopsis. Aliens arriving on earth, ghosts calling on a phone with a warning or evil spirits of a sinister nature terrorizing families, below are some of the cinematic journeys that he’s taken us on.
HELLRAISER: INFERNO (2000): A corrupt detective encounters a mysterious box that unleashes horrific supernatural forces. Supernatural villain Pinhead finds himself on the wrong side of the law in the fifth film of the Hellraiser franchise. Joseph is a detective with the LAPD who one morning discovers he’s no longer living in California — he’s been exiled to Hades, and the only way to escape is by solving the mystery of the all-powerful puzzle box. The box is now in the hands of the fearsome demon Pinhead and Joseph finds himself in a life-and-death struggle with the demon for control of the puzzle box.
Derrickson’s debut feature was Hellraiser: Inferno. It was released straight to video in 2000 and is one of the most interesting chapters in the franchise, becoming a fan favorite.
THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE (2005): A priest is accused of negligent homicide after a teenage girl dies during an exorcism. Derrickson co-wrote and directed The Exorcism of Emily Rose, which was loosely based on a true story about Anneliese Michel. 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. The film is one of the best in the genre and a great mix of courtroom drama and a horror story. The flashbacks and the the remarkable performance of Jennifer Carpenter makes this smart film a must-see of the filmmaker.
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (2008): An alien visitor arrives on Earth with a powerful robotic companion, GORT, to deliver a crucial message to humanity. A remake of the film “The Day the Earth Stood Still” directed by Robert Wise, it’s a terrific retelling of the 1951 classic and Keanu Reeves captures the essence of Klaatu, brilliantly played by Michael Rennie in the original. While both films have the best flying saucer/spaceship arrivals in cinematic history, this time GORT is even more terrifying and the genius casting of John Cleese as Professor Barnhardt has a meaningful dialogue with Klaatu and the famous “Klaatu barada nikto” was once again heard to the delight of fans. Written by David Scarpa, the film was released in late 2008 and earned over $233 million worldwide.
Two of the best scenes in the movie rival the original film and its this dialogue that gives Derrickson’s version a more human touchstone.
- Mr. Wu: I’m staying.
- Klaatu: You can’t stay here.
- Mr. Wu: I can and I will.
- Klaatu: If you stay, you’ll die.
- Mr. Wu: I know. This is my home now.
- Klaatu: You yourself called them a destructive race.
- Mr. Wu: That’s true. But still, there is another side. You see, I… I love them. It is a very strange thing. I… I… I can’t find a way to explain it to you. For many years I cursed my luck for being sent here. Human life is difficult. But as this life is coming to an end… I consider myself lucky… to have lived it.
The scene below is also a nice take on the 1951 dialogue:
- Barnhardt: Have you tested this theory?
- Klaatu: I find it works well enough to get me from one planet to another.
SINISTER (2012): A true-crime novelist discovers a disturbing collection of home movies that may be connected to a series of murders, all resulting in a younger member of the family just disappearing. One of the scariest horror movies ever made, the film makes you fearful for days, the jump scares are so effective and the audience believes that Ethan Hawke is truly terrified. Debuting at the SXSW festival, WAMG’s Travis Keune wrote in his review, “What SINISTER does so well is to capitalize on terror in the unknown, the fear of the dark and the inherent creepiness of waiting for the inevitable to occur. It is easily one of the best horror films I’ve seen in recent years.”
In August 2011, Derrickson teamed up with producer Jason Blum to write and direct Sinister, a mystery horror film starring Ethan Hawke. The $3 million picture was released in theaters by Summit Entertainment on October 12, 2012, and received generally positive critical reviews. 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.
Possession, shocks and scares…DELIVER US FROM EVIL (2014) is the story of s New York police officer who teams up with an unconventional priest to investigate a series of disturbing and potentially supernatural cases. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the film is based on a 2001 non-fiction book entitled Beware the Night by former police Sergeant Ralph Sarchie and Lisa Collier Cool, and its marketing campaign highlighted that it was “inspired by actual accounts” making for a fun night at the movies. Audiences loved it and this creepy film, released on July 2, 2014, grossed $87.9 million against a $30 million budget proving you can’t always go by the critics reviews.
DOCTOR STRANGE (2016): A talented but arrogant neurosurgeon learns the mystic arts after a tragic accident. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, the film is, hands down, the best Marvel film and Derrickson makes you forget you are watching a superhero film. It keeps the original psychedelic feel of the material, while giving the character an updated origin. Based on the Marvel comic character, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, who first appeared in “Strange Tales” Issue #110 published in July 1963. The magical score from Michael Giacchino is from another time and just adds to the greatestness of DOCTOR STRANGE.
THE BLACK PHONE (2021): A young boy abducted by a masked killer receives mysterious calls from the dead, helping him to escape his captor. The Black Phone re-teamed Derrickson with Ethan Hawke and James Ransone, and was theatrically released to positive reviews on June 24, 2022. 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. Derrickson wanted emotional veracity, not just technical accuracy, in every frame. “The trick was to capture not just what the era looked or sounded like, but what did it feel like?” Derrickson says. “I wanted The Black Phone to feel like how the late ’70s felt to me when I was 12 and 13.” For Gen Xers, children of the ’70s, this was a time without anti-bullying initiatives, where, for boys in particular, learning to defend yourself against mean kids was considered a normal rite of passage. “My earliest memory up until high school was the violence of the neighborhood that I lived in,” Derrickson says. “The primary feeling that I remember having as a child was fear. I was the youngest kid on the street full of bullies.” One of his absolute best movies, Derrikson’s film is a hard watch, and even on repeat viewings the effective creepiness stays with you long after the credits.
DREAMKILL:
Derrickson said of his portion of Shudder’s V/H/S 85, “What was interesting to me about making Dreamkill was first, trying to play with the physical format of VHS tape, and second, to work with my sons Dashiell (who plays Gunther) and Atticus (who did the score). I’m also a big fan of the VHS franchise, and was excited to work in the short film medium without any restrictions on the necessary violence of the content.” Fun fact: this is directly connected to THE BLACK PHONE. V/H/S 85 is the absolute best of the popular film anthology series, but it’s DREAMKILL with its twists that’s the standout of the ominous mixtape blending never before seen snuff footage with nightmarish newscasts and disturbing home video to create a surreal, analog mashup of the forgotten 80s.
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