How 'Black Phone 2' Pays Tribute to a Cult Samantha Eggar Movie
As news of actor Samantha Eggar’s death broke last week, Blumhouse’s TheBlack Phone 2 was readying its nationwide release. Ironically, Scott Derrickson’s horror sequel contains a scene which references one of Eggar’s most enduring cult horror films. The following contains mild spoilers for Black Phone 2.
Black Phone 2 Released Days After Eggar's Death
Eggar, the Oscar-nominated actor best known for William Wyler’s The Collector (1965) and David Cronenberg’s The Brood (1979), passed away on Oct. 15 at 86 following a years-long illness. In addition to those parts, Eggar is known amongst horror fans for her role as Samantha Sherwood in Curtains, a 1983 slasher movie about a group of actresses gathered at a snowy resort to prepare for a role in a highly sought after film. Eggar plays Samantha Sherwood in Curtains, a method actor who allows her director to commit her to a mental institution in order to prepare for the role. But her director has no intention of freeing her from the institution, and Samantha’s escape happens to coincide with a murderer picking off the wannabe actresses one by one.
It Directly References a Cult Samantha Eggar Horror Movie
The most famous sequence in Curtains finds one of the ill-fated thespians (played by scream queen Lesleh Donaldson) practicing her ice skating on a deserted, frozen lake. Distracted by a children’s doll which has been left on the ice, Donaldson turns to see the killer, wearing a grandmother’s mask and holding aloft a scythe, slowly but surely advancing on her. The scene comes near the middle of the film and is regarded as one of the most accomplished scares in any ‘80s slasher movie, largely due to it being set in broad daylight as opposed to nighttime. It’s also one of the few scenes in any horror film where a character is pursued by a killer on ice skates. You can check out a clip below.
That is, until Black Phone 2. Derrickson’s film, which is set at a snowy youth camp and concerns a group of teens trying to uncover the mystery behind a deceased slasher (Ethan Hawke), refers to Curtains directly in its climax. Likewise set on a frozen lake, the sequence finds all of the main characters beset upon by the Grabber, who appears to his victims exactly as the killer in Curtains. Through a thick fog, the Grabber appears holding an axe and skating across the lake in a slow-motion shot which is almost a direct match from the 1983 film.
Blumhouse
Derrickson Weighed in on the Inspiration
Derrickson is a particularly literate director, and Black Phone 2 references everything from Nightmare on Elm Street to The Devil's Backbone. In an interview before the film's release, the director admitted to his and writer C. Robert Cargill's ice-skating inspiration. “I was terrified it would be the dumbest s--t ever,” Derrickson said of shooting the scene. “We’re drawing very unabashedly on a 1983 film called Curtains, which has a wonderful scene with a killer on skates. It’s just one scene, but that was the origin of the idea.”