The Colorado-born filmmaker remembers the scarier chapters of his career.

His sister, who has paranormal abilities, tries to find him."

I was like: This is amazing.

Scott Derrickson

The Black Phone director Scott Derrickson.Rob Kim/Getty Images

I read the stories.The Black Phonealways stood out to me as a movie."

“We really got the band back together for this one,” says the director.

Below, Derrickson talks about the highs and lows of his career in horror.

I was reaching for something that was too much.

The budget that I had for that movie didn’t fit the script, that’s for sure.

But I also had a lot to learn about how to make something scary.

That said, I like the uniqueness of that movie.

I think that, for theHellraiserfranchise, it’s a great addition, and I still like it.

And there’s a lot of me in it.

I look at it and I can see echoes of things that showed up later in my career."

My son had just been born.

We shot it in Vancouver first time shooting in a foreign city.

That was all wonderful.

I also think of the research phase as being one of the scariest experiences I’ve ever had.

Boy, that was dark material, man.

I have a lot of affection for that movie.

I’m very proud of that fact.

The cast is so good.

Yeah, I still think that’s a really unique, interesting movie."

Sinister (2012)

“That was such a satisfying experience.

Ethan was amazing the fact that hedid itwas amazing.

That’s why I went back to him withBlack Phone.

He really protects me as a director and lets me make exactly the movie I want.”

Critics didn’t like it.

I think it had the wrong release date.

I still like a lot of things about that movie.

I still think I made the movie I wanted to make.

But I had a rough experience making that film, I will say that.

It was physically difficult, there were a lot of personality issues going on.

I was fighting a lot with the studio.

I had PTSD after that movie, let me put it that way.

And that’s really what the movie is.

That’s what the movie is.

We looked at hundreds of kids for those roles and I’ll admit it, I got lucky.

Mason [Thames] is a movie star.