scott derrickson

Scott Derrickson was born in Denver, Colorado, in 1966. He graduated from Biola University, where his art studies emphasized combining humanistic and technical training, acquiring a solid understanding of philosophy, theology, and literature, along with those of communication and cinema, who helped forge the paths along which his career as a filmmaker has flowed. At his alma mater, he says that he “taught me to think”, he even taught the course “History of European Cinema” in 2004. He is married to Joyce Ericsson, also a Biola graduate nurse, with whom he has two children. If you discount his short Love in the Ruins , he started in the industry as a screenwriter, but his desire was also to direct, and it can practically be said that his filmography as a whole combines both facets.

Everything is just beginning, and Derrickson’s career started in what have been his usual genres, horror, fantastic, thriller, at the dawn of the 21st century, yes, in the unattractive terrain of sequels. His was the script for Urban Legend 2 , shot in 2000, and that same year he was able to debut as a director with Hellraiser: Inferno . Not that they were filmic gems, and in fact there was an interval of almost five years until he hit the ball with a film of diabolical possession and exorcisms based on true events, The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), with Laura Linney and Tom wilkinsonas a lawyer and priest. Compared to other filmmakers who cause fear with her tapes, Derrickson stood out for the well-drawn psychology of the characters, and because she demonstrated a solid knowledge of human nature and the Christian faith. In addition, the film combined the demonic part with the judicial one, since the exorcist priest was accused before the courts of involuntary manslaughter. The filmmaker commented that he “wanted to make a film that would entertain viewers, but also leave them thinking about significant spiritual issues.”

A year earlier Wim Wenders had turned his attention to a plot by Derrickson, Land of Plenty , which he made into a film, probably the German’s last great fiction film, which followed an engaged Christian girl against the backdrop of the terrorist attacks of 11-S.

Sometimes success has unwanted side effects when it comes to making the next film. Derrickson agreed to film a remake of a 1951 science fiction film by Robert Wise , a cold war parable, but Ultimatum on Earth (2008) in the new version whose script was not his, left a clear taste of disappointment, and somehow So the filmmaker’s career came to a screeching halt.

Horror specialist producer Jason Blum was not one of those who forgot Derrickson’s almost innate ability to produce fear without the easiest sensationalism, handling solid characters. So he backed him in Sinister (2012), about a writer specializing in publishing books on criminal cases with loose ends; there he signed Ethan Hawke as the protagonist , with whom he would count again a decade later in the terrifying Black Phone (2021), where he adapted a story by Joe Hill with many points in common with the literature of Stephen King, and again had the production of Blumhouse; This film also stood out because the great weight of the narration fell on child actors. He participated in the script for Sinister 2 , surely to please Blum, and in the correct one for Devil’s Knot , about a real case of missing children directed by Canadian Atom Egoyan , who was no longer the filmmaker of yesteryear.

Without a doubt, he was elevated to the Olympus of the filmmakers best considered by the industry when Marvel and Disney signed him for Doctor Strange (Doctor Strange) (2016), a commissioned company from which he emerged successfully, and which fattened his checking account, but which He must not have been too excited, as he declined to direct the 2022 sequel Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness , citing creative differences.