Ethan Hawke: There’s nothing worse than the Bogeyman
Los Angeles, USA, Jun 24 (EFE).- Ethan Hawke is the face of some of Hollywood’s most successful horror flicks in the last decade and he is returning to our screens with the international release on Friday of The Black Phone.
The film, directed by horror specialist Scott Derrickson and distributed by Universal, blends cinematic genres but at its heart lies the time-old tale of the Bogeyman.
“There’s a part of the movie that feels like Stand By Me, and another part that feels like Hannibal Lecter and another part that feels like Poltergeist, it’s serial killer, ghosts and coming of age story swirled into something original,” Hawke tells Efe in an interview.
“It’s basically the Bogeyman, the iconic figure of the person who steals children, and there’s nothing worse than that.”
In the Black Phone, Hawke plays a sadistic masked magician called The Grabber who terrorizes, kidnaps and tortures children in 1970s Denver.
“He’s absolutely insane and out of his mind, and you should stay as far away from him as possible,” the actor says of the character.
In the movie, young actor Mason James plays the role of Finney, a shy child who pulls on his experience of being physically abused by his peers and psychologically abused by his father to try to escape the magician’s captivity.
Finney receives instructions via a black telephone wired into the basement where is being held, through which he can communicate with the souls of The Grabber’s victims.
Hawke says taking roles in horror movies is a mixed blessing.
“First of all I don’t enjoy inviting madness and that kind of evil behavior into my imagination,” he tells Efe.
“Audiences are funny you know ever since Antony Hopkins played Hannibal Lector, you know it’s hard to watch him play a nice grandpa, you bring that baggage with you, but then I realized I’m 50 years old and it’s time to change and time to let go of that theory.”EFE
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