---
name: "Scott Derrickson"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/scott-derrickson"
fi1m_id: "scott-derrickson"
imdb_id: "nm0220600"
tmdb_id: 55499
wikidata_id: "Q558806"
roles: ["Director","Producer","Writer"]
born: "16 July 1966"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 7
average_fi1m_score: 59
average_as: "director"
average_over: 5
updated: "2026-09-23T11:43:24.273766+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Scott Derrickson

## Identity

Scott Derrickson

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/scott-derrickson
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** scott-derrickson
- **IMDb ID:** nm0220600
- **TMDB ID:** 55499
- **Wikidata ID:** Q558806
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Derrickson, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q558806, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0220600/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/55499

Director and producer. Born 16 July 1966 in Denver, Colorado, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Producer, Writer
- **Born:** 16 July 1966, Denver, Colorado, USA
- **Active:** 2000–present
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 7: 5 directing, 2 producing
- **Frequently works with:** [C. Robert Cargill](https://film.one/person/c-robert-cargill.md), [Paul Harris Boardman](https://film.one/person/paul-harris-boardman.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 59, as director, over 5 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 47 (2), 2010s 66 (1), 2020s 64 (4)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 60 to 61 across 4 titles
- **Score spread:** 0 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 2 under 60
- **Genres:** Thriller 4, Horror 2, Science Fiction 2, Action 1, Adventure 1, Drama 1
- **Screen time:** 9 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $1,042m across 3 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Derrickson, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q558806, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0220600/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/55499

## Streaming the US now

- **Apple TV:** [*The Gorge*](https://film.one/film/the-gorge.md) (70)
- **Disney+:** [*Doctor Strange*](https://film.one/film/doctor-strange.md) (66)
- **Netflix:** [*Black Phone 2*](https://film.one/film/black-phone-2.md) (64)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Scott Derrickson

> Scott Derrickson frightens with pictures, old film stock and a corridor that becomes a snowfield, and then he explains. A capable, sincere horror director whose films are at their best in the hour before the meaning arrives.

Sooner or later in a Scott Derrickson film the picture starts to skip and scratch, as if the projector were failing. It happened in *Sinister* (2012), and it happens in the dreams of *Black Phone 2* (2025), where the colour drains to rust and pale blue and a bunk room becomes a snowfield between one shot and the next. He knows that damaged footage frightens people in a way clean digital does not. Then, almost always, he stops the film to tell us what it meant.

He came up through cheap horror, *Hellraiser: Inferno* (2000) and *Urban Legends: Final Cut* (2000), and found his footing with *The Exorcism of Emily Rose* (2005), the first of the possession stories he would keep coming back to. *Sinister* and *Deliver Us from Evil* (2014) followed. Then Marvel called. *Doctor Strange* (2016) folded New York like paper and gave the studio its strangest pictures to that point; it also retold the *Iron Man* story with a change of heart we were asked to take on trust. He left the sequel in 2020 over differences with the studio and went back to horror with *The Black Phone* (2021), which drew on his own childhood and which he has called the most personal film he has made. *The Gorge* and *Black Phone 2* both arrived in 2025.

Nearly everything he has written since *Sinister* he has written with C. Robert Cargill, and the pair are good at premises: a phone in a basement that has no business working, a dead killer who has moved into a child's sleep. The craft around him is often first-rate. On *Black Phone 2* Pär M. Ekberg shot the waking world in flat overcast grey and the dreams on grainy, skipping stock, Louise Ford cut between them without warning, and Atticus Derrickson's low electronic pulse stopped dead each time the film came back. That first hour frightened us properly, and it did it with pictures and silence, before anyone had explained a thing.

The explaining is the problem. *Sinister* over-explained its found footage; *Black Phone 2* ends up delivering a sermon we did not order; *Doctor Strange* asks its hero to change and then simply tells us he has. Derrickson trusts his images and distrusts his audience, and the second habit keeps undoing the first. He also borrows openly, Wes Craven's *A Nightmare on Elm Street* (1984) most recently, and he tends to take the premise and leave the jokes behind.

He has a company he keeps, Cargill, Ethan Hawke, James Ransone, the producer Jason Blum, and horror is plainly where he belongs. The film we would like from him is the one that ends when the frightening stops, about twenty minutes before he thinks it should.

## Biography

Scott Derrickson is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He was born on 16 July 1966 in Denver, Colorado, and studied at Biola University and the University of Southern California.

Derrickson began his feature directorial career with *Hellraiser: Inferno* (2000). He is known for horror films including *The Exorcism of Emily Rose* (2005), which he co-wrote and directed, *Sinister* (2012) and *The Black Phone* (2021). He also directed the Marvel film *Doctor Strange* (2016).

In 2025 he directed, wrote and produced *Black Phone 2*, the sequel to *The Black Phone*, on which he collaborated again with C. Robert Cargill.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (7)

### Directed (5) — the average rests on these

- *Black Phone 2* (2025), Fi1m 64, Director, Writer, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/black-phone-2.md)
- *The Gorge* (2025), Fi1m 70, Director, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/the-gorge.md)
- *Doctor Strange* (2016), Fi1m 66, Director, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/doctor-strange.md)
- *The Day the Earth Stood Still* (2008), Fi1m 40, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-day-the-earth-stood-still-2008.md)
- *Hellraiser: Inferno* (2000), Fi1m 54, Director, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/hellraiser-inferno.md)

### Produced (2)

- *Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness* (2022), Fi1m 60, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness.md)
- *Snowpiercer* (2020), Fi1m 63, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/snowpiercer-2020.md)

## Complete filmography (32)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Black Phone 2* (2025), Writer, Director, Producer — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/black-phone-2.md)
- *The Gorge* (2025), Director, Producer — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/film/the-gorge.md)
- *V/H/S/85* (2023), Director, Screenplay
- *The Black Phone* (2022), Screenplay, Director, Producer
- *Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness* (2022), Executive Producer — Fi1m 60, [page](https://film.one/film/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness.md)
- *Shadowprowler* (2021), Director, Writer, Executive Producer
- *No Man of God* (2021), Executive Producer
- *Snowpiercer* (2020), series, Executive Producer — Fi1m 63, [page](https://film.one/tv/snowpiercer-2020.md)
- *My Valentine* (2020), Executive Producer
- *Doctor Strange* (2016), Writer, Director — Fi1m 66, [page](https://film.one/film/doctor-strange.md)
- *Sinister 2* (2015), Writer, Characters, Producer
- *Kristy* (2014), Executive Producer
- *Deliver Us from Evil* (2014), Director, Writer
- *Misunderstood* (2014), Executive Producer
- *Devil's Knot* (2013), Screenplay, Executive Producer
- *Sinister* (2012), Director, Executive Producer, Screenplay
- *The Day the Earth Stood Still* (2008), Director — Fi1m 40, [page](https://film.one/film/the-day-the-earth-stood-still-2008.md)
- *The Visitation* (2006), Co-Producer
- *The Exorcism of Emily Rose* (2005), Director, Screenplay
- *Land of Plenty* (2004), Story
- *Hellraiser: Inferno* (2000), Director, Writer — Fi1m 54, [page](https://film.one/film/hellraiser-inferno.md)
- *Urban Legends: Final Cut* (2000), Writer
- *Love in the Ruins* (1995), Editor, Sound Editor, Director, Screenplay, Producer
- *Out of Black and White* (1990), Musician, Editor, Writer, Director
- *Room 428*, Producer
- *Road of Bones*, Director, Screenplay, Producer
- *Ghost Eaters*, Producer
- *Bitter Bitter*, Producer
- *Mime*, Producer
- *The Night of the Hunter*, Director, Screenplay
- *Bermuda*, Screenplay, Executive Producer
- *Retrograde*, Executive Producer

## Gallery

- ![Scott Derrickson](https://film.one/media/person/7887/gallery-78f572c252e6.jpg) Scott Derrickson — Y! Música, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Scott_Derricson.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Benedict Cumberbatch, Scott Derrickson, Tilda Swinton, Rachel McAdams, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mads Mikkelsen and Benedict Wong speaking at the 2016 San Diego Comic C](https://film.one/media/person/7887/gallery-5c3bd756c503.jpg) Benedict Cumberbatch, Scott Derrickson, Tilda Swinton, Rachel McAdams, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mads Mikkelsen and Benedict Wong speaking at the 2016 San Diego Comic C — Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9d/Benedict_Cumberbatch%2C_Scott_Derrickson%2C_Tilda_Swinton%2C_Rachel_McAdams%2C_Chiwetel_Ejiofor%2C_Mads_Mikkelsen_%26_Benedict_Wong_%2828019531654%29.jpg/1280px-Benedict_Cumberbatch%2C_Scott_Derrickson%2C_Tilda_Swinton%2C_Rachel_McAdams%2C_Chiwetel_Ejiofor%2C_Mads_Mikkelsen_%26_Benedict_Wong_%2828019531654%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Brie Larson, along with Marvel Studios panelists, speaking at the 2016 San Diego Comic Con International, for "Captain Marvel", at the San Diego Convention Cent](https://film.one/media/person/7887/gallery-808cdbee48f5.jpg) Brie Larson, along with Marvel Studios panelists, speaking at the 2016 San Diego Comic Con International, for "Captain Marvel", at the San Diego Convention Cent — Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Brie_Larson_with_Marvel_Studios_panelists_%2828047101324%29.jpg/1280px-Brie_Larson_with_Marvel_Studios_panelists_%2828047101324%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Brie Larson, along with Marvel Studios panelists, speaking at the 2016 San Diego Comic Con International, for "Captain Marvel", at the San Diego Convention Cent](https://film.one/media/person/7887/gallery-c893c78cb673.jpg) Brie Larson, along with Marvel Studios panelists, speaking at the 2016 San Diego Comic Con International, for "Captain Marvel", at the San Diego Convention Cent — Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cc/Brie_Larson_with_Marvel_Studios_panelists_%2828664426685%29.jpg/1280px-Brie_Larson_with_Marvel_Studios_panelists_%2828664426685%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Scott Derrickson](https://film.one/media/person/7887/gallery-1c90d7d1f494.jpg) Scott Derrickson — Image via TMDB
- ![Scott Derrickson](https://film.one/media/person/7887/gallery-0381a26d145f.jpg) Scott Derrickson — Image via TMDB
- ![Chris Hardwick and Scott Derrickson speaking at the 2014 WonderCon, for "Deliver Us from Evil", at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. Please ](https://film.one/media/person/7887/gallery-cd118fc4f9c8.jpg) Chris Hardwick and Scott Derrickson speaking at the 2014 WonderCon, for "Deliver Us from Evil", at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. Please  — Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Chris_Hardwick_%26_Scott_Derrickson_%2813949890503%29.jpg/1280px-Chris_Hardwick_%26_Scott_Derrickson_%2813949890503%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Benedict Cumberbatch, Scott Derrickson, Tilda Swinton, Rachel McAdams, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mads Mikkelsen and Benedict Wong speaking at the 2016 San Diego Comic C](https://film.one/media/person/7887/gallery-77685a57d7c0.jpg) Benedict Cumberbatch, Scott Derrickson, Tilda Swinton, Rachel McAdams, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mads Mikkelsen and Benedict Wong speaking at the 2016 San Diego Comic C — Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/53/Doctor_Strange_cast_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg/1280px-Doctor_Strange_cast_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/scott-derrickson