Ethan Hawke and Scott Derrickson Are Making a Horror Podcast Together

Ethan Hawke and Scott Derrickson are working together again, and this time there is no camera involved. The pair behind 2022's The Black Phone, in which Hawke played the Grabber, the masked killer who traps his victims where a disconnected phone keeps ringing with calls from the ones who came before them, are making a horror fiction podcast. Nine episodes, set on a late night AM radio station, self-funded by the two of them, and premiering on 22 October. I got this from Rue Morgue, who broke the story first, and the original report is worth reading in full here: https://rue-morgue.com/ethan-hawke-and-scott-derrickson-reteam-for-midnight-radio-horror-podcast/

Who are Ethan Hawke and Scott Derrickson, and why does this pairing matter

If the names mean nothing to you, here is the short version. Scott Derrickson is a director who built his name on quiet, patient horror: Sinister, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and more recently The Black Phone, which is where he and Hawke first worked together properly. Ethan Hawke is the actor, known for a long career outside horror as much as in it, but anyone who has seen The Black Phone knows what he can do with a mask and a voice when he wants to unsettle you.

What made The Black Phone work was restraint. Derrickson never showed more than he needed to, and Hawke never played the villain as cartoonish. That same instinct, holding back and trusting the audience's imagination to do the rest, is exactly what radio horror lives or dies on. There is no visual to hide behind or lean on. You either build the dread with sound and performance, or you do not build it at all. On paper, that makes this one of the more sensible reunions I have heard about this year, not just a label trying to cash in on a name.

What do we actually know about the podcast

Not a huge amount yet, and I would rather tell you that plainly than invent the rest. What has been confirmed is the format: nine episodes, fiction rather than true crime or interview style, set on a late night AM radio station. That setting alone tells you a lot about the tone they are going for. AM radio in the small hours has always had its own flavour of unease, the hiss between stations, a voice coming from somewhere you cannot see, a caller you cannot quite place. It is the same unsettled feeling as a phone ringing when it should not.

The project is self-funded, which is worth sitting with for a second. Two people with Hollywood careers deciding to pay for this themselves rather than pitching it to a studio or a streaming network usually means one of two things: either nobody wanted to commission it, or they wanted total control over how strange and unpolished it could be. Horror audio works best when nobody is smoothing out the rough edges, so I am hoping it is the second reason. We will find out together, because it premieres on 22 October.

Why a horror podcast from this pair is worth your actual attention

I will admit my bias here. The Black Phone is one of those films I have gone back to more than once, which for me is the real test of whether horror has landed. It was not just jump scares stacked on top of each other, it was a genuine sense of dread that built slowly and then did not let go. If even a fraction of that instinct carries over into nine episodes of radio fiction, this is going to be a very good addition to the autumn.

There is also something quietly pleasing about horror going back to audio at all. Before it was ever a visual genre, it was a fireside one, a radio one, a told-in-the-dark one. A famous broadcast once convinced people an alien invasion was actually happening, simply because of how it was performed over the airwaves. Derrickson and Hawke working in that tradition, deliberately set on a late night radio station, feels less like a gimmick and more like two people who understand exactly why that format still works.

I do not yet know who else is involved, what the individual episodes are about, or where you will be able to listen when it lands. What I do know is the date: 22 October. I will be putting the kettle on, turning the main lights off, and listening to the first episode the moment it is out. If you are the sort of person who likes your horror felt rather than seen, I would set the same evening aside.