‘The Black Phone’ Secretly Shares a Universe With This Horror Anthology

The first time you watch The Black Phone, you feel like it’s a self-contained universe set in a quiet Denver neighborhood in 1978. It features a masked kidnapper and a scared boy locked in a basement with a phone that shouldn’t work but somehow does. The movie keeps its focus narrow: Finney (Mason Thomas) is trapped while his psychic sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), searches desperately for him. The ghosts of other victims speak impossibly through the phone’s receiver, each one offering a small piece of advice that might help the next kid survive.

The film concludes with that story feeling complete—the Grabber(Ethan Hawke) is gone, Finney walks back into the daylight, and Gwen’s strange dreams finally make sense. But a few years later, director Scott Derrickson subtly expanded that world. Not through a sequel or a post-credit tease. Instead, the connection shows up in a segment of the horror anthology V/H/S/85. Once you notice it, the universe around The Black Phone suddenly extends far beyond that one basement.

Gwen’s Dreams Always Felt Like Something Larger

Image via Blumhouse

Part of what makes The Black Phone live rent-free in the back of your mind is how Gwen’s visions behave. She dreams of things she shouldn’t know: houses she’s never seen, balloons drifting through empty streets, and even a patch of dirt that feels wrong the moment she looks at it.

But those dreams help guide the police to the graves of The Grabber’s victims. They also bring Gwen closer to the truth about where her brother is being held, providing vital clues needed in the mystery. The film allows her abilities to unfold in the background without turning into a lecture on psychic powers or falling into sci-fi action territory. Her father, Terence’s (Jeremy Davies), reaction adds an emotional layer to the story.

He remembers what happened to his wife. She had the same visions, and eventually they overwhelmed her life. This turned him into a grieving, alcoholic, and physically abusive father, suffering from PTSD after witnessing the trauma of his late wife. Every time Gwen talks about another dream, Dad senses the same danger creeping back into the family, and it just feels completely unsettling.

“Dreamkill” Brings the Same Power Back Years Later

Image via Universal Pictures

In the anthology V/H/S/85, Derrickson’s segment “Dreamkill” follows Detective Wayne Johnson (Freddy Rodríguez). He’s investigating a series of brutal murders that seem strangely familiar because he has already seen them happen on mysterious videotapes sent to him in advance. And the tapes keep getting delivered to him.

The footage is taken from a killer’s point of view and gets traced back to Goth teenage Gunther (Dashiell Derrickson), who dreams of the murders, and they somehow end up on a VHS tape. His father, Bobby (James Ransone), explains that psychic powers run in the family, including a cousin who had once dreamed about her kidnapped brother.

Detective Wayne spends most of the story chasing down whoever keeps mailing him the tapes. That trail eventually leads him to Gunther, who swears he has nothing to do with the killings, only dreaming about them. He can’t even explain how the scenes end up on the VHS tapes. As Wayne gets closer to the truth, things quickly spiral out of control as the source of the dreams is revealed, ending in tragedy.

A Family Connection Hiding in Plain Sight

Image via Shudder

Gunther’s father describes a pattern of psychic visions that extends through several relatives. Some family members have learned to live with their dreams, while others struggle under their weight. One woman in the family eventually lost her life after being overwhelmed by the visions. Then he casually mentions the two relatives who once had to use dreams to rescue one of them, a kidnapping victim.

The details pass quickly, but the meaning remains clear to anyone who remembers The Black Phone. The niece and nephew Bobby mentions are Gwen and Finney, and Gunther is their cousin. The strange dreams that led Gwen toward her brother come from the same bloodline.

Suddenly, the story in Denver looks substantially different and is taking up a broader scope. Gwen’s ability was never a random gift that appeared when the plot needed help. It belongs to a family that has been dealing with the same visions for years, making the world feel so much bigger.

The V/H/S World Makes the Crossover Feel Natural

The V/H/S franchise already thrives on chaotic supernatural storytelling. Each film collects strange recordings and presents them in an anthology format. Each tape reveals a different nightmare lurking somewhere in the world. Some stories involve cults and demons, while others explore aliens, monsters, or strange experiments.

Fans often describe the franchise as a vast horror sandbox where almost every nightmare you can imagine appears in one of those tapes. The format allows filmmakers to explore any corner of the genre they want without worrying too much about connecting everything cohesively. Try to think of the Amicus anthologies from the 1970s, but hopped up on acid. That loose framework provides Derrickson with an ideal setting to develop the mythology of The Black Phone.

The psychic dreams that once guided Gwen now exist in a world already filled with supernatural chaos. It subtly alters the story’s importance. Finney’s escape still matters, and The Grabber remains a terrifying figure in that neighborhood. However, the strange ability that helped save him now connects to a much broader and darker family history. Somewhere out there, another kid is already dreaming up the next nightmare before it even occurs.

Release Date

June 16, 2022

Runtime

103 minutes

Director

Scott Derrickson

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