Universal Sets Release Date for Scott Derrickson’s The Black Phone Universal and Blumhouse Productions announced on Tuesday that the upcoming horror thriller The Black Phone officially has a release date, with the company targeting January 28, 2022, as its release date. The film, which will be directed by Scott Derrickson, tells the story of Finney Shaw, a shy but clever 13-year-old boy, who is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement. When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer’s previous victims. And they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney.