The Black Phone | 2021

Set in 'Denver, Colorado', this supernatural horror was filmed around Wilmington on the coast of North Carolina.

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With the plot based around an old telephone, this could only be done as a period piece. Director Scott Derrickson takes this opportunity to flesh out Joe Hill's story with memories of his own adolescence in 1978 Colorado.

That's not where the film was shot though. It was made entirely in Wilmington, North Carolina. Time was, in the Eighties, Wilmington was a real hub for filmmaking but we don't hear quite so much about it these days as other major filming centres have sprung up – particularly Atlanta, Georgia.

In fact, interiors for The Black Phone, including the all-important basement – where sets built at what used to be the old Carolco Studios (where Blue Velvet, Firestarter and The Crow were based), which is now Cinespace Wilmington at 1223 North 23rd Street.

Onscreen, the city of Wilmington became most famous as 'Lumbertown' in David Lynch's Blue Velvet, but this is a very different city than the one of white picket fences, with low-rise, blue collar housing and chain link fences.

The baseball park where Finney (Mason Thames) is first introduced is the Cape Fear Optimist Club Fields, 3222 North Kerr Avenue. Wilmington is noticeably short of mountain ranges so those distant peaks had to be added digitally.

The home he shares with his younger sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) and abusive alcoholic father (Jeremy Davies) is 228-230 Pinecrest Parkway, Wilmington.

One location which is outside the city is the school the siblings attend, which was Acme-Delco Middle School, 26133 Andrew Jackson Highway East in Delco, about 25 miles northwest of Wilmington.

But we're back again for that really dark joke when the kidnapper, dubbed The Grabber (Ethan Hawke), abducts one of his victims from a convenience store called 'Ellison's Grab'n'Go'. In reality, this is Sam Food Mart, 4133 Princess Place Drive at Birchwood Drive.

Trying hard to avoid spoilers, the two houses at the end, stand on Shirley Road. I was surprised to discover that they really do face each other. They are numbers 2414 and 2415 Shirley Road.

Disappointingly, that skewed, skinny tree that made 2415 so recognisable on screen, wasn't real.