‘Mr. Harrigan’s Phone’ director reveals Stephen King’s level of involvement in the polarizing Netflix horror

Spooky season is finally in full swing, which means a slew of fresh spooktacular forms of entertainment media are being thrust into the bulging horror bubble.

Naturally, the majority of horror fans look forward to new adaptations of the work of the master of the macabre, Stephen King. This year a fresh-faced King-inspired project, Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, is the hot new thing in town, though some are already warning viewers to stay away.

Nevertheless, any new Stephen King adaptation is a must for die-hard devotees of diabolical cinema. And, as eagle-eyed Netflix viewers press play, director John Lee Hancock sat down with Screen Rant to discuss King’s involvement with the movie, revealing that the 75-year-old author was helping every step of the way.

[He was] very involved. He wanted to stay out of the way and let me do my thing, but he let me know that he was there for me, and so I started taking advantage of that. When I finished the script, we sent it off to Stephen, and it’s like, “Oh, I hope he likes it,” because he can just give us a thumbs down, and we’re done. But he loved the script. And so from that point on, we had an email and phone relationship that was really, really helpful and great.

In addition to King’s fondness for the script, Hancock sought his input on finding the right shooting locations:

We would be looking at locations, and I could send him something and go, ‘Which one of these two looks like Howie’s Market? Because you made up the name, Howie’s Market, and you had something in your mind’s eye when you wrote it. Which one of these?’ And he would say, ‘I think the one on the left with the red. I think that feels more like what I was thinking.” Okay, great. We got Stephen’s approval on this location.’

The input of the author is extremely important to the overall success of an adaptation, especially in the horror/thriller category. And, with King’s famous criticism of past adaptations like The Shining, it makes sense for filmmakers to check in with him, even on the smallest of details.

Mr. Harrigan’s Phone is now available to stream on Netflix.