Adapted from Joe Hill’s short story, the new Blumhouse horror film The black phone impresses the audience thanks to Ethan Hawke’s performance as the villain named The Grabber. Set in Denver in 1978, the story follows a group of children terrified by rumors of a man kidnapping and murdering children.
The black phone has a supernatural bent, as the main character, Finney (Mason Thames), is taken and spends time in a horrible basement, where she receives calls from the ghosts of previous victims. While the film is well made and a great adaptation, there is something missing from The Grabber’s rendering that is ultimately a bit disappointing.
The black phone is a great example of horror marketing and has done very well at the box office. According to Box Office Mojo, the film has grossed $114,583,175 worldwide. The film is incredibly well done, with impressive performances, a strong story and great source material. The film has an overall haunting atmosphere as siblings Finney and Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) live with their alcoholic, abusive father who doesn’t like Gwen’s psychic visions like her mother. But the villain in the movie doesn’t feel as detailed, immersive, and thoughtful as the rest of the movie.
Ethan Hawke can’t defend his black phone villain, which makes sense because The Grabber kidnaps kids, makes them stay in a creepy basement, then kills them. The Grabber plays a game with them called Naughty Boy and when they try to come up, he hurts them. He likes to sit with a belt in his chair in his kitchen, waiting for the moment when he can continue his plan. While this is absolutely terrifying, and The black phone has a lot of scary moments, The Grabber is a bit thin in terms of iconic slasher movie villains.
The problem is that the public only gets snapshots of how The Grabber takes kids because there are flashes of him kidnapping Finney and Gwen’s peers and then the screen fades to black. While this is an artistic choice, it’s more interesting to see The Grabber dressed in black, holding black balloons and watching a van drive around town. What is The Grabber’s backstory? How did he become the bad, horrible person he is, and who was his first victim?
Every great horror villain has a specific look that fans can see for miles around. Ghostface wears a black and white mask and black cape and the iconic Michael Myers has a recognizable mask. The Grabber fits into this category, as it has a strange mask covering its face. Every time the public sees him, his mask is different. C. Robert Cargill, the film’s writer, told… The Hollywood Reporter“Each mask is also the character he plays. That’s really a thing. In the movie, he’s asked if he’s the one who killed all the other guys, and he says, ‘No, that was someone else.’ So each mask represents to him a different part of the ritual and a different aspect of his personality.”
But while The Grabber looks scary and of course he’s done terrible things that you can’t think about, something is missing. Perhaps if the film showed The Grabber taking his other victims in more detail, the audience would be able to understand him better and he would feel like a villain with more depth. The Grabber can never be a sympathetic horror movie villain as he takes and kills children. But the public could still learn more about him. When the ghosts of the victims call Finney while he is in the basement, they should share more information about him. While it makes sense for them to help Finney work out an escape plan and give him little bits of clues, this doesn’t feel like enough.
It also looks like Gwen could have more dreams and prophecies about The Grabber. While she can figure out his location, which helps the police find him, Gwen could discover a lot more that will eventually give fans a more detailed picture of this villain. Gwen and Finney are so bonded that this would work well.
The Grabber appears to have been abused and horribly treated by his family, which is why he grew up doing the same. The tragic cycle of abuse is a theme in The black phone and is the motivation behind his actions. But compared to other villains, fans just don’t get to know enough about him. The public learns a lot about the Ghostface killers in scream as each is revealed. Before Finney kills The Grabber, the public should have a better, more rounded idea of who he was.
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