10 Worst Horror Movie Characters Of 2022
4. The Grabber - The Black Phone
Scott Derrickson seemed to have found the De Niro to his Scorsese. The Black Phone marked his second horror collaboration with Ethan Hawke, following the wildly popular cult classic Sinister.
Hawke steps into the role of Derrickson's antagonist on this occasion, portraying the film's serial killer, The Grabber. The Black Phone possessed one of the widest ranging pre-release campaigns for a horror movie in recent memory. Huge amounts of promotional material popped up across social media months before it was released, following a lengthy delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sadly, all this did was make Hawke's shortcomings all the more disappointing. The Black Phone is an interesting example of a film that the critics were full of praise for - boasting an 83% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes - but for some reason, audiences hated. The childishly unhinged affectations, unprovoked threats of psychotic violence, sudden changes in tone and expression - Hawke's villain comes across as a pound-shop imitation of the Joker, who just happens to have a penchant for abducting and murdering adolescent boys.
Despite the obvious inherent talent of the multiple Academy Award nominee, The Grabber stands as a underwhelming second horror outing for Hawke. This sad fact is even more evident in terms of scare factor, particularly when one considers that his previous offering Sinister is lauded as one of the most terrifying films of all time.