20 Most WTF Moments From 2025 Horror Movies
14. The Grabber Killed Hope - Black Phone 2
In the original Black Phone, it was revealed that Finney (Mason Thames) and Gwen's (Madeleine McGraw) mother Hope killed herself - a tragedy that informs pretty much everything we know about the siblings - but Black Phone 2 decided to give this traumatic incident a contrived retcon, by revealing that Hope didn't actually end her own life, but rather, she was murdered by The Grabber (Ethan Hawke) himself.
Moreover, a young Hope (Anna Lore) actually worked with the Grabber at Alpine Lake Camp decades prior, and after she discovered his murderous ways, he killed her and staged it to look like a self-inflicted hanging.
Though you can argue that this only enhances the Grabber's sadistic savagery, it did nevertheless feel like quite the ass-pull - a lazy, convoluted attempt to create a more personal link between the kids and their antagonist, when frankly this dynamic was already fraught enough.
Everything-is-connected storytelling is a scourge of modern studio filmmaking, especially when it feels as abrupt and forced as it does here.