Why Ethan Hawke's The Grabber Makes the Worst Kidnapper

The following contains spoilers for The Black Phone, now playing in theaters.

In The Black Phone, Ethan Hawke’s Grabber cut a very sinister figure in Denver. This adaptation of Joe Hill’s short story saw him abducting and killing young boys in the ’70s, leaving cops stumped. However, The Grabber made a big mistake taking young Finney, not realizing the ghosts of his past victims would work with the kid to bring him down. His sister, Gwen, also used her otherworldly visions to help. However, The Black Phone unraveled by having the worst kidnapper and also a terrible psychic in Gwen.


How Was The Grabber a Bad Kidnapper in The Black Phone?

The Grabber made many rookie mistakes in The Black Phone. Firstly, he kept driving around in the same black van, leaving the same balloons at each site. Had the police set up blockades, they’d have him dead to rights. But it’s when The Grabber takes Finney that audiences see how much of an amateur he truly is.

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He forgot to search Finney, leaving him with a rocket ship toy he’d later use as a screwdriver. In addition, he didn’t notice Finney was digging holes and getting dirty, breaking the grill off the window, and setting traps in the basement. There were so many signs that The Grabber completely missed. He also left soda bottles after dinner for Finney, giving the boy potential weapons to use. What was also silly was him letting his brother Max stay at the house where he kept the boy, which allowed Max to find Finney. He could have let Max stay at the other house, where he buried the bodies.


The icing on the cake came with The Grabber not changing the locks after a ghost helped Finney escape by giving him the combination. He should have used something other than the dead kid’s bike lock in the first place and better fortified the basement so that even if Finney killed him, the kid couldn’t escape. The fact that he underestimated the boy, who slipped outside once, compounded that The Grabber wasn’t too bright.

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How Was Gwen a Terrible Psychic in The Black Phone?

Throughout The Black Phone, Gwen dreamed about the house The Grabber buried bodies under. She saw the house number, the design, the tree outside and all the fine details. Thus, Gwen could have given this intel to the cops, who trusted her after her visions connected to other crime scenes. The police would rarely have faith in a young kid like this, but they desperately sought information from her.


Instead, she told her dad, Terrence, who was already cynical. They searched for it at night rather than let the cops know. Gwen then biked around the next day, which made no sense because the cops had the numbers to canvas the town and find the place quicker. To make it worse, Gwen only called them and let them know the details when she accidentally stumbled upon the place.

By keeping the dreams to herself, Gwen endangered her brother. Luckily, he killed the villain and stumbled outside to find her and the cops. But had the house been far away and The Grabber overpowered Finney, he’d have been able to kill him, which means Gwen’s cavalry would have been too late on the scene. Ultimately, she wasn’t efficient, all to set up that triumphant reunion at the end, which was emotional but still illogical.


To see how incompetent The Grabber and Gwen are, The Black Phone is in theaters now.

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