The following contains spoilers for Black Phone 2Black Phone 2 turns the Grabber from the first film into a supernatural threat like Freddy Krueger. Black Phone 2 brings back Ethan Hawke’s Grabber, a sadistic killer who killed several young people across the course of The Black Phone. What makes this surprising is that the villain was unceremoniously killed in the previous film by Finny.

Although the full circumstances of his return are never revealed, Black Phone 2 transforms the spirit of the Grabber into a malicious force, with the ability to haunt the dreams of others and grievously hurt them in the real world. It’s an interesting choice that transforms the Grabber from one archetypal horror villain into another type of threat.

How Black Phone Transforms The Grabber Into A Freddy Krueger

Black Phone 2 reimagines the Grabber as an incorporeal threat, transforming the initially grounded horror villain into a more supernatural figure akin to Freddy Krueger from the Nightmare on Elm Street series. In The Black Phone, the Grabber was established as a very grounded sort of threat, lacking any overt supernatural powers.

While the spirits of his past victims were present and Gwen’s latent psychic abilities added a layer of supernatural elements to the first film, The Black Phone didn’t imply the Grabber was anything special. He was more in the mold of the Ghostface Killer from Scream, a murderer who could hide in plain sight.

Black Phone 2 had little choice in incorporating some supernatural elements if it wanted him to appear in the sequel, given his fate in the previous film. Black Phone 2 reveals that the Grabber did indeed go to hell after his death, where unseen demonic forces seemingly hollowed out his remaining humanity to only leave behind his worst qualities.

This lingering shade of the Grabber was able to breach the material world at the site of his first murders, Alpine Lake Camp, due to the lingering spirits of his earliest victims. Empowered by their fear, the Grabber can now move around the dreamscape and attack people in the real world as an invisible and seemingly unstoppable force.

This gives the Grabber powers similar to Freddy from A Nightmare on Elm Street, which is far from their only similarity. Both are killers who targeted children and were killed for their crimes. Both returned from the beyond with new powers and a vengeful spirit. Both also target the loved ones of their killer as a form of revenge.

Both end up confronted by one of their intended victims in the dream realm and are defeated when his weaknesses are exposed and he’s overwhelmed. The Grabber also has a malicious edge that feels reminiscent of Freddy, who always savored his kills with a glib joke and creepy grin that matches the Grabber’s mask.

How The Grabber’s Freddy Transformation Could Set Up Black Phone 3

Black Phone 2 fully embraces the supernatural with the Grabber’s return, and it sets up an interesting way to keep the franchise going. Although the Grabber has been defeated, so was Freddy before his return. If the series wants to continue, it wouldn’t be hard to have the Grabber break free of his frozen prison through some unseen supernatural means.

After all, that’s how the character was able to return in the first place. This could allow him to resume his hunt for Finny and Gwen, or set him up to chase other teens. Alpine Lake Camp is an easy setting to establish new characters/fresh targets of a renewed Grabber, setting him up as a more flexible threat.

It’s a wild escalation from the first movie. However, the first film established Black Phone‘s universe as one with supernatural elements within it, so it doesn’t feel like the new film is necessarily breaking the rules of the first movie by transforming the Grabber in such a way. If anything, it makes this modern answer to Freddy even creepier.

Audiences only found out about Freddy’s human crimes after he had returned as a ghost haunting murderer. However, by showing audiences what the Grabber was like in real life, the notion of him gaining supernatural abilities becomes far more unsettling. Even when he’s ice-skating at his victims, his harsher edges make him deeply unsettling and dangerous.

Blumhouse has an opportunity with the Grabber’s new transformation to turn Black Phone into this generation’s A Nightmare on Elm Street. The fact that the Grabber spends much of the film without his true face being seen means future films could recast the character if necessary. Conversely, Ethan Hawke could further cement himself as a horror fixture with the role.

It’s an interesting evolution of the Freddy concept, especially in light of how it morphs the character from one Wes Craven archetype (the masked killer) to another (the supernatural force haunting the dreams of his victims). Continuing to build on that element could help make the Grabber’s transformation in Black Phone 2 only the beginning for the villain.