The Black Phone's ending connects many dots but never explains why The Grabber can hear the ringing. This could mean that it is only a figment of his — and Finney's — imagination. Finney hears the phone ring and uses it as a coping mechanism to deal with his overbearing feelings of isolation and desperation.
Why is The Grabber the way he is in The Black Phone?
The Black Phone is ostensibly all about The Grabber's sins haunting him in the form of the ghosts of his prior victims. It's clear that The Grabber can hear the Black Phone and that he's simply ignoring the calls, showing the cognizance of his guilt, his shame at what he's done, and his unwillingness to stop.
In the near-perfect horror movie moment, the Black Phone's cord is used to kill The Grabber. The Black Phone explained that when Finney picks up the phone and all the children get their final say to their murderer, it's clear that they were the ones who orchestrated his death.
The Grabber is on the prowl in late 1970s Colorado, and he preys on “all-American” boys, luring them into his black van before locking them in a dark, austere basement, playing a “game” with them, and murdering them.
It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as it allowed each mask to represent a different side to The Grabber's personality. When asked if each mask represents a different side of The Grabber, Cargill responded, "Each mask is also the character that he's playing.
While The Grabber's motivation is never revealed, it was theorized by the creators that his mental instability and the game of "Naughty Boy" come from childhood abuse of his father making him play the same game and that the Grabber is trying to re-live these memories in a routine-type way to invoke nostalgia.
The Black Phone ends with Finney brutally killing The Grabber and escaping his house, finding Gwen and the police waiting outside, before they reunite with their father.
We never see The Grabber molest anyone, but we can infer that The Grabber's motives are at least partly sexual. All his victims are boys, and most are young teens. When Finney wakes up in his basement prison, he sees The Grabber staring at him.
He became traumatized and started to deny them. He kidnaps boys and plays the "Naughty boy game", because that's what his father did to him. He wants to release all that pent up rage and resentment he has towards his father, upon his victims. That's his origin story.
Robin was placed in the soundproof basement by The Grabber and was subsequently killed by him. Later that night, Terrence is tipped off about Robin's disappearance. A search is carried out by the police in the regions of the city, but without leads.
He would later fall into the game The Grabber set up, where he would have found the door ajar, climbed the stairs, and been viciously beaten by him. Subsequently, Griffin was killed and his soul remained in The Grabber's basement.
Wright and Miller speak to an eccentric man called Max who is staying in the area with his brother. It is revealed Finney is in the clueless Max's basement, and the Grabber is his brother. Finney speaks to another victim, Griffin, on the phone.
“It wasn't in the script that he was shirtless but I said 'You know, I think it would be really deranged if he didn't have a shirt on' and he said 'Great, I'll do it,'” said Derrickson. “And that's a big thing for actors, how comfortable they are showing more of their body.”
The brainchild of Derrickson, designer Tom Savini and fabricator Jason Baker, the masks convey three exaggerated expressions of the villain: joy, despair and utter nothingness in a haunting reinterpretation of the traditional comedy/tragedy masks.
The Grabber falls into the hole and breaks his foot in the grate hiding in the bottom. Finney uses the opportunity to hit the Grabber repeatedly before choking the serial killer with the line of the black phone.
Based on the short story by Joe Hill (son of the master of horror, Stephen King), The Black Phone is a haunting tale about a young boy, Finney (Mason Thames), who gets kidnapped by a serial killer called The Grabber (Ethan Hawke).
At some point during the film, Vance ends up encountering The Grabber, who abducts him. After Vance tries and fails to escape by smashing a hole in the basement wall, the Grabber kills him offscreen.
Sometime in 1977 while delivering newspapers, Billy was kidnapped by The Grabber and taken to a soundproof basement. During his captivity, he tried to use a rope to reach the basement window, however, he likely failed to open it. Afterwards, he hid his rope in a hole in the wall.
Hawke stars as The Grabber, a child killer who kidnaps his next victim, Finney (Mason Thames), only for Finney to get some unexpected help from The Grabber's previous victims. Given the supernatural element to The Black Phone, it won't be a surprise to know that it's not based on a true story.
Death. While on the way home one afternoon, Robin gets abducted by the Grabber and killed offscreen. He appears later on as a ghost, where he instructs Finney on how to fight back against the Grabber.
Robin Arellano - Killed by The Grabber off-screen. Revived as a ghost. Ten Frogs - Killed off-screen by unknown means and dissected in a science class. Max Shaw - Struck in the back of the skull by the Grabber with an axe.
