hthere is a supernatural shock wave that amounts to a horrifying, disgusting and perfectly valid Stephen King horror; It is actually based on a 2004 short story by the author’s son, Joe Hill. The place is North Denver, in the world of double denim in the late 1970s, and a small town fears a serial kidnapper called “The Grabber,” played by Ethan Hawke in a creepy mask. He targets teenage boys and is said to drive in clown suits and black balloons in his truck. Bright yellow “disappeared” posters pile up on walls and gates and society normalizes and welcomes its fears.
Vinnie Shaw (Mason Thames) is a shy little girl, fluent in math and baseball, her widowed father (Jeremy Davis) is an alcoholic, and her daughter’s smart sister, Gwen (Madeline McGraw), appears to have inherited her late mother’s gift. for a second viewing. When Grabber takes Vinny, he holds him captive in a basement room with a strange black phone plugged into the wall that appears to be disconnected. But this phone rings strangely when the kidnapper is not around, with the ghosts of his former victims at stake; Meanwhile, Gwen dreams of The Grabber which the police are taking very seriously.
This is watchable entertainment that reaches reasonably high levels with its jump scares, which the thrill and suspense aspect engages on a human level: but there is a kind of plot problem in the second act of the film, with the terrifying life. of Vinnie as a prisoner Grabber apparently able to get away with an enormous amount of escape preparations to be discovered. But Hawk, whose creepy villain potential represents a plausible new career direction, is troubling and there are really good performances from Thames and McGraw.
