‘Black Phone 2’ Star Says Sequel Evokes ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’

When horror fans first heard a sequel toThe Black Phone was coming, there was excitement—but also confusion. Didn’t the Grabber, the diabolical child killer, die at the end of the 2021 movie, enabling his would-be final victim to escape? Of course he did! But with the existence of ghosts already established thanks to the Grabber’s haunted basement phone, there’s a ready-made avenue for the villain to return in Black Phone 2. And according to Mason Thames, who plays the very lucky Finney, the Grabber (again played by Ethan Hawke) reminded him of another diabolical child killer who returns from the grave.

In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Thames said the Grabber—who comes back to torment the teenage Finney via the dreams of his younger sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw)—has something in common with A Nightmare on Elm Street‘s Freddy Krueger.

“The way the Grabber is in this film reminds me a lot of Freddy Krueger, just angrier and, to me, a lot scarier just ’cause he is trying to kill me,” Thames said to the magazine. “Genuinely, he is terrifying. This movie and the powers he’s gained, without saying anything, it’s crazy and it’s so scary to see ’cause it is truly almost like an unstoppable force, that guy.”

What’s worse, the Grabber “realizes killing Finney or trying to hurt him wouldn’t affect him as much as hurting the person he loved,” according to Thames.

Directed by Scott Derrickson, Black Phone 2 has its world premiere at next week’s Fantastic Fest; it hits theaters October 17, bringing the Grabber’s amped-up supernatural powers to the screen to terrify audiences all over again.

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