What about a serial killer most frightens you? There is no one right response to that, but we think the most unsettling aspect about serial killers is how well they fit in. The killer may be the man who passed you at the mall or the person who made your burger at the neighborhood restaurant because there is nothing overtly psychotic about their habits.
The best serial killer-based films have horrified us by playing on the idea that they may really be hiding out anywhere. The Grabber, a frightening serial killer who kidnapped young men and tortured them to death, was recently featured in the film The Black Phone.
Your spine should have chilled at Ethan Hawke’s portrayal, and in this video, we will try to examine several infamous serial killers from noteworthy films who bear some resemblance to the Grabber!
The Cape May Slayer from Summer of 84
In every aspect, this 2018 horror movie is an underappreciated gem. Rarely has a serial killer been so unsettling, and even more rarely have we seen serial killer movies with such a cliffhanger. In 1984, young guys in the Cape May area mysteriously vanished. This is the setting for the story.
Davey Armstrong, a fifteen-year-old boy, believes that his police officer neighbor Wayne Mackey may be connected to the missing teenagers. His suspicion gets stronger, when he finds out that a boy he saw in Wayne’s house has gone missing. The adults don’t pay much attention to his theories, but a few of his friends help him investigate the strange cop.
It turns out that Davey was right all along, and the Cape May Slayer is none other than Wayne Mackey. When Davey and a couple of his friends sneak into Wayne’s house, they are horrified after discovering a locked room in the basement. The bathroom is filled with desiccated corpses, and they even find the recently kidnapped kid. They present the evidence to the police, and just when you think things will be fine and the killer will be nabbed, things take a turn for the worse.
The Cape May Slayer was hiding in Davey’s attic, and he kidnaps the young boy and his friend Woody. He plays a twisted game of manhunt with them, and Woody is killed while Davey is allowed to run free so that he lives with the paranoia. The movie ends with the killer still at large, and the viewers will be clearly disturbed by the turn of events!
The similarities with the Grabber are quite obvious, and everything from the killing methods to the thought process of playing twisted games with the victims can be observed in the Cape May Slayer. The movie promises loads of twists and turns, and the serial killer is surely an unforgettable character who will live in your nightmares!
Pennywise from ‘It’
One might argue that this shape-shifting demonic creature who infamously appears as a clown and targets the young folk is not exactly a serial killer. It is true that the character has paranormal origins, but his actions do remind us of serial killers, especially the one we saw in The Black Phone.
Pennywise inspires fear and the scene, where Pennywise suddenly appears from the sewers and grabs his prey, is one that will haunt the viewers for ages. Apart from the supernatural angle, the only major difference between him and the Grabber is that Pennywise appears every 27 years.
He is almost like a curse that has been allowed to run free, and he doesn’t really have the motivation to torture his victims. That being said, it has been observed that the creepy clown took great pleasure in terrorizing children. Both the Grabber and Pennywise have a similar target range, and the former evoked a similar kind of fear when we watched him on screen recently.
Pennywise is also way more powerful than the Grabber, because he has the ability to cause hallucinations that confuse his prey. Besides, he can teleport himself to various places and is a master manipulator. Back in the 90s miniseries, this Stephen King creation was killed after his heart was ripped out. In the 2017 movie ‘It’, Pennywise was only defeated for the time being, and later in the sequel it was shown that his heart was removed and crushed, presumably killing him for good!
Annie the psychopath from Misery (1990)
This psychological thriller by Rob Reiner slipped under the radar for many, but the movie came up with one of the most disturbing psychopaths we encountered in fiction. Annie, a seemingly innocent nurse, is hardly what you imagine when we say ‘serial killer’, but is the kind of psycho that would make the Grabber look like a normal person. Annie was delusional, and she was obsessed with a famous novelist named Paul Sheldon.
When Paul was caught in an accident in the middle of a blizzard, she saved his life, only to hold him captive in her remote residence. She claims to be his greatest fan, but when he reads her the pages from his new manuscript, we see the real crazy side to her character. She flies into fits of rage and forces him to burn the copy.
Annie then forces the author to start a new manuscript, which could move ahead according to her whims and fancies. One of her favorite characters had to be brought back to life, and there is simply no escaping their confinement Paul. He discovers that Annie was responsible for the deaths of several infants, and the lack of evidence is the only reason why she is running free.
She also ends up killing the local sheriff when he finds out about Paul, and it takes a brilliant plan from Paul to finally kill her. The author is still traumatized after the incident, and the character of Annie just goes on to show how deep-rooted and messed up certain psychological issues can be! The Grabber didn’t get much of a backstory in The Black Phone, but both he and Annie must have encountered something terrible to turn to insanity with such violence! Kathy Bates was just as impactful as Ethan Hawke in this psychotic role, and if you haven’t watched the movie already, it is high time that you did!
Fred Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street
When Wes Craven created Freddy Krueger, he probably didn’t realize what a horror icon this would turn into! A Nightmare on Elm Street blossomed into a successful franchise, and Freddy Krueger went on to become one of the scariest entities for children all over the world.
Serial killing, by definition, refers to a series of murders with or without a clear motive, and Freddy Krueger certainly fits the bill. Yes, he is a paranormal entity comparable to the likes of Pennywise, but his serial killing tendencies are more akin to someone like the Grabber. While watching The Black Phone, we often felt as if the creators tried to add a touch of horror to the killer. He looked almost as intimidating as Freddy, and his methods were probably far more brutal than his.
Freddy Krueger used to hunt down his victims in their dreams, and this would result in their deaths in the real world as well. Of course, the Grabber had to endure a lot more hard work, but their target victims were about the same age. It just remains to be seen if the Grabber will reprise his role because Freddy has been there, done that!
Casanova from Kiss the Girls (1997)
As if having one serial killer in a movie was not scary enough, Kiss the Girls introduced two! It all starts with detective Alex Cross heading to North Carolina to track his missing niece in the wake of a series of mysterious disappearances. When one of the kidnapped girls manages to escape, she helps Cross in tracking down the mystery killer and kidnapper, Casanova. It becomes clear that this masked man refers to himself as Casanova and treats his victims as objects to collect.
He preys upon young women, and he only kills the victims when they fail to obey his rules. This should ring a bell with those who have watched the Grabber in action. He always searched for excuses to beat up the victims and finally kill them, and the masked Casanova will surely remind you of him. Both the Casanova and the Grabber prefer a young victim profile, and their appearance has an uncanny similarity.
Another series of kidnappings and murders in Los Angeles lead us to another serial killer, Dr. William Rudolph, and finally, it is revealed that the two killers were actually partners. There is a breathtaking twist when the audience finally gets to know the identity of Casanova, and the morbidly terrifying presence of these two made the movie quite a shocker. Add to that the flamboyance of Morgan Freeman in the lead, and this is a film that you simply cannot miss out on!
Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs
The Silence of the Lambs will probably go down in history as one of the greatest serial killer flicks ever made. With the iconic Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector and Ted Levine as Buffalo Bill, the acting performances were top-notch, and the narrative was creepy enough to give you the jitters.
Hannibal Lector, the cannibalistic psychiatrist was already in jail, and a young FBI officer is tasked with interviewing him to get a few clues that will help in nabbing Buffalo Bill. His original name was Jame Gumb, and a terrible childhood led to deep-rooted conflicts in him that left him mentally unstable. He killed his grandparents at the age of 12, and even after being in the correctional facility, his violent tendencies were far from gone.
Buffalo Bill has the most shocking modus operandi among all the killers in this list. He would pretend to be injured and ask for help from a woman before knocking her unconscious. He would take the victim to his basement, and starve her to the point where her skin would become loose enough to be removed easily.
He would then proceed to skin the victim, and his kill count was rising considerably till the young FBI agent finally put an end to his menace. Buffalo Bill and the Grabber might just have similar backstories because they both felt no remorse for their actions. The former easily has the more gruesome way of killing the victims, but they both have a thing for basements and prefer to lock up the victims, watching them die bit by bit! If only Grabber had a fitting backstory, the comparison could be more fruitful!
Gary and Ben from Captivity (2007)
Captivity might not be a classic, but the serial killer brothers in the movie certainly gave us the chills. Gary and Ben kidnap women and keep them confined in a cell, subjecting them to unimaginable forms of torture that eventually kill them. Their latest victim is Jennifer, who is misled into thinking that Gary is another victim like her and kept in an adjoining cell.
It is later revealed that Ben and Gary had been working together all along, but Gary has started to develop feelings for Jennifer and wants to get rid of his brother. The movie turns into violent mayhem soon afterward, and eventually, Jennifer outwits Gary and manages to kill him. While the scenes of violence and torture might be a bit much for many, the killers are easily the showstoppers.
Ben, in particular, is quite similar to the Grabber when it comes to the method of killing the victims slowly with time. However, we have to admit that Grabber was probably less disturbing when you compare him with the unspeakable stuff that Gary and Ben did to their victims! The brothers even have an appropriate backstory, where we learn that as children, they were tortured by their mother, and it turned them into sadistic monsters seeking revenge! If you have the stomach to handle some seriously gruesome moments, try out Captivity and you will not be disappointed!
There are many other infamous serial killers who have made it into the fictional world. Some are inspired by real-life incidents, while others are made-up versions of the harsh reality, but each one of them has this uncanny ability to leave the viewers intrigued. The Grabber was the latest addition to the long list of psychopathic killers, and do let us know in the comments below about similar characters that you found the most distressing!