I won't watch this if he's not. A lot of movies try to sugarcoat child abduction stories by removing any mention of a sexual motive
I read enough true crime to know that most real cases of child abduction are either done by pedophiles or by traffickers
There are ways to allude to such things without showing anything graphic
Some people were saying, that you can read into some of the things he says, and the "play" he does. But beyond that insinuation, it doesn't go into it.
I personally didn't think so, but I can see the validity. See the exchange with Palehorse:
https://moviechat.org/tt7144666/The-Black-Phone/62c23ab8ae60302e668aaa92/Wouldnt-he-dollar-them
Don't know if that allusion would be sufficient for you to buy into the film.
I see. I had a hunch from the trailer that this movie wasn't gonna be very dark
Stephen King did make it pretty clear that Beverly Marsh was being molested by her father, which I think is even worse. I guess his son chickened out
I just don't find cartoonified stories of serial killers scary
I don't think it's a cartoonified story, but ymmv of course.
But yeah, his son left it just as vague in the source material too. I don't think it's really a spoiler, since part of this is in the trailer, but, spoiler warning ahead. If I recall, this is the only suggestion.
“You’re the one who killed those other kids.”
“No. Not me. That was someone else. I’m not going to
make you do anything you won’t like.”
Something about the construction of this phrase - I’m
not going to make you do anything you won’t like – brought
a fever heat to Finney’s face and left his body cold,
roughened with gooseflesh.
“If you try to touch me I’ll scratch your face and
whoever is coming to see you will ask why.”
I love Ethan Hawke, so I'll most likely watch it when it's free on streaming. But I won't have high expectations
shareFor sure he was . It seemed pretty obiovsly implied. Lotta wayne gacy vibes. Ethan hawk did very well
shareYes! I definitely felt the Wayne Gacy vibes and a nod to the film, Gacy...{the boys being buried in the crawl space}. Those Gacy vibes made this film very sad for me, thinking about the fate of those poor boys the Grabber abducted. It was hard for me to watch because of that, but I thought the film was pretty well made.
I also saw nods to, IT, by the use of the antagonists' use of balloons...only they were black instead of Pennywises' red balloons and, the yellow slicker worn by Finns' sister in TBP was also worn by Georgie in, IT.
Also a nod to, Sinister. I believe the room, or similar, where the Grabber kept Finney was used in Sinister, those walls looked mighty familiar. Same director, Scott Derrickson, same actor, Ethan Hawke, in a reverse roll...looks similar to Bughuul in Sinister.
Maybe causing emotional distress to a child is his modus operandi? Is that enough for you?
The Grabber seems to like to entice or invite his captives to escape as portrayed here, and then perhaps molests or assaults them if they actually try to do so.