NEVER TALK TO STRANGERS.

In 1978, 13-year-old Finney (Mason Thames) is kidnapped by a serial killer called The Grabber (Ethan Hawke) and locked up in a basement where earlier victims soon make themselves known…

A successful horror movie from the director of Sinister (2012) whose collaboration with Stephen King’s son, Joe Hill, guarantees dark childhood nostalgia and surprisingly likable ingredients; this is a story about children, dead and alive, working together to stop the killer.

Exciting, with a convincing cast of kids; The Grabber isn’t terribly original, but a masked Hawke is good in the part. 

2022-U.S. 103 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by Scott Derrickson. Screenplay: Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill. Short Story: Joe Hill. Cast: Mason Thames (Finney), Madeleine McGraw (Gwen), Ethan Hawke (The Grabber), Jeremy Davies, E. Roger Mitchell, Troy Rudeseal.

Trivia: In the anthology film V/H/S/85 (2023), Derrickson contributed a segment that serves as a spin-off to this film.