Grabber

The Grabber was an aquatic Necromorph that hid among the flooded passages of the USG Ishimura, disguised as a seemingly uninfected human corpse until prey came within reach. When a victim drew near, it whipped its mutated head forward on an impossibly long neck to latch on and drove a serrated spinal blade out of the same opening to kill. It was one of the few Necromorphs that hunted from the water, relying entirely on ambush.

Anatomy and method#

The Grabber was built from a single human corpse, often only slightly damaged in appearance, which let it pass at a glance for one of the dead rather than a threat. Most of the body's mass had been transformed to make and store the creature's defining features: an extremely long, muscular neck and a serrated blade formed from the corpse's own spine. The Grabber kept still, frequently submerged, until prey came close. It would then whip its head an impossibly long distance toward the victim and latch on, either holding them in place and distracting them or dragging them toward its body, while the spinal blade burst from the same orifice to finish the kill. Although the creatures did not appear able to move freely, they could likely drag themselves into suitable ambush positions.

The design had been intended for the USG Ishimura from the start. The Grabber was meant to seize prey in its jaws and pull them close before eviscerating them with the long spinal blade.

The Ishimura sewers#

The Grabber lay in wait throughout the flooded drainage system of the USG Ishimura. A group of survivors that included Nathan McNeill and Lexine Weller tumbled into the sewers when a weak ventilation cover collapsed beneath them, and there they met the creatures firsthand. The first Grabber appeared as a corpse partly submerged in the water, apparently uninfected, until its head began to shake and then whipped upward to startle the survivors. After the encounter, one survivor remarked that the creatures were adapting to their surroundings, and several more Grabbers were found across the drainage system, lying in wait before lunging up from beneath the murky water.

It was never made clear whether the bodies had been infected in the drains and mutated to suit the aquatic environment, or whether they had been infected elsewhere and moved into the drains by other Necromorphs.

The USG O'Bannon#

A Grabber also appeared aboard the USG O'Bannon during the outbreak there. It had formed from a crew member named Jenny, who died early in the outbreak and was reanimated. Her roommate Lana, finding her sitting idle and believing she was still alive, ignored a warning to keep her distance and approached to offer help. The reanimated Jenny then revealed her true form and spat acid into Lana's face, dissolving the skin and hair from her head. Lana survived the immediate attack despite the horrific injuries but died shortly afterward in a grenade blast. She was the first and only person known to have been attacked by a Grabber in this way.