Hangman (Blu-ray / DVD)
Starring Jeremy Sisto, Kate Ashfield, Ryan Simpkins
Directed by Adam Mason
Distributed by Alchemy
You never really know what’s coming your way when you toss a found footage flick in the Blu-ray player. The sub-genre has become so trendy it’s now become wise to consider the fact that anyone with a decent camera and a desire to be the next big thing in Hollywood can and will throw a superfluous handy-cam flick together, which means you may be in for a serious shit-storm. With that in mind, you’re constantly gambling. It’s the name of the game, and that game comes accompanied by questions.
Does this particular filmmaker understand the fundamentals of movie-making?
Is this a buddy project someone tossed together hoping to strike gold among viewers?
Is there a shred of originality in the “story” we’re about to subject ourselves to?
There is, and always will be, a degree of uncertainty with these films. The illusion that a found footage flick is easier to compile than a standard film is not only incorrect, it also seems to now be a grating black eye on the genre. Further disappointing is the fact that this has all but become the norm for every “director” who never invested a single second in the study of film. That’s why we get so many miserable stinkers and blatant copycat efforts. But, thank the higher powers-that-be, not every found footage movie is a dud.
Hangman isn’t director Adam Mason’s first film, and unlike a number of his peers, he’s clearly put his time in honing his craft. Hangman isn’t dull, it isn’t built upon clichés and it isn’t a repeat performance of some other oddball found footage film you’ve already seen. No, Hangman is the real deal.
The story isn’t remarkably complex, as it places focus on your average American family, who are unwittingly the object of a murderous voyeur. The picture’s villain, who dons a plain, feature-free mask (a la Slenderman) forces entry into Aaron and his family’s abode, only to set up a series of hidden cameras. The family has no idea they’re being watched or, even more terrifying, that a masked madman has actually made the home’s crawlspace his very own discreet operational base. He’s always in the house. He’s always watching, and as the picture moves forward, this lunatic begins pushing boundaries until ultimately, it becomes a fight between villain and victim, with lives on the line.
Sounds a bit like your standard home invasion film, right? Well, it isn’t your standard anything, and if there were more home invasion pictures as taut as Hangman, or more found footage features as well thought out, we’d have an array of top-notch pictures to cherish. Hangman, however, joins the sadly slim ranks of genuinely frightening FF flicks.
The most unsettling aspect of Hangman is the nonchalant manner with which the villain torments this poor family. It seems like another day job for this lunatic, whose antics force the family to begin questioning their own sanity. Things are moved in the night, things go missing, beverages from the refrigerator are left sitting on the counter, waiting for the first to rise in the morning. And for a while Aaron and his wife, Beth, chalk these incidents up to their children being simple, lazy children. But that idea flies from the window as all members of the family begin to take notice of the strange occurrences happening directly beneath their noses.
The picture reaches deep levels of depravity as the final act gets under way. The audience learns that this man has more than surveillance on the mind. He sees red, and he wants to see that red decorate the walls of this cozy little home. Worse yet, he’s learned the habits of the family, their schedules and mannerisms, so well that he’s essentially free to do to them as he wishes. And it’s creepy… really, really creepy.
The film – which feels like a contemporary, tightened up rendition of Matthew Patrick’s 1989 picture Hider in the House – never once relies on jump scares, and it never once forces hokey computer-generated imagery in our faces. No, everything here is handled with a sense of realism that will chill you right through the bone and into the marrow. The fact that, today, in this morbid world, this is a scenario that could truly play out is arguably the most haunting aspect of the film. The entire sick, twisted debacle never feels out of the realm of possibility, and if you’re asking me, the most terrifying pictures are the ones that feel as though they could have conceivably been lifted directly from reality.
Check out Hangman, late at night, with not a single bulb lit. It’s a paralyzing experience that will have you double-checking doors, windows, and even your crawlspace. You just never know who, or what, may call your personal space home.
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Film
Categorized:Reviews
