Hangman's Curse (2003)

Within the shadowed corridors of Rogers High School, something terrible has been unleashed. As fear escalates, a family of investigators goes undercover only to discover you cannot destroy what you cannot find. As students are claimed by a deadly power, Nate and Sarah Springfield (David Keith and Mel Harris) and their two teenage children race to protect the student body from the mysterious forces around them?and from their own prejudices.

Confused in every way.

What to say and where to start? Firstly, this movie bills, trails, and presents itself as a horror film. This movie is like Nancy Drew without any direction, acting, or plot thrown in. I don't think it has any idea what it wants to be. It should be played like "Scary Movie" but instead opts to take itself shockingly seriously.

The plot is laughable and you know exactly who the "bad guy" is from the very first moment you encounter him (because there's simply no other reason for him to exist in the movie). Things jump from one ridiculous scene to another and there is no reason whatsoever that any of the characters would ever be so blind or dumb in real life (like... you're being interviewed by the principal for attempted murder and the janitor is in the room watching?). What the...?

More unforgivable than anything is the acting. It's uniformly terrible amongst every adult role. The young people in the film aren't great, but they could pass on an ABC Afterschool Special I suppose. Frank Peretti (the story's author) makes a spectacle of himself in the eccentric professor role. He's terrible. Dreadful. Indescribably bad. If you were willing to suspend your disbelief for even a moment in this film, it would be shattered the second that he's on screen.

The school bullies are really just nerds with glandular disorders. The outcast goth rejects are the most attractive people in the film (and for some inexplicable reason, give up goth at the end). Such is typical of the film's casting.

This is just bad. Not offensive bad, but completely pathetic film-making all the same. It is not a buy, it is not a rent, it is not even a watch on tv when you're home sick Saturday night and laugh. It's an avoid completely no matter your age or interests. ½-star out of 5. November 24, 2008

Terrifying And Entertaining Movie

I watched this on November 1st. It would have been appropriate watching it a day earlier. This is a very scary movie, relying on terror rather than bloods and guts. It is rated PG-13, and deservedly so, but this is one PG-13 movie that is ideal for a teen-age audience (but not for a younger audience) as opposed to PG-13 movies which are close to being an R-rated movie.

The acting is not Academy Award worthy but is good. Especially good is the supporting role of Algernon played by Frank Peretti, who wrote the book this was based on. If Peretti wasn't busy writing, he should consider a career as being a comic actor. He was excellent comic relief.

Also good were the background songs, especially those by Renfey. Her MySpace picture does not fit the audience who would watch a pair of movies she did songs for (this one and "The Visitation", based on another Peretti story).

There is a subtle message to the movie concerning the fallacy of "survival of the fittest," and there are expressions of the Christian faith, but as I said, it is subtle. Those offended by the faith in this movie are offended by any Christian exercise of freedom of religion.

November 2, 2008

Hangman's Cursed by O.K. Acting

From the deep dark recesses of a high school comes the curse of Abel Frye...aptly portrayed in the opening scene and following scene of the football team's quarterback melting away psychologically during the game. Having not read the book I was not prejudiced with the novel's storyline beating around in my imagination...so I tried this movie out.

I found the cinematography and sound design to be very good with some highlights being the wide angle of the high school corridor in the evening when another "hangman" is being chiseled into a locker (excellent clarity and lighting), plus the industrial rock entrance of the goths coming through a doorway at school (slow-motion with full sound). The look and feel of the curse of Abel Frye was effective enough and not cheesy......BUT there were some mixed attempts at acting with the absolute low-point being the classroom scene where Elisha is challenging the teacher on his double-standards and hypocrisy ( which I think all too often reflects teachers these days ) but her mixing in of "hip" words and slang sounded, ohhhhhhhhhhh..."snap"..."my bad"...I'm trying to really give the benefit of the doubt on this.....nope, it was one of the worse scenes of acting and writing I've seen in movies, let alone a "Teen Thriller". It seemed that the writers were trying way too hard to sound cool, plus where was the director in terms of the quality of acting. A "horrorible" scene.

On the other hand the scenes with the older actors and veterans, i.e. with the parents and the principal, as well as the scene [SPOILER AHEAD]where Elisha had fallen down the shaft, broken her leg and was being tortured by psycho-dude and bitten by his throng of spiders brought more tension and creepiness to the plot.

I would probably enjoy Peretti's book more, even though this adaptation was fairly entertaining (like his acting, a bit over the top, but still engaging). Not a B-movie, but not an A-grade, either. I wouldn't buy it new....and in fact I didn't (about 3 and 1/2 dollars, used).
October 5, 2007

Awsome

There is a reason WHY Peretti is one of our best authors! This book was REALLY GOOD! Not for kids, but teens and adults will LOVE this movie! July 12, 2007

Hangman's Curse Film Review

I wish to leave my thoughts on Frank Peretti's first film: "Hangman's Curse". Don't get me wrong, but this film, just like so many others, has an incredibly misleading teaser/theatrical trailer. I first viewed the trailer for Hangman's Curse" as a special feature on another DVD and was impressed with what I saw. However, at the time I was led to believe that this was a horror film (the cover art also implies this), but that is far from the truth... I had not read the book that this film was based on at the time I bought the DVD, so I will be unable to relay to you if the movie is accurate to the book or not. I am however capable of telling you that I did not find at all what I expected when I first viewed the film. It is a good movie with a really, really good plot and storyline, it is an action packed movie with its fair share of suspense, but contrary to the trailers' implications, there is no "scary" element to the film at all. I would recommend this film if you're looking for a GREAT story and an interesting, edge-of-your-seat movie, but not if you're making a selection to watch at 3 AM on Halloween. June 14, 2007

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