Horror Movie Review: Hangman (2015)

A found-footage horror, Hangman takes the home invasion angle that has become so popular over the last decade & changes things slightly. Instead asking the question ‘what if someone was living in your house without you knowing it?’

Pretty absurd, right? Well what if that person had also put loads of cameras around your house so he could watch you while you went about daily life? All while in the comfort of your attic/loft? Yeah, Hangman requires a certain amount of detachment to to really enjoy. Even still it’s doing very little original.

The Miller family return home from a holiday away to discover their home has been broken into. However, this break-in is a bit different as the person hasn’t really stolen anything. Instead hanging a mannequin up & writing messages on the walls. Unfortunately for the Millers, this intruder is a little bit insane, He has installed ‘hidden’ cameras around the house that he watches the family on. When they go out, he comes out & starts messing with them.

Things like spitting into the juice bottle. Or moving things around, eating their food & talking to the youngest of the family in the middle of the night.

Directed by Adam Mason & starring Kate Ashfield, Jeremy Sisko and Eric Michael Cole. Hangman tries to be an effective, creepy horror but falls short because of its familiarity. We’ve seen this movie before, many times & done much better.

The biggest flaw comes down to the characters where there is no reason to get attached. They’re forgettable & at times, incredibly stupid at others. You won’t care one bit about them & what eventually happens to them. It’s not necessarily the actors faults as when called upon they serve up decent enough performances.

It’s just a pity there isn’t more flesh to the bones of the plot & the villain. What are his motivations? Is it just a matter of being crazy? He knows a fair bit about them & is able to set up some sophisticated cameras that the family are unable to see. On the other hand he does masturbate to the images of the married couple having sex & seems to get enraged by what he sees.

That’s because as the film goes on he seems to believe that he can make the family happy & that Kate Ashford’s Mrs Miller wants to be with him. An interesting angle that is dropped abruptly for a shock value ending.

There’s just not that much to Hangman to either love it or hate it. A better found-footage horror, in that it doesn’t give you motion sickness & the style of filming fits into the plot. However, it’s just so bland & average that it’s hard to muster up much excitement.

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