A solid horror movie will be available on June 30, 2017, containing a lot of splatter, SAW & SCREAM feeling is guaranteed and so here is the review of
Don't Hang Up (2016)
An evening of drunken prank calls becomes a
nightmare for a pair of teenagers when a mysterious stranger turns their
own game against them...with deadly consequences.
Writer:
Joe JohnsonStars:
Gregg Sulkin, Garrett Clayton, Bella DayneCountry:
UKLanguage:
EnglishRelease Date:
10 February 2017 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
Не вешайте трубку
Between the proliferation of reality TV shows and the ubiquity of
malicious Internet memes, pranking has sunk to the level of
lowest-common-denominator entertainment. Now anybody with a mean streak
and a smart phone or laptop can publicly embarrass friends, family and
strangers with the click of a camera and a few keys. In Don’t Hang Up,
Internet pranking reaches deadly extremes, but in this case it’s too
superficial a concept to make for much of a thriller, which requires a
more immersive experience than the film can deliver.
High-schoolers Sam (Gregg Sulkin) and Brady (Garrett Clayton) spend more time devising elaborate prank phone calls than they do on more typical teenage diversions. Their often involved and sometimes risky practical jokes include not only the usual unwelcome pizza orders for unsuspecting neighbors, but also impersonating law enforcement officers in violent-crime situations. Recording audio and video to post online after concluding their hijinks, the kids have cultivated an eager group of social media followers as fond of impersonal humiliation as they are.
Both are so full of themselves it never occurs to them that someone might be about to turn the tables. So when a mysterious and threatening stranger calls the home phone at Brady’s house, where the number is blocked, they suddenly realize they may not be invincible. In fact, they may be in very real danger, as the caller demands their attention, revealing the violent extremes he’s willing to employ to prevent them from disconnecting his call. Identifying himself only as “Mr. Lee” (Parker Sawyers), their unseen manipulator seems to know everything about them, as he methodically works the guys into a suspenseful frenzy, determined to extract retribution before they’re able to reveal his identity.
Prior experience as visual effects supervisors turns out to be of limited usefulness for first-time feature directors Alexis Wajsbrot and Damien Mace, who rely primarily on the practical location of a single-family home to set the action. Joe Johnson’s script for his home-invasion thriller deploys remote technology and Internet connectivity to wreak havoc through a series of quickly escalating incidents involving assaults, hostages and the imperilment of Sam’s on-and-off girlfriend Peyton (Bella Dayne), who’s coincidentally debating whether she really wants to date him any longer.
Once the guys figure out how Mr. Lee is able to monitor their every move, inexorably raising the stakes for their survival, they somehow fail to take the simplest steps to deny him access. Instead, they careen from one crisis to the next, playing directly into his revengeful plan and further contributing to the film’s overall lack of suspense and originality.
Sulkin (Another Me) and Clayton (Teen Beach Movie) play the hapless pranksters with suitable cluelessness, but never generate sufficient sympathy to really involve the audience. Mace and Wajsbrot capably, if rather impersonally, handle the helming duties, treating their cast more functionally than authentically, rather to the detriment of the entire process.
A solid camera and dramatic music is not really a support for that kind of movie, since we have seen so many splatters since the past, it stays solid whenever it can.
This all leads to solid value which makes me say that Don't Hung Up is solid and so it gains (for the fact of being a nice family horror splatter)
High-schoolers Sam (Gregg Sulkin) and Brady (Garrett Clayton) spend more time devising elaborate prank phone calls than they do on more typical teenage diversions. Their often involved and sometimes risky practical jokes include not only the usual unwelcome pizza orders for unsuspecting neighbors, but also impersonating law enforcement officers in violent-crime situations. Recording audio and video to post online after concluding their hijinks, the kids have cultivated an eager group of social media followers as fond of impersonal humiliation as they are.
Both are so full of themselves it never occurs to them that someone might be about to turn the tables. So when a mysterious and threatening stranger calls the home phone at Brady’s house, where the number is blocked, they suddenly realize they may not be invincible. In fact, they may be in very real danger, as the caller demands their attention, revealing the violent extremes he’s willing to employ to prevent them from disconnecting his call. Identifying himself only as “Mr. Lee” (Parker Sawyers), their unseen manipulator seems to know everything about them, as he methodically works the guys into a suspenseful frenzy, determined to extract retribution before they’re able to reveal his identity.
Prior experience as visual effects supervisors turns out to be of limited usefulness for first-time feature directors Alexis Wajsbrot and Damien Mace, who rely primarily on the practical location of a single-family home to set the action. Joe Johnson’s script for his home-invasion thriller deploys remote technology and Internet connectivity to wreak havoc through a series of quickly escalating incidents involving assaults, hostages and the imperilment of Sam’s on-and-off girlfriend Peyton (Bella Dayne), who’s coincidentally debating whether she really wants to date him any longer.
Once the guys figure out how Mr. Lee is able to monitor their every move, inexorably raising the stakes for their survival, they somehow fail to take the simplest steps to deny him access. Instead, they careen from one crisis to the next, playing directly into his revengeful plan and further contributing to the film’s overall lack of suspense and originality.
Sulkin (Another Me) and Clayton (Teen Beach Movie) play the hapless pranksters with suitable cluelessness, but never generate sufficient sympathy to really involve the audience. Mace and Wajsbrot capably, if rather impersonally, handle the helming duties, treating their cast more functionally than authentically, rather to the detriment of the entire process.
A solid camera and dramatic music is not really a support for that kind of movie, since we have seen so many splatters since the past, it stays solid whenever it can.
This all leads to solid value which makes me say that Don't Hung Up is solid and so it gains (for the fact of being a nice family horror splatter)
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