I've had the screener for the Shane Brady (ApocaFISH) written and directed comedy horror film, Hacked: A Double Entendre of Rage Fueled Karma for a while now, and I almost didn't watch it this week due to nearly taking a complete week off of working on my blog. I might not have loved it, but I'm glad I did decide to check this out. The film looked like it was a lot of fun to make, even if some of the comedy on show here came across as a little mean spirited.
Partly based on real events that Brady went through in his personal life, Mark (Brady) and his wife, Amy (Augie Duke - Sincerely Saul, Exit 0) lose their $20,000 down payment on a new house in an online phishing scam. Unable to recover the money due to the unhelpful actions of their bank and the property company, the couple, along with their two children; Ralph (Owen Atlas - Little Evil) and Freddy (Collin Thompson - ApocaFISH), are forced to move to a motel in a rough neighbourhood. By good fortune, they end up discovering the home address of the hacker; a notorious criminal known by the moniker 'The Chameleon' (Chandler Riggs - The Walking Dead). With assistance from a very unexpected source, they manage to kidnap the hacker with the intention to torture him until he gives up his bank details so that they can retrieve their hard earned money.
The story of having the down payment for his new home stolen from him actually happened to Brady, and you get the feeling that this was a cathartic film to make for him. In reality, his hacker was never found, but here, he gets to portray his revenge fantasy in a light hearted, albeit occasionally quite dark horror where justice is served. Riggs' Carl Poppa in The Walking Dead was one of my favourite characters, so to see him here in a much more silly role was a lot of fun to see. Plenty is done to show him as a cartoonishly evil character - stealing from charities and vulnerable people, and such an unpleasant and self-centred person that he is shown at one point literally liking the smell of his own farts. That leads into some of the humour for me not really resonating, it was usually a bit juvenile for my old tastes. All the characters were over the top, it felt like the actors enjoyed making the film with their over the top and goofy portrayals. No one acts sensibly here, and that leads to entertaining parts such as a child actor playing a 40 something year old F.B.I agent, and the police's ridiculously protracted automated message (the comedic highlight of the film). There were lots of jokes about bodily functions, never something that appeals to me, so expect plenty of scenes based on vomit and defecation humour, most of which left me feeling a bit cold.
The whole movie had a light-hearted laid back vibe to it, where everything that happens is layered with a ridiculous outlandish feel. This was reflected in the editing style that included large colourful text appearing on screen, fourth wall breaking moments, and plenty of montages and films with the film being shown. There was even a song and dance number at one point!. With the film having such a colourful feel to it, there was a surprising amount of violence, especially during the protracted and lengthy torture scene that made up most of the middle of the film. Obviously done in a revenge fantasy type of way, it led to some scenes that seemed very cruel. Special effects were never over the top gory, but there was still a decent amount of blood, and also had the affect of making the protagonists seem a bit psychotic with how conscience free these normal people turn to extreme violence. No slight on the actors, I liked the teenage boys, and a lot of the side cast were decent, and of course Riggs shined throughout, having a much larger role than I initially expected him to have.
I thought Hacked was enjoyable enough. Riggs was fantastic, and the story was often fun to watch. Humour can be subjective though, and a lot of the jokes here didn't really resonate with me, nor did I find the protagonists that nice a bunch to follow. That this was partly based on real events was a neat part of the movie, I enjoyed the text that would occasionally pop up to explain what parts actually happened, and the epilogue sequence was interesting; finding out what happened in reality. The film was effective at lampooning not only the hacker, but also other people who in reality were perceived as villainous, and despite some darkness to the comedy here in the middle part, it was a well put together movie that did get a lot of things right. Hacked: A Double Entendre of Rage Fueled Karma arrives on DVD and VOD on June 2nd in North America from S&R Films.
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