In the past I have assumed I just have a bad taste in movies. This is due to many films I think are great then turning out to have a generally negative reception. The Hangman was a horror film that I loved, so I was a bit disheartened going onto IMDB afterwards and seeing it had a rating of 3.3/10. Directed and co-written by Bruce Wemple (Lake Artifact), this horror was backed up by a great cast of characters, and a protagonist who was very likeable.
Hoping to reconnect with his teenage son Jesse (Marcellus), Leon (LeJon Woods) has taken the boy on a camping trip out in the Appalachian mountains on the recommendation of a client of his. Disaster strikes when Leon discovers his boy has vanished from his tent during the night. Looking for help, the man finds only horror, as many of the lawless population appear out to hinder rather than assist. Eventually he learns that a local demon worshipping cult have abducted his son, with the aim to use him in a ritual to keep a demonic force known as The Hangman (Scott Callenberger), contained within a human vessel.
I thought this was a neat indie horror that had a lot of good things going for it. I was impressed with both Woods and Marcellus, thinking they both gave believable performances as father and son. Woods' character of Leon in particular was a real highlight, his 'fish out of water' perspective has him deep down caught up in local politics, but from a baffled outsider perspective. It is easy to identify with his bemusement and sense of alienation from all the eccentric locals both good and bad. Over the course of the movie he became slightly more goofy and cartoon-like, with even echoes of Bruce Campbell's Ash factoring in as his determination to rescue his son increases and his one liners increase at a similar pace. There was a decent attempt at fleshing out the man, mainly with an often hinted at dark event that happened in the recent past, which has caused friction in the family. The way this dark event was mixed into the picture was effectively done, gave me slight The Ritual vibes to it.
The side characters were equally a fun lot, Kaine (Jefferson Cox - stunts on Army of the Dead) was an early scene stealer and an entertaining person to have around. Jesse felt like the awkward teen he was meant to be, my only complaint being that he turns into an objective for much of the movie, rather than actually featuring as a character in his own right.
Antagonist demon, titular Hangman had cool abilities that made him stand out slightly. The actual look is a bit generic but perfectly fine, but I loved how he attacks his victims using supernaturally controlled ropes that he hooks around his victims. At one point he is able to fling various dangerous weapons at the protagonist using these ropes, and even flips a car via the use of rope. All of this looked great on camera, and felt more memorable than if he had just been attacking with more traditional forms of weapon. There were a fair few kills, but this is a bloodless affair for the most part, I guess that makes sense when hanging people is the usual way to go. The non demon based fights were more brutal looking, with Leon getting in his fair share of hand to hand fighting throughout the ninety minute thrill ride.
The Hangman was paced pretty well, there was a huge exposition dump in the films middle, with one long sequence where a friendly face was explaining all the lore, followed almost immediately by an unfriendly face providing more backstory. I did find that the antagonist never really felt like something that scary to deal with, it seemed quite limited in its actual abilities.
I loved The Hangman and I very nearly gave it a higher score than I ended up given it. I thought all the characters here were entertaining, and Leon was someone I was happy to root for. I enjoyed the rustic sounding soundtrack, thought the setting looked great on camera, and this had plenty of amusing moments. My only real criticism was the titular force not being that effective when it comes to feeling powerful, other than that though this was a real treat.
SCORE:
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