The Hangman
The Hangman
In the beginning of The Hangman, it features a title card which states that there are seven known portals to hell. This reprieve is drawn from Fulci’s The Beyond but the gateway of focus appears to be in West Virginia rather than underneath a hotel in New Orleans as one would imagine.
Next, some cultists are shown dragging something out from that portal and here we see a woman’s-body bearing creature who is seen turning a couple of junkies from strung out to strung up. The creature is named The Hangman and is portrayed by Scott Callenberger in The Adventures of Jamie Watson: and Sherlock Holmes, An Angry Boy.
Scared of all the events that have transpired and venturing onwards Leon played by LeJon Woods (Ouija Witch, Earthquake Underground) along with his son Jesse portrayed by Mar Cellus (Swagger, It Stays With US) are about to finalize the plan of going to the mountains for a father-son weekend. Unfortunately, the contraction of events on the first night ends up in blame. The new wife of Leon portrayed by Ameerah Briggs was apparently murdered so all the blame is on leon for not preventing it.
Leon wakes up the following day to discover that Jesse has disappeared and his car has failed to start. In an attempt to secure assistance, he encounters meth addicts Billy (Kaitlyn Lunardi, Peeking, Wendigo) and Scott (Rob Cardazone, Shovel) who believe that “jungle bunnies shouldn’t be coming around this way.” He runs away from them to see the corpse of one of the junkie in the prologue.
Starring LeJon Woods and Bruce Wemple (Island Escape, Altered Hours), The Hangman is co-written by the actor LeJon Woods as well as, The Hangman starts out with some broody cinematography and a story which, though familiar, is interesting, to begin with. And if it had remained on track with the cult and the demon they brought up from the pit, with a winch, there could have been plenty of surprises and action.
Instead, for the first half an hour The Hangman and his cult are shoved to the background as Leon takes care of random racists and even manages to save Tara (Ashleigh Dreary, Pitchfork, Danger on Party Island) from a human trafficker, Kaine (Jefferson Cox, Class of ‘09, Hiro of the Meta). She in turn presents Leon to a local priest, Jedidiah (Daniel Martin Berkey, The Luring, Nefarious) who also is well aware of The Hangman and the Cult of Baal. Sure you can imagine how.
Fortunately, this is also where the film starts approaching coherence once again as the cult shifts back into focus. The plot itself is about familiar elements and people shoving a mat in Wemple, but Wemple and Woods spin a few curves that make it a bit homogeneous from other films and provide a bit more substance to it.
Unfortunately, while the subplot about Leon and Jesse’s family problems is rather effective, the efforts to incorporate some social commentary about racism appear to be quite uneventful. So hillbillies with the Confederate flag on their truck don’t like black folk? I would never have guessed that.
Perhaps the link between the titular demon of the film, who hangs his victims and is called The Hangman, Leon and Jesse’s skin colour to the history of lynching could have worked out better. But as this director’s name applies to film, The Hangman does not really do a lot of hanging people. He can control ropes with his telepathy, but this ability is primarily employed to restrain or choke his foes. Or, in one of the more entertaining moments of the movie, pull a man towards an active chainsaw.
And such is the way the movie actually flows, there are not too many unnecessary segments filled with expository dialogues. Those are the moments that were a bit more and fewer long segments of dialogue that could have made The Hangman actually scary. The picture is not a complete loss as it does have some highlights such as a sub standard performance by William Shuman who has few acting credits to his name but did appear in popular B pictures like Silent Madness and Streetwalkin from the 1980s.
But in general, it does not seem to fit at all since it tries to force itself into talking about the subject and making sense of it which distracts from the scary moments. As for Wemple’s works I tend to be a fan of his films but this one was something which disappointed me. It is a case of well meaning but poorly executed plans.
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- Genre: Action, horror, Mystery, Thriller
- Country: United States
- Director: Bruce Wemple
- Cast: LeJon Woods, Mar Cellus, Lindsey Dresbach
