The Hangman begins with yet another reference to Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond, when it states that there are seven portals to Hell known to man. As far as this movie is concerned, this is not found beneath a hotel in New Orleans, but rather somewhere in the obscured location in the mountains of West Virginia.
There are cultists in the scene that follow this one who took something out of the portal, a creature that later is seen to quickly change two junkies from strung out to being strung up. Enter The Hangman (Scott Callenberger, The Adventures of Jamie Watson: and Sherlock Holmes, An Angry Boy).
Unaware of all this, Leon (eJon Woods, Ouija Witch, Earthquake Underground) and his son Jesse (Mar Cellus, Swagger, It Stays With US) are tackling a father and son weekend in the mountains. But unfortunately, the first night is the worst instead of hearing a mother, they start blaming each other for the very death of the mother which this time is the boy’s mother (Ameerah Briggs, The Church, Equal Standard) who Leon was unable to protect from outrage.
The following day, Leon awakens to find Jesse missing and his car dysfunctional. In trying to seek assistance, he meets some unsavory characters, Billy (Kaitlyn Lunardi, Peeking, Wendigo) and Scott (Rob Cardazone, Shovel), who are drug addicts, who seem to think that ‘jungle bunnies should not be coming around this way.’ He gets away from them only to encounter the corpse of one of the junkies seen in the prologue.
Co-written by its lead actor eJon Woods and the director Bruce Wemple (Island Escape, Altered Hours), The Hangman begins with some atmospheric shots and an intriguing storyline, albeit a well-trodden one. And if it had remained consistent focusing on the cult and the demon they dragged up from somewhere deep with a winch of all things there would have been a lot of scope for thrills and action.
The first half hour is not as intriguing as it was supposed to be as The Hangman and his cult regroup only to get Leon rescuing Tara from Kaine (a human trafficker) and dealing with generic racists (Lindsey Dresbach, Pitchfork, Danger on Party Island: Kaine, Oh So Wanted). In Sister Jessa’s case, she tuned Kaine to Leon who rescued her from his clutches to meet the local priest, Jedidiah, who is acquainted with Baal and his whole unsavory lots. I bet my head she would.
The good thing is, this is also where the film starts to get back on track as far as the cult is concerned. The explanation for what’s going on isn’t exactly original, but Wemple and Woods give the prose even melodramatic development which makes it a little different from such films and increases the level of the prose a little. Sadly, however while the subplot about Leon and Jesse’s tensions is interesting, the criticisms about racism get lost in the process. Hilariously enough, people with confederate flags on their trucks don’t appreciate black folks? Well that’s a surprise.
It may have helped if they pushed the idea of a demon known for hanging his victims being related to Leon and Jesse’s color and the condition. But, The Hangman does not, in fact, do a lot of hanging. He can telepathically control incalculable ropes, which he primarily uses for tying people up. Or, as in this movie’s best scenes, to pull Leon to a running chainsaw.
There are more scenes like that which required lesser long expository dialogues which The Hangman needed to be quite effective. The film is not a complete loss, there are some highlights here and there and also a sub role by William Shuman who has somewhat less than a handful of films to his name, but they also include some 80s movies Silent Madness and Streetwalkin which are known to fans of B movies.
But general way, it does not come together, being too absorbed in conversations and good wishes to actually scare. I do enjoy Wemple’s pictures, but this one does not seem to exceed the satisfactory level. It is a miscast, but well meaning all the same.
The Dread Distribution label of Epic pictures premiered The Hangman to the cinemas on the 31st of May. The film has already been published on VOD and digital platforms; settled DV and Blu-ray releases on the 13th of August.
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