Adam Mason's "Hangman" - Found Footage and the Philippines Connect

After spending two weeks on holiday, the Millers return home and find it a mess. So Aaron (Jeremy Sisto) gets the locks changed, rids the mountain of trash and takes the high road for this ridiculous concept of "moving on" without proper resolution, right Marcosturds? 

But what they didn't realize, the culprit is still house-bound. In fact, he's staying in an attic just above the closet. He's even installed cameras all over and outside the house - extensively, putting Big Brother shows to shame, spying on Aaron, wife Beth (Kate Ashfield), daughter Marley (Ryan Simpkins) and son Max (Ty Simpkins). The adorable family is starting to feel like his own. 

The house guest, we shall call him as the Hangman (Eric Michael Cole), feels so domesticated that he'd take out the orange jar from the fridge and leave it on the table... without the cap! Que horor! What are the cleaners gonna do? He'd stalk Beth's daily activity, her showers particularly (the only place he couldn't install a camera, go figure!) One day, he drugs her with something that shatters her consciousness from here til Sunday. Then she gets raped in 865 positions. And she didn't even know it. You can only assume which President in a third world would dream of getting first digs with her, debah? Joke! 

Our friendly Hangman even plants lipstick traces on Aarons shirts to sow dissent. Planting evidence is en vouge these days. So you see, the events unraveling in the Hangman is something conjured from the contemporary annals of the Philippines. You have a sneaking suspicion that this intruder is actually a scarf-wearing bespectacled lady senator pretending to be a man. Tee hee.  

Like many "found footage" films, "Hangman" is a tale that's been told half a life time ago. It is told from the point of view of the intruder who has hundreds of little cameras snatched up in his little black trousers. The celluloid's flirtation with digital voyeurism continues like a plague worse than the Ebola, but then voyeurism per se has existed long before the millennials could mutter "worcestershire" - or say this line with a straight face: “I want to be a juror on a rural brewery robbery case.”

I couldn't help but wonder how many cameras were exactly put in place - because you see views from under the closet, up the attic, down the corridor where no one goes, under the kitchen table, etc. The Hangman even has one following him around as he watches from the window. And if you're wondering again how thorough? Even the woods just outside the Miller's house has one... or two. Yet there's none at the bathroom? Awww, I'm disappointed. Maybe the sock he kept wearing proved anoxic for his twisty little brain?  

The moral of the story? Moving on without proper resolution will get you the hangman's noose. A very tight one... for those who haven't learned from history. Seriously.

Jeremy Sisto and Eric Michael Cole were in Christopher Jaymes' movie "In Memory of My Father" (see link).

Youtube link of excerpts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY0lUDP9pZ4

And if you feel like reading a samples of excellent reviews, please read our featured post on Cinema Bravo - http://makemeblush2.blogspot.com/2016/10/cinema-bravo-film-criticisms-execrable.html


#hangman   #adammason   #jeremysisto   #foundfootage