0/4 BOMB
The Hangman's Curse is an adaption by director Rafal Zielinski (whoever that is) of Frank Peretti's novel of the same name. Needless to say, this is to awful movies what The Godfather is to classics. Let me first apologize to Mr. Coppola for referencing his masterpiece in comparison to this trash, now let's begin the review:
Granted, I've never read the book that this movie was based on. However, the one (slightly-important maybe) thing I found not present in this movie was any clear motive, there was way too much going on. I'm not going to go into the flimsy plot-points, but I'll give you the general idea. Abel Frye is a victim to bullying who hangs himself on school property. Fast-forward ten years, and all of your stereotypical bullies are perishing, with their words being the name of the spirit "Abel Frye". At the end, does the movie offer it's audience a resolution? No. The only people who catch on are an "FBI" homeschool kid and a goth sub-culture at the high school. You follow?
The acting was completely unconvincing. You will witness so much death at the hands of an unholy scribble, and they actors are too uninterested to milk out any empathy. Watching a series of events alone is not entertaining, there needs to be substance and passion involved. The characters were strangers to their audiences. I was trying so hard to figure them out, but then again, there was not enough talent on screen to communicate the sciences behind the characters. Oh well.
Was the basis of this PG-13 "horror" flick to teach a lesson in bullying? Was it to entertain me? Was it to do Frank Peretti's book justice? (I certainly hope not) Or was it just a cash-grab targeted at pre-teens looking to get their feet wet with some extremely tame, dull horror?
Unfortunately, I am lead to believe, the final.