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Overall Rating : 6/10
Directed By : Ryan Nicholson
Dan Ellis (Gutterballs)
Debbie Rochon American Nightmare)
Nathan Dashwood (Smallville (TV) )
Lloyd Kaufman (Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead)
Supplied By : Breaking Glass Pictures
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : November. 16, 2009
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| PLOT Eighteen years ago, nine-months-pregnant Rose, a wrong-side-of-the-tracks prostitute, was killed when her pimp gave her an abortion with a hanger. Now, the deformed, surviving child, who was thrown in the dumpster, left for dead and mockingly called Hanger, is about to settle the score – and any street trash, sex degenerate or murderous pimp better beware. | ||||
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| THE REVIEW In Ryan Nicholson's latest "abortion", Rose is a prostitute whom is being pimped out by Leroy. When Rose gets pregnant by one of her suitors and begins to show it, Leroy isn't exactly down with it, citing that it's bad for business. After losing clients who prefer skinnier woman, Leroy does basically anything to rid of the baby. When the typical kicking and puncing fail to do the job, Leroy, takes drastic measures, eventually aborting Rose's baby with a coat hanger. to Leroy's surprise the disastrous act not only killed the unwanted baby, but also his star whore. Leroy eventually goes to prison for the murder, but not before throwing the baby away in a dumpster, a baby he presumed to be dead, but in fact it wasn't, as later, wrapped in a plastic bag, the baby is found by a homeless man. For 18 years the man raises the boy, now called "Hanger", but on his 18th "birthday", Hanger is taken in by a man, who was a former client of his mother, and as it turns out, the two were once in love. This man, who is known as "John" sets Hanger up with a roommate in Russell and also with a job a the trash yard to give the boy a sense of normalcy. But sooner or later as Hanger learns more of what happened to himself and his mother those years ago, Hanger develops a blood lust, and soon along with John, he has his sights set of revenge against Leroy. Being a huge fan of Ryan Nicholson's previous film GUTTERBALLS, and his work in general, it's safe to say that HANGER was one of my most anticipated film's of the year. With this his fourth film, and I have seen three of them, i've realized that in the first few minutes of a Nicholson film, you should at least get a grasp of the type of film you're going to be in for. While GUTTERBALLS was a retro feel throwback to slashers of the 1980s, within the first couple of scenes here, it was really apparent that HANGER was going to be a much different movie, even going in a much darker and dirtier direction than Nicholson's debut, LIVE FEED. Keeping with his trademark style, Nicholson's special effects are gruesome, but this time seemingly more graphic, it's as if Ryan this time, decided to push the viewing audience to their limits. Accompanying the norm for a film from Plotdigger is a much grittier look and feel, and although we do have our plot at the core of everything, there are many additional scenes in between that depict many graphic acts that help pad things out, this approach that some would call "unconventional", had HANGER feeling much more like 70s Grindhouse than anything current. Much like he did with GUTTERBALLS, Nicholson decided instead of creating a normal world or reality, he would make the characters and the world in which they live in unique. In GUTTERBALLS our character were rather "live-action cartoonish", almost as if being stuck in a time warp, here, while the lead character Hanger is scarred and deformed justifiably by the attack, we find that additional characters have their own little deformities as well, while some have none at all. As an audience, we are not sure why this is, it just is, and if anything, it adds to the film's enjoyable weirdness. The film is deeply rooted as being an exploitative revenge flick with Hanger and his mom's ex-lover John plotting revenge against the pimp that wronged Rose,and left baby Hanger for dead 18 years ago, but in the mix of things you might be surprised that you find a different kind of coming of age story, and at times it even resembles a buddy comedy(as strange as it may seem). Amidst the revenge, the killing and the graphic depiction of such, lies the relationship between Hanger and his roommate Russell. The two of them(well, more so Russell) have a healthy liking for sex and large breasts, things like this coupled with the humorous dialogue that Nicholson is becoming known for, makes HANGER quite funny, despite being the sleazy gore-fest that it is, Something that I find to be even more humorous than the dialogue in HANGER is what can be found on the film's Internet Movie Database page. There are just a few of them but the user reviews already posted there are quick to call HANGER trash, along with other things when describing just how much the film disgusts them. While I do agree that HANGER will not be for everyone, and people do have the right to be disgusted or freaked out, i'm wondering what these people expect Horror to be? Sure this new millennium has brought us many(unwanted) PG-13 movies that are softened for a teen audience, but some of us have a different interpretation of just what Horror is. When I watch a real Horror film, I expect to be disturbed, moved or appalled, the real intention of Horror to me, is to shock you, and in my opinion that is the type of film Nicholson has made and attempts to make every time - a true Horror movie. Was I disturbed by some of the things that I saw in HANGER? Sure I was, but again, this is a Horror film, so I'd be lying if I said I expected or wanted anything less, especially from a Director like Ryan Nicholson. HANGER is a very different film when compared to GUTTERBALLS whereas the latter was more of a splatter-fest with a higher body count, HANGER's gore and kills were used in a more conservative manner. But don't get me wrong, when the effects are used, they help bring to life the most sickest acts imaginable, as a whole, the film seems to have a tighter focus on the sexual nature in the film(just check out Candice Le's masturbation scene - wow!), which again learns more towards Grindhouse cinema rather than straight-up Horror. HANGER isn't for the majority I suppose, but some of us will find some kind of enjoyment in it - myself included. It's unapologetic Horror the way unapologetic Horror should be. |
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| GORE
METER 7/10 There aren't as many kills in HANGER as there were in GUTTERBALLS, but the kills that you do see here are indeed more graphically sick. I won't name everything within the film, but here you will find things like coat hanger abortion, suffocation by douche and even something as sick as "colostomy bag hole" rape(is there even such a thing?). |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 5.5/10 Lots of metal and rock tunes, along with some rap.....once again Nicholson puts together a pretty good selection of music. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM While I didn't enjoy HANGER quite as much as GUTTERBALLS, I do admit that I did like it....it's the type of film that I should be ashamed of myself for liking, but i'm not. The likes Dan Ellis, Debbie Rochon, Alastair Gamble and Nathan Dashwood as "Hanger" all give good performances to this well told story about one boy and his revenge. And as always with Nicholson, I can't wait to see what his twisted mind conjures up next...he always keeps things interesting to say the least. | ||||
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