Writer: Joe Johnson (Screenplay)
Starring: Sienna Guillory, Gregg Sulkin, Garrett Clayton, Bella Dayne, Parker Sawyers, Jack Brett Anderson
Plot: An evening of drunken prank calls becomes a nightmare for a pair of teenagers when a mysterious stranger turns their own game against them…with deadly consequences.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: I Know What You Did Last Summer With Phones
Story: Don’t Hang Up starts as we see Mrs Kolbein (Guillory) getting a phone call from the police warning her of inturders inside her own home in the middle of the night only it to be the latest prank phone call from internet pranksters Roy (Killingback), Brady (Clayton) and Sam (Sulkin).
Brady tries to cheer up Sam after his break up with Peyton (Dayne) by having their own prank call sessions because I guess that is what asshole teenagers do now. When the pair get a call back the voice at the end of the line threatens to make them pay for the attention they desire.
Thoughts on Don’t Hand Up
Characters/Performance – Sam and Brady are not likeable guys, they are I think high school students and internet pranksters, they have zero reasons to remotely care about them because they act like complete assholes even as best friends. Peyton is a basic damsel in distress who is also unlikable. The voice at the end of the phone is the most interesting character because you know easily that he is out for revenge.
The performances are pretty bad throughout this film, the overreaction from the idiot teenagers just doesn’t do anything for our need to care about the characters they are playing.
Story – This is a story that is very ABC you don’t need to use your brain because it is just two guys being made to pay for after something they did, think I Know What You Did Last Summer with Phones. Sure there is a message about not being a dick and pranking innocent people you don’t know but in the end we get a series of characters we just don’t like making bad decisions throughout.
Horror/Thriller – Horror had a great year in 2016 but this is what is wrong with horror, doing a revenge style horror where the original victim is the villain and the ones that caused the problem are the ones we are meant to cheer for. There isn’t a single scare in this movie it does for shocking tame images that have zero impact with the only thing keeping you going is wondering which one of the prank victims is the ‘villain’.
Settings – The film is set inside one house which is a big plus because the caller has the two friends trapped in a quiet neighbourhood with houses next door. The caller keeps them trapped but neither tries to use their mobiles to escape and surely someone might have heard the yelling, oh the yelling at the TV like it will make a difference.
Special Effects – The special effects are all what they need to be without turning to them, it is the camera effects and technology side of this film that leaves a lot of question marks in the air.
Final Thoughts – This is why horror has such a bad name, the biggest name in the film is in one scene while we deal with unlikable characters from start to finish.
Overall: This was bad, just plain bad from start to finish.
Rating