Hanky Panky

Hanky Panky is co-directed by Lindsey Haun and Nick Roth, a very off-kilter, absurd, and easily cult-followed film. The film, with its unique storyline, odd humor, and surprising speckles of depth, easily makes it memorable material, but then again, what thrusts "Hanky Panky" into an entirely distinctive realm is the eccentric core of the movie: a man and his talking napkin on a mission to save the world from an obscure threat hiding out in a remote Utah cabin. Haun and Roth make the film playful enough to really appeal to the audience. It's the kind of gem that you won't come across too often, where humor is placed on top of a genuinely rich emotional subtext to create a picture, something that is definitely sure to resonate for years.

I honestly think this film was very bold. I actually enjoyed the low-budget aesthetic and think it suits this movie. The blend of genres, horror and comedy, and a creative direction make it stand out. Its tone might not appeal to everyone, but I do not think this movie was made with that purpose, and the people who get it will continue to get it. The isolated scenery gives it a claustrophobic vibe that I cannot really describe; it feels safe, and at the same time it does not. That is my take on it. Overall, I think this movie was very ingenious, in a way that, for not having a super high budget, it actually has its own personality and shows that creativity.

This film was alright, it was definitely made for a specific type of audience that I'm not apart of. It is different and new, but I can tell it was a low budget film, and the special effects were too bad, maybe that was on purpose to give more uniqueness to the film? There were funny parts that made me chuckle and was enjoyable and the actors were funny at times, but kind of unlikeable at the same time. I feel like this falls under the "it's so bad it's good" group of films, and could see how this film could get its name out there if it came out in the early 2000s instead of 2023. The start of the film was the better part, and then later on in the middle of it my attention got lost. Since I had a hard time focusing in the middle of the film, the ending was hard to fully understand and get back into.

Soooo Let's get into this review. I will try my hardest to recollect what I can from this movie. The movie was described to be an unserious horror movie. At first it did do just that. It was off to a really good start actually and I laughed at the beginning of it. I noticed the more I went into the movie the more the movie started to fall apart. I realized that the movie actually reflected my mental.

At the beginning of the movie, I was ready to watch with a clear mind, mid movie my mental started to fall apart a little because I couldn't really keep up. The middle of the movie was a little bit boring so I tried to push through. By the end of the movie it got really chaotic and to reflect onto my brain, it made it feel like I was in a fever dream. It picked up so quickly that i couldn't really keep up. I was so confused and brain numb that I felt like I was high and hallucinating. No joke. I didn't think what to think of this movie. So I had to sleep on it.

However, visually I think the movie is great, the tackiness of the props made funny. Especially when the handkerchief would speak, you can see a hand making it talk. The graininess of the film reminded me of older movies from the early 2000s or 90s as well and made me nostalgic.

I feel like the things in the movie fell apart in the middle so it made me disassociate from the rest of film, hence made it hard for me to think by the end and made it hard what to think when it ended. I am going to be real, I still do not know what the think.

I do, however, believe that the description of an unserious horror movie does fit perfectly here.

Sam (Jacob DeMonte-Finn) is mistakenly invited to a remote mountain cabin getaway. It's a gathering of friends and non-friends. Well, this got real weird out of nowhere. It is definitely an indie. At least, the filmmaking is very indie. It does have Seth Green and his real-life wife. Initially, I was going to give this a negative review, but the craziness won me over. Apparently, somebody wanted to put in some of the weirdest ideas into a movie and I'm all for it. When the napkin started to talk, I wasn't sure what was happening. I don't mind one bit that the wire is fully visible. There are moments where I laughed at the absurdity, but I wouldn't call this movie funny. Everybody is putting it out there, but nobody is actually all that funny. This is stupid, but I enjoyed some of the stupidity.