A Maldição da Forca

I thought this movie was a great movie overall. I loved it and the story line was awesome. I definately wouldn't consider it 'the best' movie but it was pretty good. Jake Richardson isn't a great actor..He is a ok actor.He was very hot when he was all 'goth', but at the end he definitly wasn't..n yeah. I loved the movie just not the ending of it because it was really stupid in my opinion to have them change their clothes and their personalitys..they ( Crystal & Ian ) were either fake when they were pagan/wiccan or at the end. Because they changed their personalitys completely and their clothes too. N I thought the whole Brother/Sister spy-kid like black outfits were very pathetic..even if Elijah (the guy twin person) was extremely hot . Yes.

I was impressed by the cinematography of the film. Having seen a few family films lately that looked like they were filmed in someones backyard, the camera work in Hangmans Curse was surprisingly professional. I disagree with the comment made that the music in the final scenes was inappropriate.......the underlying message, hinted at but never voiced; possibly to avoid censure by antagonists, was hinted at more broadly by the choice of music in the end scenes. Very very nice work by the actors. Hopefully this company will finance more films of this caliber for those of us who are seeking something...better.

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.

I just saw "A Hangman's Curse" and let me say-- I am disappointed.

I've been a fan of Frank Peretti novels for years and I've read everything he's come out with. Like most fans of Christian fiction, I've been dying for a film version of This Present Darkness since the 80s. Looks like that will never come.

Frank Peretti seems to write 2 different kinds of books 1.)books for adults that kids should probably not read (The Oath gave me some serious nightmares when I was 13) and 2.)kids books that are usually entertaining enough for adults to enjoy (for instance, Tombs of Anak and that whole series). This new "Veritas Project" series, though, seems like kids books that adults really can't relate to. I was in my early twenties when the Hangman's Curse came out and I thought it was one of his least inspired. So, *why* is this the first one to be made into a movie (this one was in the works before the Tilly TV special)?? Why not the Visitation or the Prophet or THIS PRESENT DARKNESS (heck, Fox has owned the movie rights to that for years)??

Anyway, besides starting with a mediocre story, this "movie" had huge problems. The leads did a decent job of acting, but all of the extras and bit parts were horrendous! The group of girls that befriend Elisha... it was like they weren't even trying! Huge after-school special vibe. The picture quality in general was sub-TV as was the contrived dialogue. (What happened to the hilarious exchanges between the PC/tolerance-obsessed teacher and Elijah???) And what was with that fat kid being one of the popular/cool guys on campus?? So he was good at football. My experience around high schoolers was that being good in sports did *not* automatically provide an in with the beautiful crowd.

And speaking of which, nice reinforcement of stereotypes. The ONLY people in that school were either a.)beautiful popular prep/jocks b.)hopelessly dorky nerds c.)angry Columbine-esque goth losers. No normal people? No people that relate to several groups? No jocks who like goth bands??? How Saved by the Bell is that? I almost expected Slater to drop by, but luckily this was one of the first Christian movies to not feature fashion/slang from 8-10 years before it was made. And then at the end of the movie... the goth people are "fixed" and the one redeemable jock (one of 2 minority characters in the film)is teaching them how to be normal, since they're not goth anymore ("this is how you throw a frisbee...")

There were a few upsides to it, though.

1.) Good music. Until recently, most Christian movies don't take advantage of all the great Christian music that's out there. Looks like that might finally be changing. Mercy Streets did. The Champion did. And now, Hangman's Curse did (is it required that "Extreme Days" be played in every Christian movie now?)

2.) At least your youth group won't spend the whole movie laughing at the language and clothes/hairstyles of the actors.

3.) The girl who played Elisha was incredibly hot. Like inexplicably hot.

4.) It gives us some hope that Peretti may be gearing up to put more of his projects on film... (we've gotten two in the last 2 years).

If he does, let's hope they do it a little better.

HANGMAN'S CURSE is a mildly entertaining film, combining horror elements with social commentary. Set in a high school, it rounds out its cast with the usual Goth misfits and the jocks, two natural enemies. A "curse" that sends jocks who are also known bullies into comas brings a family of paranormal investigators to a local school.

Despite the elaborate poster, the film is not scary. I hesitate to call it a horror film. At most, it's a mystery, with the two young teens as the actual leads. The parents really do little except run around peering into microscopes. For those who have seen these type of movies before, all the answers should be obvious by the 50-minute mark, leaving 50 extra minutes for the characters to catch up.

It's not a bad film. I would even recommend it. But it's definitely not going to scare anybody.

P.S. HANGMAN'S CURSE will be memorable to me for one thing: ITS TEENS ARE ACTUALLY PLAYED BY TEENS!!! Yes, they still do exist.

6 out of 10

(go to www.nixflix.com for a more detailed review of this movie)