Play Hooky

Oh, man, where do I begin with this abomination...? First, the premise; three school girls ditch school with two losers and end up at an abandoned asylum where they are picked off one by one. Simple enough.

The acting; decent to poor. The main cast was competent, the males more than the females, but the older gentlemen who played the guard and the grounds keeper were absolutely dreadful. Seriously, they were awful. They have absolutely no talent, and "delivered" each line as if they were reading from a children's book. It was embarrassing to watch them attempt to be scary, and by the end of my viewing session I cared less about them than when I started.

The special effects; non-existent or poorly implemented. Everything looked fake, haphazard and sophomoric. The quality was amateurish at best and abysmal at worst, and would not even pass as a student project. I actually rolled my eyes after the first kill, and after a considerable amount of time, I was just shaking my head at how atrocious everything was.

Seriously, one of the worst attempts at found-footage I have ever seen, and I have seen plenty. This is one of those movies that you had wished you had never bothered seeing, and ask for a refund when it is over. It was so bad, I had to watch something I have seen hundreds of times before to erase thoughts of this garbage. Honestly, if you aren't going to make something right, with good actors, great special effects and an original story, do not bother. This was so bad, I got to within 20 minutes of the end and I still turned it off. Hopefully, this review can save anyone the trouble of wasting their time or money on this garbage. Do not support this crap. It does not deserve any form of attention.

Shot close to my home in CT, this movie emulates what it is to be a thirsty low budget filmmaker, and with a filmmaker coming from CT it makes me smile a little bit. I guess the crew attempted to locate an abandoned asylum in CT for a location but we're turned down from every one, including the abandoned mental asylum in Meriden, CT that u have effortlessly snuck into as a teen with all my boys. We knee then that the security was tight and we would ve screwed if we were caught. That would have been a supreme location but the city officials were clearly stubborn. Eventually settling with locations in Bridgeport CT and Stamford CT, this little ff nobudgeter came to life. This movie feels passionate since its beyond most of us why someone would ever waste their money on something so utterly tripe but actually that's what its all about to some of us. We just want to see something, created by us, put on screen. That's just what was done here. But just... "Play Hooky" is a very low budget film with little to offer other than the found footage layout that many of us drool over. I passionately love found footage movies and admittedly this is no exception. Even if I disliked the final 10 or 15 minutes, I enjoyed the story and build up in the first 65 minutes. Let this movie be a reminder that things are never out of reach as this is an extremely cheaply made film yet here it is, in my hand on dvd.( I bought this movie back in 2014 but am only now reviewing it) Though its definitely not what id put out, at least the guy put something out there to chew on. Meh, but again, decent set up.