There are bad horror movies, and then there’s Hangman — a film that makes you wish the killer had just taken you out in the first five minutes so you wouldn’t have to watch the rest. Directed by Adam Mason, Hangman attempts to blend the found-footage creepiness of Paranormal Activity with the voyeuristic dread of The Strangers. What it delivers instead is 85 minutes of shaky footage, implausible character decisions, and a villain who looks like he wandered in from an unpaid internship at Spirit Halloween.
This is a movie so committed to realism that it forgets to be entertaining, scary, or even coherent. It’s like if someone filmed an episode of Dateline while half-asleep, then tried to pass it off as art.
1. The Premise: “What If Michael Myers Got a GoPro?”
The setup is as familiar as it is lazy: a suburban family goes on vacation, only to return and find their house trashed by what appears to be an unusually artistic raccoon. What they don’t know is that a serial killer — creatively named Hangman — has decided to make himself a roommate, setting up camp in their attic and installing hidden cameras throughout the house.
It’s like Home Alone, if Kevin McCallister grew up, got fired from Best Buy, and decided to start a true-crime YouTube channel.
The killer meticulously films the Miller family — dad Aaron (Jeremy Sisto), mom Beth (Kate Ashfield), teen daughter Marley (Ryan Simpkins), and adorable plot device Max (Ty Simpkins). Instead of doing anything truly interesting with that premise, Hangman spends most of its runtime showing us the killer eat cereal, cry, and make weird art projects out of household items.
At one point, he even draws a stick figure in ketchup on the shower wall. If that’s supposed to be scary, then my fridge is a crime scene.
2. The Killer: Sad, Sweaty, and Weirdly Boring
In horror, your villain is everything. Hannibal Lecter had charm. Norman Bates had complexity. Hangman has… night vision and a personality disorder best described as “mopey pervert.”
This guy doesn’t stalk with menace — he lingers like a bad smell. He spends half the movie breathing heavily behind walls, muttering nonsense, and recording the Millers while masturbating to their marital arguments. You can’t even hate him properly — he’s too pathetic for that.
He’s the kind of serial killer who’d apologize for interrupting your Netflix binge before murdering you.
Even his murders lack flair. He strangles one person, shoots another, and hangs one poor soul — but it all feels oddly clinical, like watching a man reluctantly fold laundry. By the time he whispers, “Say you love me,” you’re not terrified — you’re wondering if he just needs a therapist and a nap.
3. The Millers: People You Hope Die So the Movie Ends
Let’s be honest: when your protagonists are so dull you start rooting for the murderer, your movie has problems.
Jeremy Sisto, who once radiated charisma in Six Feet Under, plays Aaron like a man slowly losing a battle with Ambien. His wife Beth exists primarily to hear noises and say things like, “Honey, did you hear that?” and “Maybe we should call the police,” which of course, they never do.
Marley, the rebellious teenage daughter, spends her scenes making out with her boyfriend or rolling her eyes, which is fair — I’d be annoyed too if I were stuck in this script. Meanwhile, little Max is there to draw creepy pictures of the “man in the attic,” which everyone dismisses because ignoring obvious red flags is this family’s core value.
By the time they start dying, you don’t feel tension — just relief that the movie might finally be over.
4. Found Footage Fatigue: Now With Extra Boredom
Ah, found footage — the genre that insists shaky cam equals authenticity. In Hangman, this stylistic choice doesn’t create realism; it just makes you wish the killer had invested in a tripod.
The movie’s camera setup — a mix of home surveillance footage and the killer’s handheld recordings — could’ve been unsettling. Instead, it feels like a feature-length Ring doorbell compilation. The editing is messy, the pacing glacial, and the payoff nonexistent.
It’s like someone filmed a Paranormal Activity sequel on an expired iPhone 4 and forgot to include the ghosts.
5. The “Scares”: More Yawns Than Screams
You know a horror movie’s in trouble when its biggest scare is a lightbulb popping. That’s right — at one point, Beth hears a noise, walks toward it, and a bulb bursts. Somewhere, James Wan just rolled his eyes hard enough to summon an actual demon.
The movie’s attempts at dread mostly involve the killer moving objects slightly or leaving disgusting “clues,” like urinating on the floor. It’s less horror and more “unsanitary home invasion.”
And for all its voyeuristic buildup, Hangman never delivers the cathartic explosion of terror you expect. The climax — if we can call it that — is a rushed blur of gunshots and melodrama, capped by an ending so predictable it feels like a contractual obligation.
6. The Message (If There Is One): “Don’t Trust Attics”
If Hangman has a moral, it’s that suburban complacency will get you killed — or maybe that everyone should buy better home security. The film clearly wants to comment on surveillance culture, the invasive nature of modern technology, and how we’re all being watched.
Unfortunately, those ideas are buried under 80 minutes of slow-burn nothing. The movie doesn’t explore paranoia; it just imitates it.
Even when it flirts with deeper meaning — like the killer crying while watching family videos — it never commits. We don’t know who he is, why he kills, or why he smells like cheap vodka and regret. He’s just there, like black mold with a GoPro.
7. The Acting: Everyone Deserves Better
Jeremy Sisto and Kate Ashfield are solid actors, and watching them slog through this script is like seeing Shakespearean performers trapped in a YouTube prank video. They try — oh, how they try — to give emotional depth to dialogue like, “Maybe it was the wind.”
The child actors, Ryan and Ty Simpkins, do fine with what they’re given, which is mostly confusion and the occasional scream. Amy Smart appears briefly as Beth’s friend Melissa and probably escaped early enough to preserve her dignity.
Even Eric Michael Cole, as Hangman, gives a committed performance — but it’s a commitment to dullness. You can tell he’s going for a silent, Michael Myers–style menace, but it lands closer to “guy loitering in a Walmart security video.”
8. The Ending: Guess Who’s Stalking Now?
After killing the entire Miller family, Hangman returns to the airport, ready to stalk his next victims. It’s meant to be chilling. It’s not.
It’s like watching someone restart a video game after losing all their progress. You’re just thinking, “Buddy, maybe take a week off.”
The cyclical ending could’ve been a grim commentary on endless violence. Instead, it’s just lazy setup for a sequel that thankfully never happened.
9. The Missed Opportunity
The saddest thing about Hangman is that its premise had potential. A serial killer living undetected in someone’s home is terrifying — just ask anyone who’s rented an Airbnb. But instead of exploring psychological horror or building tension, the film settles for repetitive, voyeuristic monotony.
There’s no escalation, no surprise, no reason to care. It’s like the filmmakers saw The Blair Witch Project and thought, “What if we made it about plumbing repairs?”
10. Final Thoughts: “Hangman” Hangs Itself
In the end, Hangman is less of a horror film and more of an endurance test — a home invasion movie so slow you’ll be checking your own attic just to feel something.
It’s a shame, because with a sharper script and better pacing, it could’ve been an unnerving commentary on privacy, fear, and domestic safety. Instead, it’s 85 minutes of “What if nothing happened, but we filmed it anyway?”
Rating: 3/10 — “Hangman” is the cinematic equivalent of leaving your front door unlocked and hoping something interesting happens. Spoiler: it doesn’t.
