Home > Horror Reviews > Horror DVD > Hack!


Rated: 3.00/5 | Votes: 1 | Views: 235 |Submitted: 12/19/07

Hack is a cliché collage of movie clichés and a complete mess, but that’s not my review.

Hack was written and directed by Matt Flynn and follows a group of students invited to an island for a biology class. However, they are really there to be killed one by one in a filmmaker’s ultimate homage to all of his favorite horror movies. The cast features: Danica McKellar, Jay Kenneth Johnson, Sean Kanan, Juliet Landau, and special guest roles by horror legend Kane Hodder and actor William Forsythe.

Let’s take this movie piece by piece starting with acting. All of the performances are best described as awkward. Some people are just plain creepy, which is good I guess and then others are just totally annoying. There seems to be a lot of high pitched laughter coming from the cast, making a lot of the dialog feel like adlibbed crap. All of the regular stereotypical characters from horror films are present, yet each does have a slight twist to their personality. An example is: the nerdy Asian is also flamboyantly gay and the smart “good girl” doesn’t actually have any problems getting the dream guy. Looking at things positively one could say the performances are quirky; William Forsythe is pretty funny, but the quirkiness translated to annoy one too many times for me.

The music stands out: it is great. The composed score for the film is excellent as well as soundtrack song selection. There are several times that the music doesn’t exactly seem to fit the scene, or is “over done”, but it is still good music none-the-less.

The story is not as witty as it may sound. Well, actually one may say it is a mixed rip off of the spoofy Scary Movie series and clever Scream series. However, in this case having a bunch of so-so actors saying the names of scary movies they like is not exercising the pop-culture trivia muscle and just comes across as desperately seeking attention and hoping that if people liked any of those other horror movies they may smile at this one for mentioning it. The biggest twist in the story, is given away and visible from a mile away thanks to puzzle pieces handed out early on in the film; if you’re not good at puzzles maybe you’ll fall for it. Also, if you’re that gullible could I interest you in buying Mount Rushmore from me?

The deaths, gore, and special effects are all supposed to be  homage to different films of the genre. This aspect isn’t followed through well enough for me, yet at the same time was entertaining. Those who like gore should not be disappointed at all and there were at least 2 death scenes that I found very amusing. The sex and chainsaw scene extracted a giggle from me, but perhaps it was the music playing. Yes, if you thought this review was trying to focus on being negative: things are starting to pick up here with sunshine.

The best part of the movie was about 45 minutes in: the sound is messed up. There is a chance that my Dvd was just crap, but I am guessing that most every DVD of this feature may have the same issue. It would have been pure genius of the filmmakers to do this 15 minutes of poor sound quality on purpose and if they did I say kudos to them. Why? The actors sound like they have a really bad echo and are saying their lines inside a metal box. The issue for me made me think of going to the movie theatre and peering into one of the theatres doors, seeing actors on the big screen, and their voice quality from that distance not being the greatest. It really feel nostalgic and put me back in the movie houses of my youth; ha ha.

The worst thing about the movie is: the lighting. I mentioned sunshine, well the actors have a glaring bright white light playing on all of their faces no matter what time of day or night in this flick. Everything in fact is bathed in the crappy lighting and was almost annoying enough to make me turn the DVD off quickly.

There is no getting around it: this movie is a mess. Many people will 100% hate it guaranteed, but if any of the quirkiness I spoke of sounds even the least bit intriguing: I say rent it. So what I am saying you ask? What the heck kind of review is this? Is he telling us the movie is worth watching or not? Perhaps here at the end you may want to call me a Hack, for reviewing a film without a definite overall opinion, but you can make up your mind’s about renting this one. I’ve displayed most all of the bad things, so if the premise sounds interesting to you beyond those: go for it. Keep in mind it should be viewed as a B-movie horror comedy.

Reviewer: Wes Laurie

 Share to a friend.


Discuss in Terror Tube's Forums!!

 

>Loading comments..





Search | Search the website

Contest

Poster Giveway



View Contest Details

Top Members


Username: ArsonCuff
Posts: 332

Username: misterhorror
Posts: 243

Username: terrortu
Posts: 228

Username: heatherwixson
Posts: 135

Username: DavidAsdkl
Posts: 71

Scary Partners

Forum