From the first scene in which iconic slasher villain Kane Hodder is stalked through the woods and beheaded (ah, sweet payback!), you can tell that writer-director Matt Flynn’s new film is going to be another, belated post-modern horror flick. In spite of some lazy dialogue lifted virtually word for word from the SCREAM franchise (“Brothers always get offed first!” / “Looks like a scene out of some shitty horror movie!”), this movie is likeable and more fun than most of its kind, thanks largely to a spirited cast. It’s great to see Burt Young as the Quint-esque skipper of a boat named “Orca” (win a bucket of fish if you can guess what his favorite film is) and William Forsythe as the wild-haired cinematic equivalent of Groundskeeper Willy from THE SIMPSONS, complete with Scottish brogue.
Juliet Landau, so memorable in BUFFY as an insane vampire, takes another off-kilter role as “Mary Shelley”, one half of a psychotic filmmaking couple who invite field trip students to stay at their remote island home. It’s all a ruse, of course, so that the couple can make their own warped, horror movie-inspired variation on SURVIVOR : killing teenagers in inventive ways derived from landmark genre films, and stripping the bodies with the aid of their Bond-ish pet piranha fish.
Among the youths collectively referred to as “The O.C. on crack” are deliberately hackneyed, familiar types such as the Brainless Jock, the Flamboyantly Gay Asian, the Buxom Foreign Exchange Student (cue : bare boobs!), and the Predatory Bitchy Lesbian. The heroine is sweet, clumsy pigtailed film-student geek Danica McKellar – who has a secret that stretches beyond the fact that, minus the glasses and with her hair down, she’s a full-blown hottie a la SHE’S ALL THAT.
Typical of this movie’s wink-wink approach to the genre and its self-awareness is the following remark about the killers by a soon-to-be-victim : “Think they’re fucking artists? They have no originality!”. The cinematic quotes range from the incongruous – listen out for an on-screen tribute to the title song from “Fame” (“I’m gonna live forever” indeed…) – to the neatly adapted (“We’re gonna need a bigger boat” gets an amusing new context) to the acceptably goofy (“Free us, Willy!”).
As in the SCREAM trilogy, many of the characters are horror movie literate. They have discussions about their all-time favorite movie killers, with up-to-date references to Captain Spaulding and “that fucker in SAW” alongside dialogue nods to THE TWILIGHT ZONE, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, PSYCHO, THE BIRDS, REEFER MADNESS and even FRANKENWEENIE. The revived 80’s fan boy trend for nudge-nudge character names results in the presence of Professor Argento, Captain Bates, et al.
Flynn has a good deal of fun with the clichés and the references. Creepy clowns and familiar mise en scene abound, alongside a spot of chainsaw coitus-interruptus and a visual tribute to Scatman Crothers’ death scene in THE SHINING capped by one character’s inevitable “Heeeere’s Johnny!” moment. The guessable narrative twist occurs via a cute, if unoriginal, joke reference to RINGU and the climax quotes/steals from the finales of FATAL ATTRACTION and DEAD CALM in quick succession. In fact, there are so many movie references and spoofs in HACK that it sometimes feels like an unofficial SCARY MOVIE 5 – a feeling reinforced by the presence of Lochlyn Munro from SCARY MOVIE!
Unless you’re completely burned out by tongue-in-cheek self-referential slasher movies, this one proves a brisk and enjoyable watch, with a good balance of splatter and laughs, plus an engagingly sexy McKellar topping a first-rate cast. Premiering on the Horror Channel in the U.K. ahead of its U.S. release later in the year, the movie looks good though some sound inconsistencies will hopefully be ironed out before its DVD debut.
-Steven West
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
