Mild high school horror flick based on Frank Peretti’s supernatural book for youths

I originally saw this 2003 movie on DVD a couple of years after its release and, preparing to re-watch, I couldn’t remember anything about it, except the wacky professor, played by the author of the book, Frank Peretti, who comes across as a shorter Dr. Emmett Brown from “Back to the Future.” I saw an interview with him and he’s really IS as eccentrically animated as he appears in the film.

The plot revolves around a Spokane, Washington, high school, which is supposedly haunted by the ghost of a kid who committed suicide ten years earlier. Several jocks have freaked out after seeing the apparition and subsequently went into a coma. The school enlists the services of the Veritas Project, a team of investigators who work undercover to unravel paranormal phenomena. They’re like the family version of Mulder & Scully from The X-Files. David Keith plays the father, Mel Harris the mother and the teen twins are played by Leighton Meester and Douglas Smith. The dad pretends to be a janitor at the school while the kids act as new students.

To enjoy this movie you have to accept the highly unlikely premise of a family team of investigators and the fact that this is a tame horror movie from an author who’s writes Christian supernatural fiction with this movie being geared toward youths (tweens, teens & pre-teens). You also have to accept that, while the movie had a limited theatrical release, it had the budget of a TV movie ($2 million) and it shows.

With that in mind, there are several things to appreciate about “Hangman’s Curse”: The cast is likable, formidably headed by Keith; for once in a high school flick we get students who actually LOOK like they’re in high school, rather than mid-20s; I like the forbidden wing of the school and its subterranean burrows (reminiscent of the boiler room sequences in the Nightmare on Elm Street flicks); there are loads of creepy arachnids; and there are some quality cuts on the soundtrack.

On the downside, the acting of the peripheral teens is understandably weak and the convoluted story could’ve been relayed in a clearer, more compelling manner.

As far as the Christian-oriented content goes, it’s so light that I can hardly see how anyone would be offended. For instance, a group prays before their meal. Woo, like that doesn’t happen every day in every community throughout the Americas. Since the protagonists are Christians, it makes sense to portray them accordingly. If anything, the movie plays it too low-key in this regard.

The film runs 1 hour, 46 minutes and was shot in Spokane, Washington.

GRADE: C+