Don't Hang Up

I saw Don´t Hang Up at a film festival. Didn't know too much about it before going to see it, so didn´t really know what to expect.

It has to be said I have a kind of love-hate relationship with the horror genre in general, and in maybe especially "found footage" movies .

I don´t mind low budget movies as such; if it´s a good story being told well, that will (almost) always shine through.

DHU is slightly different (maybe more up to date?) as it is FaceTime and not VHS-tapes or super 8 footage. It´s between the main character and her boyfriend who is back at home, while she is at a wedding in Tulsa with friends. So its really a bunch of FaceTime conversations between them.

I found the acting to be really good and realistic in how I see young people communicate through this medium. Claire McPartland as the main character is really, really good! Wouldn´t be surprised if we see more to her in the future!

And I liked the background story of the movie. I hand´t heard about the Tulsa massacre but I really bought into it. Looking forward to search the internet for more on that, actually.

The important part for most moviegoers out there: the scares. Yes, it´s pretty scary. Darn scary at times. The FaceTime style works really well and a couple of the scenes got me jumping.

As a whole, I enjoyed the movie!

If I had to be negative about something, the ending felt a little rushed. It could be just my personal taste; or it´s maybe a weakness of the genre - especially "lost footage" sub-genre. It could be the script, the style and concept of the movie; but for me, the ending needs a little more breathing space to really hit home.

As a scary popcorn flick it does what it´s supposed to do. And for that I enjoyed it; the tension building was effective and it some really good scares.

"Don't hang up" is a great example of innovation that doesn't always work out. The FaceTime format creates for an intimate and helpless feel, but also a lot of drawbacks. First and foremost is the classical but also annoying horror-movie-feeling that the characters are making stupid choices all throughout. This is elevated knowing that there is a connection out of the house and therefore someone that is able to get help but doesn't. The little man sitting in the corner of the screen is supricingly not as disturbing as you might think in the start of the movie. The movie does achieve the scariness that is often the bedrock criteria for these movies, but a lot of it is lost in what I describe as a rushed and underplayed ending. To summarise, Alex Herron and his team has achieved a scary and innovating piece about an often overlooked historical event, sadly the same innovation seems to have crippled the movie in some central aspects. Exited to see more of this style and more innovation from Alex Herron.

Don't Hang Up is a solid piece of filmmaking with strong performances - especially from Siri Black, who delivers a standout portrayal of Vicky. The film absolutely did what a horror movie is supposed to do: it scared me.

The sound design is excellent - sharp, immersive, and used in all the right moments to build unease and tension. It plays a big role in making the fear feel real, and it definitely got under my skin more than once. The ending felt a bit rushed, but overall, this is a horror film that delivered exactly what I wanted: a tense and scary ride. It may not reinvent the genre, but it knows exactly what it's doing - and it does it well in my opinion.

My biggest issue is that right there..... this movie wasn't even filmed in the same state.... much less actually in Tulsa.... my dumb self was watching it looking for anything familiar at all.... As someone who has sent more than half my life in Tulsa and worked delivery all over for decades there I know it pretty well. By the end of the movie I had to get on Google and look into it because nothing in the movie looked anything like anywhere around Tulsa! ... Come to find out, it was filmed in New Jersey... so yeah... that already sank it for me. Add in the mediocre storyline, they obviously didn't do their research on the Tulsa Massacre at all. On top of that, we are supposed to believe that those 2 people are seriously connected via FaceTime basically 24/7??... Yeeeeah, no. I am not even going to go into the choices these people made or how disrespectful they were of property that wasn't theirs. The acting wasn't the worst I have seen, but that is about all I can say about this movie... I definitely won't be bothered to ever watch it again.

Wow, so a movie that is shot entirely on someone's mobile phone camera passes as entertainment these days? This was just simply a joke and a farce of a horror movie.

Now, the storyline does have some worth to it. Just a shame that the movie was short entirely on a mobile phone camera, because it completely ruined the movie. I have to say that when I sit down to watch a movie, I don't want to watch people having a face-to-face video call whilst walking around in an old, scary house in the dark, and that passes as being entertainment. Sorry, but no, it was just garbage.

Writer Alex Herron, who also directed the movie, did manage to cram some good material into the narrative, just a shame that everything good and interesting was overshadowed by the discount and amateurish home-made video call type of filming.

A mere 23 minutes into the narrative, which actually felt more like an hour or so, and I was good and ready to hang up on this pathetic call. The narrative was sluggish, and the way that the movie was shot was just an insult to movie viewers everywhere.

I was not familiar with a single actress or actor on the cast list, which was actually something that spoke in favor of the movie, as I do enjoy watching unfamiliar and new talents on the screen. The acting performances in the movie were actually fair enough.

This movie was more stupid that wet cardboard. I am simply amazed that something like this sees the light of day in 2025.

It would be interesting to see what writer and director Alex Herron could do with something that was actually filmed like a proper movie, and not some face-to-face video call on a mobile phone.

My rating of "Don't Hang Up" lands on a generous one out of ten stars.