Hanky Panky

Hanky Panky is co-directed by Lindsey Haun and Nick Roth, a very off-kilter, absurd, and easily cult-followed film. The film, with its unique storyline, odd humor, and surprising speckles of depth, easily makes it memorable material, but then again, what thrusts "Hanky Panky" into an entirely distinctive realm is the eccentric core of the movie: a man and his talking napkin on a mission to save the world from an obscure threat hiding out in a remote Utah cabin. Haun and Roth make the film playful enough to really appeal to the audience. It's the kind of gem that you won't come across too often, where humor is placed on top of a genuinely rich emotional subtext to create a picture, something that is definitely sure to resonate for years.

This film clearly operates on a low budget, and it shows, from the awkward ADR to the dry, sometimes redundant dialogue. The idea of a sentient handkerchief is wildly original and fun, reminiscent of quirky B-horror movies like Jack Frost or The Stuff. Unfortunately, the execution doesn't always match the creativity of the concept. The intro drags, and while there are some genuinely funny moments, the film often leans more on "tell" than "show," which hurts its pacing. The special effects are campy, possibly intentionally so, but still distracting. It seems aimed at a niche audience, likely those who enjoy "so bad it's good" cult films. The actors deliver occasionally amusing performances, though not always likable. The beginning is stronger than the middle, which loses momentum and made it hard to stay engaged through to the end. Still, it has enough odd charm to entertain the right viewer.

You can definitely tell this as a low budget movie. The idea of a sentient handkerchief is an awesome idea. This movie reminds me of some of the other b horror movies I've seen like Jack Frost or the stuff. The introduction scene goes on a little too long, some of the interactions are redundant. The scenes are carried by the dialogue most of the time. Normally in movies it's show don't tell but this movie seems to be more tell and less show. The dialogue carrying the film is a huge negative because some of the dialogue is so dry and awkward. The ADR sometimes takes me out of the scenes because it sounds so different from the dialogue In the room. In conclusion, interesting concept but I think this movie suffers from the lack of budget.

Sam (Jacob DeMonte-Finn) is mistakenly invited to a remote mountain cabin getaway. It's a gathering of friends and non-friends. Well, this got real weird out of nowhere. It is definitely an indie. At least, the filmmaking is very indie. It does have Seth Green and his real-life wife. Initially, I was going to give this a negative review, but the craziness won me over. Apparently, somebody wanted to put in some of the weirdest ideas into a movie and I'm all for it. When the napkin started to talk, I wasn't sure what was happening. I don't mind one bit that the wire is fully visible. There are moments where I laughed at the absurdity, but I wouldn't call this movie funny. Everybody is putting it out there, but nobody is actually all that funny. This is stupid, but I enjoyed some of the stupidity.

Soooo Let's get into this review. I will try my hardest to recollect what I can from this movie. The movie was described to be an unserious horror movie. At first it did do just that. It was off to a really good start actually and I laughed at the beginning of it. I noticed the more I went into the movie the more the movie started to fall apart. I realized that the movie actually reflected my mental.

At the beginning of the movie, I was ready to watch with a clear mind, mid movie my mental started to fall apart a little because I couldn't really keep up. The middle of the movie was a little bit boring so I tried to push through. By the end of the movie it got really chaotic and to reflect onto my brain, it made it feel like I was in a fever dream. It picked up so quickly that i couldn't really keep up. I was so confused and brain numb that I felt like I was high and hallucinating. No joke. I didn't think what to think of this movie. So I had to sleep on it.

However, visually I think the movie is great, the tackiness of the props made funny. Especially when the handkerchief would speak, you can see a hand making it talk. The graininess of the film reminded me of older movies from the early 2000s or 90s as well and made me nostalgic.

I feel like the things in the movie fell apart in the middle so it made me disassociate from the rest of film, hence made it hard for me to think by the end and made it hard what to think when it ended. I am going to be real, I still do not know what the think.

I do, however, believe that the description of an unserious horror movie does fit perfectly here.