Hangman's Curse

Frank Peretti is sometimes touted as the Christian Stephen King, but if this filmization of one of his novels for ‘tweens--about a squeaky-clean crime-fighting family--is indicative of his narrative powers, then Big Steve has nothing to fear. The religious element of Hangman's Curse is readily apparent: a disquisition on prayer in public school occurs 10 minutes in, a psalm is recited at one climactic moment, and an off-screen chorus intones a hymn at another. But the plot--involving a high school supposedly haunted by the ghost of a student who committed suicide, summoned up by a bunch of bullied goth kids to take vengeance on their tormentors--is ludicrous, and it only gets worse when the place is invaded by (if you can believe this) poisonous spiders. Naturally, all of this is deadly earnest, with flaccid direction and amateur acting that barely reaches the level of those quickies regularly churned out for family-friendly cable networks. Peretti, incidentally, makes an onscreen appearance as an eccentric scientist, and here it must be admitted that he's King's equal: as actors, they're both terrible. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include both widescreen and full screen versions, the featurettes “The Spider Wrangler: The Spiders of Hangman's Curse” and “Frank Peretti: From Page to Screen,” the book spot “Frank Peretti: The Veritas Series Novels,” and a trailer. Bottom line: a so-so extras package--though it's always nice to have both formats for one price--for a lame horror flick/sermon.] (F. Swietek)