Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Just perfect...

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

I love extreme horror. I've never seen anything in horror cinema that's offended me and it's doubtful I ever will. As long as it's not tagged on animal cruelty like in Seed, or Cannibal Holocaust etc I'm pretty much untouchable when it comes to whats put on the screen. The baby scene in Human Centipede 2, the son scene in A Serbian Film (and the newborn scene), the bath scene in the August Underground movie etc. These are some sights many found hard to take, but I was OK with them, which brings me to Hanger.This is probably the trashiest pile of garbage I've ever seen put to celluloid, and by saying that it's absolutely no recommendation whatsoever. The director here apparently likes to declare his love for horror cinema now and again but sadly he hasn't a clue how to produce it, instead thinking that stringing together a bunch of (hopefully to him) offensive shots will pass as some kind of great horror art. This really is not the case. I'm not going to list the things that take place in Hanger, but I wasn't offended, rather I found the entire piece of excrement irritating to the extreme. It looks as if a bunch of drunk teenage boys threw it together while sniggering at what they were doing, only thing being, a bunch of drunk teenage boys wouldn't have been so juvenile. Hanger exists as some worthless attempt at being as shocking as possible, but given that the director has attempted it with no class whatsoever he miserably fails. The characters in Hanger scream and shout their lines at one another while most wear some prosthetic make up (to hide their association with this stinker maybe) and it's (almost) obvious a lot of it was aimed at being funny. Rubber penises, full frontal soft porn, and some pretty bad special effects just aren't funny at all though, and I'm guessing by now my review is reading like some disgruntled Hollywood blockbuster lovers who stumbled upon the wrong type of movie and became appalled by what he saw. This couldn't be further from the truth however. I found Subconscious Cruelty as a movie enthralling, and I'm particularly mentioning this film as it's said the director of that set out to shock but (ironically) failed for a totally different reason. The second act of SC (what many consider the most shocking part) stands as brutal, dark, and perverse piece of cinema which I couldn't tear myself away from. I will watch it again, whereas this sad waste of film will never enter my eyes a second time. Ever.Don't be fooled, offensive is not what makes good horror by any stretch of the imagination, but placing something shocking within a good storyline or piece of dialogue can leave a viewer dumbstruck. It's evident Ryan Nicolson hasn't a clue what that means. Yes he's directed some wishy washy shows for TV which really doesn't count for much, and I found his movie Torched just about sufferable, but as for Hanger, it's sad, irritating, childish, and pathetic. Grow up Mr Nicolson.

Hanger (2009) * (out of 4) Hardcore gore about a pimp who discovers that his prostitute is pregnant and when she refuses to have an abortion he decides to take care of the matter himself. In graphic detail, he sticks a hanger up her and pulls the baby out only to throw it in a dumpster. Once there, a homeless man pulls it out, raises it for the next eighteen years and now the deformed adult goes out for revenge. Granted, this film wasn't trying to win an Oscar and it wasn't meant to be some sort of art-house masterpiece but I still couldn't enjoy the film very much. HANGER is a very disgusting film that is so vile that most people would be outraged just by hearing what's in the movie let alone actually being forced to watch it. The film is about as extreme as you can get and is certainly a throwback to a few films from the 1970s, which featured graphic gore, violence and at times porn. This film here features some pretty graphic, in-your-face material and this includes the opening where we see a hanger going into a woman and then (a fake woman used here) the baby being ripped out. If that sort of thing sounds like something that would gross you out then it's best you stay clear because it only gets worse from here. Is HANGER a good movie? Not even close. However, I must admit that if you're into this type of thing then I'm sure you're going to enjoy how depraved, shocking and vile it is. I mean, there's non-stop nudity, an incredibly bizarre rape sequence and pretty much all sorts of violence from head-crushing to the abortion and a few more rapes as well. I will gladly admit that this film went way too far but it did have a certain atmosphere that no one could deny. Director Ryan Nicholson certainly isn't going to win any awards for the picture but he at least knows how to build up at atmosphere and it's clear he's not afraid to cross the line. The biggest problem for those willing to sit through the gross moments is that the film moves way too slowly and is way too boring to really work.

In today's realm of horror films, one director who I'm not a particularly big fan of is Ryan Nicholson. A part of the newer generation so to speak, he's an effects man (whose worked on the infamous "August Underground" series) turned director whose movies seem to take a juvenile approach to shocking and offending people with nasty gore and all kinds of depraved behavior. In all honesty, I'm making his efforts sound much better than they actually are, when in reality, they are very difficult to watch, and not in the "this is disturbing" way. I mean in the "why the hell am I wasting my time on this bulls#!t?" way. Case in point: "Hanger", which may be his worst effort at trying to offend viewers yet.The film starts with a pregnant prostitute named Rose (Debbie Rochon), who becomes a hooker (remember, that's what they become when they are dead-or at least the show "Archer" says so) and has said fetus aborted via wire hanger. Well, said fetus actually survived, and years later, is a has grown up as "Hanger" (Nathan Dashwood.) He's also a bloodthirsty maniac out for revenge, and a man named "The John" (Dan Ellis) believes he's the killer mutant's dad.That's the plot to "Hanger" in a nutshell. In case you're thinking "that's it?", then you are not alone. In actuality, the movie is essentially an excuse for Nicholson and his cast to get away with all kinds of gross and all around perverse behavior, which would be fine if it weren't akin to a kid putting on a geek show to shock and offend us. Look, I'm all for shocking movies, but this tries way too hard to be shocking and all around disgusting, and it's clear that's all it has going for it. I know Nicholson is making something for a niche audience, but me? I don't have time for a movie that has things like an grotesque, racist Asian stereotype, tampon fetishes, graphic masturbation, and plenty of rape, mud and nastiness and nothing else. If trying to gross out and offend audiences in an attempt to be subversive is all you have, then get out of here, because I want nothing to do with you.It also doesn't help that nobody here-not even genre vet Debbie Rochon-does a good job here. The whole cast basically either mails in their performance, or goes over the top to the point of sheer banality. I know, these are all supposed to be unlikable characters, but come on, at least give us some decent performance amidst all the filth. Also, there's a Lloyd Kaufman cameo. Look Lloyd: I love ya man. I love what you've done for independent cinema, and I know that you are always willing to appear in someone's movie. That out of the way, come on man, can't you at least say "no" to appearing in a movie once in your life?Speaking of which, "no" is what this movie gets. There is no reason to see this piece of s#!t. I'm sorry, but all the filth and ugly behavior in the world does not make for an entertaining movie. In fact, it makes for a tedious and god-awful one. Seriously, this movie can go to hell.

Well, it certainly is a rare day when a movie manages to gross me out, a very rare day indeed. This is only logical, however, as Hanger is a very rare kind of movie...Hanger is exploitation in its PUREST form. Its tasteless, its disgusting, its disturbing, its cheesy, its mindless, its stupid, and, quite frankly.... its perfect.It takes a truly soulless person to not be able to see the beauty in pure, unadulterated filth such as this.I found the tacky prosthetics, over-the-top characters, ridiculous story, and low budget sets give this film a very nice, vintage charm. In fact, the over-the-top, horrendously stereotypical characters are probably my favorite part.This was intended to emulate the REAL exploitation films of a bygone era, and it does so flawlessly, and that's the problem most people have with it. They forget that they didn't like those films, and expect to like this one.Don't get me wrong, this film is disgusting. I said before that this film had its moments that I couldn't stand. In fact, Russel's used tampon fetish creeped me out so much, that I found myself doodling a poster for a (fictional) film in the same genre (Zombie Lesbians from Outer Space Part 5 in 3-D), whenever Russel was on screen.Also, its probably just because I'm gay, but I really hate that chick with the glasses who seems to be masturbating in every single scene she's in. First, I hate how the film keeps cutting back to her rubbing herself with a pen or something whenever there's a torture scene going on and its just starting to get good. Second, they waste about 20 minutes of my life panning the camera up and down her nude body, and she doesn't even die until the last 30 seconds of the film, AND SHE DOESN'T EVEN HAVE THE DECENCY TO DIE ON-SCREEN.Though, its implied that Hanger bites her nipples off and thoroughly disembowels her, searching for a fetus that isn't there, and just the thought of that makes me happy. What a useless character.All that said, its strange, disturbing, and at times painful to watch, but sit through it, you'll look back and you'll like it a lot more once its over.