But you know what? I loved it. Hanger is by no means a perfect production. It does suffer from many of the pitfalls of micro-budget filmmaking, including hit-or-miss audio, occasionally sloppy camerawork, and minor pacing issues. But when all is said and done, none of that really matters because Hanger manages to bring more originality and flat-out fan service to the table than any ten films combined.
Hanger tells the oftentimes poignant story of an orphaned child who was horribly scarred during a botched abortion attempt. His mother, Rose (Debbie Rochon), was a prostitute firmly under the thumb of a cruel and violent pimp called Leroy (Ronald Patrick Thompson). And when Hanger’s mother found herself pregnant by one of her clients, but refused to get rid of the child, Leroy became enraged and decided to take matters in his own hands.
Leroy forced an abortion on Rose using a clothes hanger and tossed the infant child in a dumpster. Rose died during the procedure, but her son (nicknamed “Hanger” forever after) was rescued from the rubbish by a homeless man.
Fast-forward eighteen years, and Hanger (Nathan Dashwood) is all grown up. His biological father, John (Dan Ellis), tracks him down and pulls him off the streets. He gives him a run-down apartment to share with roommate Russell (Wade Gibb), who happens to be another misfit that John has lent a helping hand to, and he also sets him up with a job at a recycling plant.
But John has more than just a fresh start in mind for his son, he’s also got a plan for getting revenge on Leroy, the pimp who killed Hanger’s mother. And before you know it, blood is hitting the walls with more frequency than house paint, and a whole lot of incredibly messed up situations begin to arise.
Hanger is much more than a simple story of revenge, though. It’s also a damn funny film with moments of hilarious antics between Hanger and his buddy Russell, while still managing to pull off genuine emotional content from time to time. Hanger is just one of those films that flat-out defies categorization. The nudity and explicitness is borderline pornographic (thank you!), the level and creativity of gore is reminiscent of Herschell Gordon Lewis, but the complexity and emotional content of the narrative goes far beyond either of those boundaries and manages to put Hanger firmly in a category all its own.
If you’re a horror hound with a high tolerance for extreme content, and love to see serious amounts of explicit nudity (and really, who doesn’t) then Hanger has to be on your list of must-see films. Check it out. This one is a definite recommendation.
This film receives a score of:
8 out of 10
