Hanger (2009)

Review by Sean Patterson



"Give me baby!"

A preagnant hooker is forced into an abortion by her pimp. When I say forced, I mean the pimp takes a coat hanger to her in what is the most (and only, to be fair) graphic abortion I've ever seen. The fetus is ripped, bloody and mangled, from its mother's vagina in full-frontal, close-up detail. And this is just the first of the many shocking images Hanger presents.
After the fetus, named Hanger, is found in a dumpster and raised to the age of 18 by a homeless man, he is adopted by one of his mother's Johns. Hanger is severely disfigured, has sharp, spiky teeth, and talks like a caveman. He's put to work in a dump, though doing what I'm not sure. He and his coworkers seem to only sift through dumpsters searching for porn magazines.
Hanger lives with one of these coworkers, an asian fellow who's face is as mangled as his. I don't mention his race in passing; the movie goes to great lengths making that character as offensive as possible. Think Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Hanger's new John-father is hell-bent on revenge, seeking out the pimp responsible for the botched abortion. And that's where I lost track of things. The movie veers off course at that point, forgetting about the story, and instead heads full-throttle into a cesspit in an attempt to gross-out viewers. It succeeds.
I can tell that Writer/Director Ryan Nicholson is good at his job. Despite its obviously low budget, the movie is well shot and blocked. The crass humor somehow fits within the dark context of the movie, and I found myself laughing at the jokes and the absurd deadpan with which the they uttered. The acting is also some of the best I've seen in underground horror, which is surprising when you consider the movie's content.
It's a shame, then, that the audio is so poorly looped. Poor audio is a hallmark of low-budget film-making, and Hanger is on par with most. But being on par for it's budget doesn't make the dialogue sound less like it's coming out of a phonograph.
Hanger has lots of nudity and sex. The walls of almost every indoor set are lined with pages from hardcore porn magazines. The movie easily within soft-core porn territory, but none of it is sexy. For example, an erotic masturbation scene involving a rather hot secretary is juxtaposed with both a torture and a gay rape scene.
This is followed by one of the most disgusting acts I've ever seen portrayed on film. It's only rivaled by the August Underground series, and even then my memories of those Toe Tag Pictures movies might be worse than their actual content. If that is the case, Hanger is the most shocking movie I've ever seen.
Vile, racist, sexist, and disgusting. The movie revels in its ability to shock the viewer, in a way that will wear on even the most hardened shock-horror veteran. I can't see myself sincerely recommending it to anyone. To avoid being spoilery, I wasn't going to mention the tampon and colostomy bag stuff, but I really feel I have to give some fair warning. The movie is only for those prepared to see the most horrible things imaginable. But at least it's not boring.