Hang Up! Movie Review

Written by John Colianni

Released by Fatal Pictures

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Written and directed by Richard Powell
2018, 14 minutes, Not Rated
September 8th, 2018

Starring:
Astrida Azura as Emelia
Robert Nolan as Gary
Jane Pokou as Mona

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Review:

The simple event of your cell phone ringing can bring on a multitude of differing emotions. Excitement, indifference, anger, joy. When it’s a call from someone you love, you assume the intentions are benevolent. Then there is the scenario of the dreaded pocket dial. We all can beg and plead with the person on the other end to hang up or even better, choose to hang up ourselves. What if you heard changed your life forever?

Gary sits in his office, living through what he thinks is another ordinary day in his life: A husband to a loving wife and a father to a loving daughter. His cell phone rings. His wife Emelia is on the other end. When he realizes that he is not part of the conversation that she is participating in, he makes the decision to remain on the line. What transpires is the most shocking but important moment in Gary’s life. Will his fight or flight instincts be enough to save him or will this single unintended phone call define his entire life?

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Hang Up! is a perfectly-paced short film that stands out not because of clever camera play or over-the-top special effects. It is a fifteen-minute monologue that is so excruciating and gut-wrenching that sitting through the conversation we’re never meant to hear takes everything I had to keep listening. When you think you’ve heard the worst of what can be said, more twists and turns reveal just how nefarious someone can truly be. The superb voice acting by Astrida Azua(Emelia) carries viewers from start to finish with an onslaught of ill intentions. Gary, played by Robert Nolan, displays a wide array of emotions that viewers will surely be able to place themselves into, no matter how bad the discomfort.

Hang Up! is fourteen minutes that will force you to experience a myriad of emotions in such a limited amount of time. Writer/director Richard Powell takes such a simple scenario that most of us have been through and completely turns it upside down and inside out. The horror of this story is just as effective as any demon or killer because the horror is just an ordinary human willing to do evil to a loved one. At the end of a most devastating call, no one wins. Except for maybe the audience.

For more from Richard Powell, check out my review of another short film, Heir.

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Grades:

Movie: 2.5 Star Rating Cover

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