Short Horror Film: Hangman -- Review with Ending Spoilers!

 Plot: Natalie's game of Hangman takes a terrifying turn. 

A long time back when there was a free period at school, students used to play games in classrooms with whatever items they could find. Usually, it included written, word games like Name, Place, Animal, and Thing. Or of course the popular game HANGMAN. 

Hangman is a guessing word game. One player usually has to guess letters while another draws a stick man. Should the player run out of guesses, the stick figure is hung. 

That was a fun game, wasn’t it?

In recent years, though, Hangman was seen as an offensive game. Stick figures have right too and they should not be hanged because of a guessing game. 

The other reason was that it was deemed violent for small children. The alternative version was apples on a tree that were taken down with each wrong guess. 

Hangman is still a popular game, especially as it has forayed into the digital world. There have been plenty of word games based on it too. 

Now imagine if this innocent word game was part of a horror story? 

In a short horror film, we see a girl called Natalie, inviting someone to play by writing a note and putting it into a tin can phone. Clearly, someone at school or someone online has told her of this. 

She goes to bed only to hear the phone ring. It’s the tin can phone. She picks it up and the voice at the other end tells her it can make all her dreams come true should she be willing to play a game with her. 

Natalie wants nothing more but to be popular. She is told she has to play a game of Hangman and she will get exactly that if she wins. Natalie wants to know what happens if she loses. The voice on the other end only laughs. The closet door creaks open and Natalie turns on the light. 

No one is there. 

She tosses the tin can phone inside and closes the door. She is done playing for the night. 

But the second she gets into bed, the phone rings again. Natalie is told she doesn’t have a choice. She has to play the game. She only has to guess her caller’s name. How hard could it be? 

It is for Natalie who doesn’t think of using vowels first or letters like R to guess. 

Of course, she runs out of turns and loses. She begins to suffocate and is lifted. Natalie is killed. 

The caller reveals their name as Casper. 

Now, wasn’t Casper supposed to be a friendly ghost? 

Not in this case. 

Watch this chilling horror short on the ACMoffical channel on Youtube. 

Scare Scale: 4/5