Review by Karolina Gruschka
I was not entirely sure what the phrase ‘play hooky’ in the film title means and therefore looked it up online. Turns out it is an American term employed to state that one is skipping school or work. This would make sense as the five main characters in Play Hooky (2014) decide on spending a beautiful day out with MJ and mother’s best liquor instead of attending lessons. Tomboyish Rosie (Kim Kleemichen), flirty Megan (Becky Byers), anorak Claire (Theresa Davis) and cousins Lance (Vincent Kulish) and Brad (J. Wright Chester) drive around town to find a good spot for getting high without causing suspicion for not being at school.
What more exciting location to choose for being slackers than a creepy abandoned psychiatric hospital? Not even the security guard (Bob Waters) can scare them away: it just adds another pinch of the forbidden to their endeavour of finding a way in. Teenagers, glorious teenagers, you got to admire their free spirit and stupidity. Of course, this day trip does not end well, as Rosie, Meg, Claire, Lance and Brad end up locking themselves in the hospital and encountering difficulties locating another way out (I have heard of people locking themselves out by accident, but ‘in’…?) Megan totally freaks out, sensing something evil in those walls, but her fearful energy is quickly translated into sexual energy with a little help of drink and smoke. Aw look, how cute, she is wearing knickers that have ‘play hooky’ written on them, while she is doing just that – this is what I call proper outfit coordination.
I think it is about time I should mention that Play Hooky belongs to the recent circle of found footage horror films. One of the teenagers, Brad, is equipped with a camera that is attached to his hat. Rather than the camera becoming a sixth person within the group, the audience sees the events unfold from the viewpoint of a specific character. This has the effect that we do not have to wait for the character to first react and then the camera to catch up; instead, the camera is on the action faster as its reaction time equates to that of Brad himself. Abandoned haunted institution, vulnerable teenagers, camera/found footage – these ingredients literally scream out for the material to go in a certain obvious direction, but what I like about Play Hooky is that the director, scriptwriter and producer Frank S Petrilli chooses to take it somewhere else. I will not give away which subgenres I am referring to in the above statement as this would ruin the surprise.
Since this is a found footage film, I believe some of the conversations between the teenagers involved improvisational elements. I found their performances great, as the flow and rhythm of the text as well as the chemistry between the characters felt very natural; at no point did I question the congruity between actor and character, which aids with conveying the realist side of found footage work.
Unfortunately, those are the only positive aspects of the movie. I found Play Hooky quite pointless as, despite a couple of interesting ideas, it does not offer anything genuinely new to the genre. Moments where Petrilli shifts subgenres or switches the camera’s perspective to a different character’s may be a refreshing approach; however, its implementation is not striking enough to blow my socks off. All in all, it actually felt like I was not watching a genuine feature horror, but an amateur film shot for a school project. I expected a pimple faced greenhorn who is starting to tentatively set foot in the film industry to have created this. Therefore, it came as a great shock to discover that behind the name Frank S Petrilli is a grown man who has an impressive employment history. It might sound a bit stalkerish, however, I gathered from his Linked In profile that he comes from a theatre background and that his practical involvement with recorded media is rooted in a marketing environment. Taking the step to make a feature film is something altogether different from directing theatre plays or creating advertisements, so this forms a fairly new venture for Petrilli. Thumbs up for the bravery; it is never too late to move onto something new. However, I have to admit that Play Hooky simply did not work for me.
Nothing much really happens in the movie; just like the five, I found myself bored and wanting a few sips of finest whiskey to get me through this drag. Although there are violent scenes they had no effect on me, potentially because I lacked engagement in the story and the characters (as mentioned above, this is not the fault of the actors). Even if Rosie and Co. are your average kids from next door, I did not care at all what happened to them. Unless it was Petrilli’s intention all along to create work about youngsters in a dangerous situation from an amateurish school kid mindset? To mirror Rosie, Meg, Claire, Lance and Brad’s excuse of playing hooky to supposedly work on a school project? Maybe I am just trying too hard to be nice about the movie.
It is no joke when I say that there is already a sequel to the film, called Play Hooky: Innocence Lost (2014). This time, Petrilli does not go down the found footage route, but still, in moments like this I simply wonder, why oh why make another one?
Play Hooky will be released on Region 1 DVD by Wild Eye Releasing on 21st October. Do not feel sad if you are in Region 2, because, unfortunately, this is not a movie worth skipping school for.