Play Hooky

Director - Frank S. Petrilli (Play Hooky: Innocence Lost)
Starring - Kim Kleemichen (Play Hooky: Innocence Lost), Becky Byers (The Big Bad), and Vincent Kulish (Play Hooky: Innocence Lost)
Release Date - 2012
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "You'll never skip school again!"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     Found footage is the most abysmal sub-genre to ever hit horror.  Most filmmakers use found footage as an excuse to overcome not having a budget.  I am all for this but most use the found footage angle to skip on story as well.  Most horror fans that hate found footage flicks blame The Blair Witch Project for the sudden rise in the sub-genre that refuses to die.  I say this is stupid because I personally like TBWP because it is so simple.  It took an urban legend and turned it into a simple story and made it shocking and entertaining.  Sadly, most of the films that follow try to tell a similar story only to fail miserably.  Recently, Wild Eye released the found footage flick Play Hooky.  I had heard a lot of good things about the film and decided to check it out.  Thanks Wild Eye for hooking me up!
     The film follows five students who skip school to fuck around while one of them record it all with his new camera and stupid hat.  They try to crash the house of one of the young girls while her mother is away but she arrives early to find them there and they are forced to leave but not without stealing a bottle of whiskey.  They then decide to visit a local abandoned building that is supposedly haunted.  One of the girls voices her dislike of the idea but they all go anyway.  When they arrive a man tells them to leave but they do not listen and enter the building to fuck around.  One of the young ladies enters the non-functioning bathroom to tinkle and is brutally murdered.  The remainder of the group freaks out until they meet the man over taking care of the building and takes all their names.  He then snaps and kills one of the students before the other man that told them to leave arrives and the hunt is on for the remaining students.
     My biggest complaint about found footage films is the amount of picture we are actually missing by having the film look like it was recorded on a cheap, shitty camera.  In most cases the film is actually filmed on a cheap camera but in some instances the film is edited to look that way.  What I am trying to say is that a lot of hard work goes unnoticed when the picture quality is horrible.  Play Hooky uses the low quality angle but they stabilize the video to where you don't miss anything in front of the camera.  This is great and unlike most FF flicks.  The acting in this one is great by the entire cast even though their ages are not really believable.  The cast made the roles really fun and the unexpected favorite of the film was the nerdy school girl with shitty toilet paper on her shoes.  This character was really awkward and fun to watch.  The remainder of the cast made their character fun as well but there was clearly an age gap between them all.  The story for this one is one we have seen before especially in the found footage sub-genre.  A group of teenagers visit an abandoned hospital/asylum/mortuary only to meet their demise.  What sets this one apart from the others is the fun characters and the lack of supernatural elements.  This film does not take itself too seriously and that helps this one out a lot.  Finally, the film does have a few on screen kills but they are, sadly, weak and a bit of a let down.  I was expecting some gory school girl deaths and was disappointed to see that it did not happen.  Overall, Play Hooky is a fun found footage flick that does not give you more of the same.  The film has a solid cast, like-able characters, and a decent story.  This one deserves a shot so check it out!