Hangmans Curse MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +4 Content: +3

The Springfield family Nate (David Keith), Sarah (Mel Harris) and their twins Elisha (Leighton Meester) and Elijah (Douglas Smith) runs an investigative agency called The Veritas Project in this suspense thriller. The FBI has called on them to solve a mystery at Rodgers High School where students believe the ghost of Abel Frye is haunting the school and causing some of the football players to become so delirious and ill that theyre beyond doctors help. Abel has just about everybody at the school frightened. The Springfields go undercover to find out who or what is causing all of the ruckus at the school. Posing as students, the twins work their way into the cliques to get to the heart of the matter and, as it turns out, to protect the students from their own hate and prejudice. Teens can be cruel, as this film affirms, and the results can be devastating.

Based on the book by author Frank Peretti, Hangmans Curse is the best movie this reviewer has seen all year. Its an edge-of-your-seat must see, every minute of it. It shows what happens when teenagers open the door of their lives to the all-too-common enemies of peer pressure and prejudice. Bullies and those who get bullied especially would do well to see this film. Its a family film that everyone will enjoy. Hats off to Peretti for giving us a great story with characters to whom we can relate. Peretti himself has a part in the movie as a professor. This is positive family entertainment, but parents should be aware that some scenes may be frightening to young children: a suicide, demonic drawings in a locker, a satanic cult meeting in the schools basement, tarantulas crawling all over people, to point to some. None of these scenes are portrayed in a positive light. And absent from this PG-13 film are the bad language and sexual content so common in others. Preview highly recommends Hangmans Curse to everyone except young children.

Preview Reviewer: Lynn Nusser
Distributor: Namesake Entertainment