I watched this high school horror film based on Frank Peretti’s supernatural book for young people a few years after it came out, and now I'm getting ready to watch it again, but I honestly can’t recall much about it—except the unusual professor, played by the author himself, Frank Peretti. He reminded me of a shorter version of Dr. Emmett Brown from “Back to the Future.” I saw an interview with him once and he really is as quirky and energetic as he comes across on screen. The story centers around a high school in Spokane, Washington, that’s supposedly haunted by the ghost of a student who died by suicide ten years prior. Several athletes have fallen into comas after seeing this apparition. The school brings in the Veritas Project, a group of investigators who work secretly to figure out what's going on with paranormal events. They are kind of like a family-friendly version of Mulder & Scully from “The X-Files.” David Keith plays the father, Mel Harris plays the mother and the teenage twins are portrayed by Leighton Meester and Douglas Smith. The dad pretends to be a janitor while the kids act as new students. To enjoy this movie, you have to accept that it's based on a pretty far-fetched idea—a family team of paranormal investigators—and that it’s a mild horror film from an author who writes Christian supernatural fiction aimed at younger audiences. You also need to keep in mind that, even though it had a limited run in theaters, the movie was made with what amounts to a TV movie budget ($2 million), and that shows. Despite this, there are some things to appreciate about “Hangman’s Curse.” The cast is appealing, led by Keith; for once in a high school film, the students actually look like they're still in high school, not in their twenties; I liked the restricted part of the school and its underground passages (which reminded me of the boiler room scenes from "Nightmare on Elm Street"); there are lots of creepy spiders; and the music has some good moments. On the other hand, the performances by the less important teenage characters aren’t great, and the story could have been told in a more straightforward and engaging way. As for the Christian elements, they're so subtle that I don’t think anyone would find them objectionable. For example, a group says grace before their meal—which isn't exactly unusual anywhere in America. Since the main characters are Christians, it makes sense to show them as such. In fact, the movie almost downplays this aspect too much. The film is 1 hour and 46 minutes long and was filmed in Spokane, Washington. GRADE: C+

Source on TMDB