It all starts with an idea. Then, if you’re lucky, that idea blossoms into a complete story that can then be transformed from words on a page into a fully-staged production. For all the films released in a week every year, there’re plenty more that never get made, making the act of public release an incredible moment for any creative in the business of storytelling. Sometimes those ideas are traditional: a romance, a horror tale, an action-packed adventure. Sometimes those ideas are a little less-so: a Lovecraftian tale of existential proportions taking place in a highway restroom (Glorious), a time loop rom-com executed with two-minute increments (River), or a black-and-white slapstick action comedy in which man battles beavers (Hundreds of Beavers). In the arena of the latter exists Hanky Panky from co-directors Lindsey Haun (Unnatural Causes) and Nick Roth, a stoner lo-fi sci-fi slasher comedy that starts off weird, gets a little off-putting, and then just blasts off into insanity from there.
T-B: Jacob DeMonte-Finn as Sam and Nick Roth as Dr. Crane in HANKY PANKY. Photo Courtesy of Happy Canyon Club.
It’s the holiday season, a time of cheer and gathering. For socially awkward Sam (Jacob DeMonte-Finn), the desire to be around people gets complicated between his natural anxiety and his sentient handkerchief, Woody (voiced by Toby Bryan). Compounding things, as Sam joins a group of revelers at their isolated cabin in a snowy wood, amid the general interpersonal conflicts are a few dead bodies. Is Sam losing his mind or is he the only sane one and Woody is the key to their safety? With a storm on the way, Sam better figure it out quickly before victims they all become.
Prior to working on Hanky Panky, Haun and Roth had worked together on the 2015 short film Coming To and the 2014 short film Hanky Panky, from which this feature length film derives and of which most of the cast returns. Having not seen the originating short, nothing that follows will compare or contrast the two, but it is worth noting that what the audience is given in the feature doesn’t feel as though it’s drawn out unnecessarily. Characters are introduced in such a way that we know enough about them to either be charmed, intrigued, or thoroughly wigged out; plot elements build nicely so that the ensuing chaos of the finale feels earned; and whatever potential distance one might feel from the production at the start gives way to an amusing intimacy by the end, enabling even straight edge audience members to get inside on the jokes.
L-R: Azure Parsons as Lilth, Lindsey Haun as Rebecca, Clare Grant as Kelly, Christina Laskay as Carla, and Toby Bryan as Norm in HANKY PANKY. Photo Courtesy of Happy Canyon Club.
Not to sugar coat things, Hanky Panky is a proper lo-fi endeavor. The lighting in one scene may shift from shot to shot as actors get their coverage, the dialogue references a “major storm” but there’s nary a snowflake to be seen (outside of what’s already on the ground), you can see the mechanism for puppetry, and the performance are big — all things that would seemingly indicate a lesser quality product. When you put it all together, however, one starts to recognize the purposefulness of the majority of these things. The big performances and puns feel like they’re inspired by Airplane! (1980) in the way that they are played straight to each other, therefore becoming comedic in the friction between delivery and the situation. The execution of some of the mystery could be an homage to Clue (1985) in the way that Sam and the others can’t quite put their finger on what’s going on as the bodies drop, requiring the tiniest bit of sleuthing. Even the execution of the puppetry channels a bit of that old Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957) in that we can see the wires, but who gives a damn when the end result is hilarious. In the director’s statement on the official website, they reference films Wet Hot American Summer (2001) and Caddyshack (1980), two comedies that feature big comedic casts which utilize the pre-existing relationships of the cast to catapult their combined energy into something chaotic and exciting (the former, especially). When one considers that the cast has already worked on this project once and are already tight, the fact that things get as stoopid as they do (which the audience can feel in the watching) makes a great deal of sense. In short, the film may be low on production value, but it all comes together to be something zany enough to want to tell your friends about.
Amusingly, with one of the central themes being about self-acceptance and love, that one can sense how much the cast clearly loved getting weird with one another helps the total presentation transcend first impressions. In this regard, you find yourself kinda falling in love, too, in the way that something doesn’t really seem like your jam, but the more you hang out with them you kinda get that mindmeld psychosis that makes you realize that you were wrong all along. As an example, there’s a moment when Anthony Rutowicz’s Cliff is out trudging through the snow on his way to go ice fishing. He’s been pounding back Busch cans since we first meet him and he starts to find unopened cans in the snow around him. Why does he start following them around? Why would he start drinking from the cans found out in the wilderness? These are logically questions until he comes upon a sign in the foreground indicating that the building in the background is an ice shack using the phrase “Ice Shack Baby!” — the kind of dumbass pun that EoM Editor Crystal Davidson might use … which is how she charmed this reviewer from the start. Viewed another way, it’s the kind of sign that makes no sense whatsoever in a serious film, but in one made by friends who are crafting something to amuse themselves as much as everyone else, yeah, it tracks. As do a series of other slightly nonsensical things, such as the truth behind Cliff’s sister-in-law Lilith (Azure Parsons in a totally different film than the rest (not a knock)), whether or not Sam’s talking handkerchief is a mark of insanity, and the premise as a whole, which may as well be an homage to Dude, Where’s My Car? (2000), a film that I saw in undergrad and still quote with Crystal to this day. Just like Christmas, love is all around Hanky Panky, permeating it, soaking in it, really getting worked in there so those good ole’ pheromones start leaking out of the celluloid (or digital frame, to be more precise) and all over the audience.
L-R: Ashley Holliday Tavares as Diane and Jacob DeMonte-Finn as Sam in HANKY PANKY. Photo Courtesy of Happy Canyon Club.
But love is also something that is in the eye of the beholder, much like beauty. Given the inconsistencies in some of the lighting, the uneven sound clarity in the dialogue, and a few questionable moments where sexual innuendo goes a tad too far, one might easily stop the tap before Hanky Panky has a chance to get to the good stuff. Too often is a film derided for what it’s not versus what it is, and this is an instance where what it is is exactly what you can see — the product of friends coming together to tell a wild ass comedic horror story set in a cabin in the remote woods. They achieved exactly what they set out to do, even if the execution is a bit summer camp sketch comedy. But look, if Wet Hot American Summer can be seen as a classic comedy and it features a talking soup can, I can’t wait to see what people think of Hanky Panky and its talking puppets.
Available on Google, Apple, Amazon, and Vudu April 19th, 2024.
For more information, head to the official Hanky Panky website.
Final Score: 3 out of 5.
Share this:
Categories: Films To Watch, Recommendation, Reviews, streaming
Leave a Reply