The Hangman

Have you ever rented a horror movie you remember seeing as a kid only to find out it’s not mysterious or spooky at all. In fact, almost all horror movies seem cheesy to you now. But somewhere lurking in your head is the version YOU remember, a version that your imagination has built into myth that no movie could live up to. That’s what I had carried around in my head for 20 years and had almost decided to try to remake a version of The Hangman, a slideshow animation of Maurice Ogden’s poem. I was haunted by the Hangman’s “buckshot eye” and “yellow twist of knotted hemp” long after my 7th grade English teacher rolled the projector back to the A.V. room. I scoured the internet for years in the hope that it might silence my attempts in vain to describe it to friends. 2 years ago I began storyboarding my remake. I was almost disappointed to find it on YouTube last month. Would it live up to my memory? Would it ruin my version? Turns out my version would have been shit. Message, art, direction – it’s all as intact now as it was back then. It’s truth is timeless and this video (although I pray for a clean DVD transfer someday) is UNFUCKWITHABLE.