Don't Hang Up is a 2016 British horror-thriller film written by Joe Johnson and directed by Alexis Wajsbrot and Damien Macé. The film stars Gregg Sulkin, Garrett Clayton, Sienna Guillory, and Bella Dayne. The film had its world premiere on June 4, 2016, at the Los Angeles Film Festival and was released in theaters in the United States on February 10, 2017.
While not in class, teenage pranksters Brady Mannion, Sam Fuller, Jeff Mosley, and Roy a.k.a. “PrankMonkey69” spend their spare time making prank calls that they upload online to receive millions of views. As their online celebrity begins to rise, the boys escalate their pranks to a dangerous level. One evening, Brady and Sam receive phone calls from a mysterious stranger who identifies himself as "Mr. Lee", insisting that they don't hang up on him, igniting a nightmare for the pair of teenagers when the mysterious stranger turns their own game against them with deadly consequences.
Don't Hang Up provides examples of:
- Accidental Murder: Sam jumps at Mr. Lee and stabs him to death, only to discover that it was actually Brady, whom Mr. Lee disguised as himself so Sam would kill him.
- Mrs. Kolbein had shot her daughter, Izzy, thinking she was an intruder.
- Asshole Victim: Brady, Sam, Jeff, and Roy are abhorrent people, so it's hard to feel too bad for them when we learn the extent of Mr. Lee's goals.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Mr. Lee successfully kills all the pranksters, except for Sam, whom he frames for their murders, and the murders of Brady's parents and Peyton.
- Bald of Evil: Mr. Lee.
- Batter Up!: Jeff Mosley is nearly attacked with a bat when a neighbor mistakes him for a robber thanks to Brady's prank call. Later, Sam and Brady arm themselves with bats to fight against Mr. Lee.
- Bound and Gagged: Mr. Lee does this to Brady's parents, Jeff, and Roy.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: The Main Characters are internet pranksters who make prank phone calls to people with cruel jokes and post videos of it online for other people to laugh at their trauma, as shown in the beginning when they successfully convince Mrs. Kolbein that her house has been broken into, and mock her horrified reaction. The antagonist tries to justify his actions by claiming they deserve it, but does so by targeting the parents and girlfriend of the characters who are not associated with their actions. Even when we find out the true motive, it's still a very disproportionate punishment, especially since the ending shows him targeting another group of pranksters, where "at least" his previous actions were motivated by a personal grudge.
- Break the Haughty: The main theme of the movie.
- Cluster F-Bomb: There's a lot of swearing in the movie.
- Creepy Monotone: Mr. Lee for the most part.
- Deadly Delivery: Brady pranks the neighbor by ordering a pizza and telling the neighbor that there are robbers pretending to be delivery guys. This nearly gets his friend, Mosley, beaten with a bat by the neighbor. Peyton later comes over to tell them that Mosley never returned from the delivery, because he was captured and killed by Mr. Lee.
- Deadly Prank: It is revealed that the infamous prank in the opening caused Mrs. Kolbein to shoot her daughter, and then kill herself out of remorse.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Potentially debatable, but still valid; Mr. Lee's anger at the pranksters unintentionally causing his wife to shoot their daughter and then commit suicide is just about understandable, but he loses sympathy when he goes after the pranksters' families, none of who had anything to do with the original prank, particularly when the pranksters never intended to kill anyone.
- Downer Ending: Sam survives the whole ordeal, but Peyton, Brady, Brady's parents, Jeff, and Roy are all dead. Sam is arrested by the police due to Mr. Lee making it look like Sam murdered everyone out of spite for Brady sleeping with Peyton. It is then implied that Mr. Lee will continue to target more internet pranksters.
- Driven to Suicide: Mrs. Kolbein did this after accidentally shooting her young daughter, thinking she was an intruder the boys made her believe was in her house.
- Evil Laugh: Mr. Lee switches between this and Giggling Villain after tricking the boys by pretending to be a 911 operator and revealing he hacked their phones to prevent them from calling for help.
- Final Girl: Peyton is set up to be this towards the end as she watches Mr. Lee hold Sam at gunpoint and shoots. The next scene reveals that he actually shot Peyton and frames Sam for her murder.
- Foreshadowing: We don't see Mrs. Kolbein pick up her phone when the call is revealed to be a prank.
- When the videos are being posted, there is always at least one comment that shows disgust by what they are doing.
- Freudian Excuse: When Mr. Lee has Sam and Peyton as his mercy, he reveals that Mrs. Kolbein is his wife, and their prank call caused her to panic, grab a gun, and accidentally shoot their young daughter. After realizing what she had done, Mrs. Kolbein killed herself.
- Here We Go Again!: The epilogue shows another prankster posting a prank call video online and ignoring a friend request from "Izzy".
- I Can See You: Sam and Brady are horrified to discover that Mr. Lee can see and hear everything they do and say via a webcam in their house.
- Karma Houdini: Mr. Lee escapes in the end and successfully frames Sam for the murders.
- Line-of-Sight Name: It turns out that Mr. Lee got his name off a pamphlet for a Chinese restaurant.
- Mistaken for Prank Call: Sam and Brady initially dismiss Mr. Lee's phone calls as this...until he reveals he knows their names, addresses, and current location.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Mrs. Kolbein after accidentally killing her daughter before killing herself. Sam seems to have this reaction as well when he learns that it was his prank that led to their deaths.
- Offing the Offspring: Mrs. Kolbein shoots a person behind a door, thinking it was an intruder. It was actually her daughter.
- Peek-a-Boo Corpse: When Sam opens the backdoor, Jeff's body falls on top of him.
- Prank Call: The film opens with Sam and Brady, along with their friends, Jeff and Roy, prank-calling a woman into thinking she's being robbed. They make more prank calls afterward, and the plot is kicked off with Mr. Lee calling and psychologically torturing Sam and Brady for all the prank calls they pulled.
- Sadistic Choice: After showing Brady footage of his parents being held hostage, Mr. Lee makes Brady choose to kill Sam and save them or save themselves and leave his parents to die. Brady tries to choose the latter, but Sam won't let him. Mr. Lee later captures Peyton and tries to make Sam choose between killing Brady to save her, or saving themselves and letting her die. Sam doesn't choose, but is later able to save Peyton.
- Stalker without a Crush: Sam and Brady soon discover that Mr. Lee has been stalking them online for over a year.
- Tagline: "Be careful who you prank"
- True Companions: Sam and Brady are shown to be as close as brothers. Even when Mr. Lee tries to turn them against each other by holding their loved ones hostage and revealing that Brady had sex with Sam's girlfriend, they continue to have each other's backs until Sam accidentally kills Brady.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Brady reveals to Sam that he is planning to join the Marines after graduation, only because he thinks it'll make his parents proud of him.
- Wham Line: Sam and Brady assume they are on the receiving end of a prank phone call and dismiss Mr. Lee, until he calls Brady by his name.
- After Mr. Lee finally makes his appearance, Sam begs to know why he's doing this to them.Mr. Lee: I'm simply returning the favor. Payback for the night you and your friends called my house.
- After Mr. Lee finally makes his appearance, Sam begs to know why he's doing this to them.
