I just saw it
I just saw this incredibly bad new horror film starring Terrence Mann called Red Hook. I'm going to give you a play by play of just how bad it is. Please excuse my calling one character just 'the lesbian.' I completely forgot her name and her only distinctive trait is she's the only gay character in the movie. I actually like her character but I can't recall her name so please excuse my referring to her as the lesbian. I, myself, am bisexual.
WARNING; RED HOOK SPOILERS AHEAD!
If you actually intend to see Red Hook do NOT read these spoilers unless you really want to take away all possible surprises.
The Plot of Red Hook in a nutshell.
The opening shot is a point of view heading for a house, much like the opening of the original Halloween.
After this shameless rip off:
An eight or so year-old girl, Jenny (our hero) witnesses the brutal murder of her sister from a window. While her sister is being stabbed to death Lt. Fox (Terrence Mann) abruptly shows up and shoots the killer. His only line in this scene is 'We're too late.' Then he looks up with stage-worthy sadness toward the little girl who has witnessed all of this. A small flash back later would reveal he went upstairs and cradled her in his arms, trying to comfort her.
Cut to New York City, apparently ten years later (without telling us how much time has actually passed). Terrence Mann's name is the first to appear in the credits though we won't see him again for another forty four minutes (seriously, I timed it).
Jenny is now a college student at NYU. She is agoraphobic and has decided to cure her agoraphobia by living in one of the busiest cities on the planet. Jenny's roommate seems to be an archetype designed to poke fun of Terrence Mann's drama students. Her roommate is Angela (though she pronounces it as An-gel-a. Or Angel-a but not Angela... Anyway, Angel-a is Broadway obsessed. She has posters of major Broadway plays and Broadway stars all over the wall over her bed. (Shameless plug there, Terrence?)
Before Jenny got to school Angela had Googled her name and discovered that Jenny had been the witness of her sister's murder and for some reason Angela decided to tell everyone she knew about this so the whole dorm knows. Angela callously asks Jenny how much of it she had seen. Angela had been scolded by her drama teachers that she needed more life experience so she wanted to use Jenny as her source for dramatic life experience.
The head of the dorm is a very over-the-top guy named Tim, whose trying to pressure everyone to join his scavenger hunt. We also get introduced to the token slut of the movie, a blonde bimbo who seduces guys and promises sex for good grades. (Gee... I wonder if she gets killed!)
That night when Jenny goes to take a shower the janitor walks in on her because Tim had told him it was okay. Jenny runs out screaming but apparently she's a freak for being frightened by a strange man following her into the shower while she's naked. Um... Okay...
Jenny befriends Gavin. Gavin is this seemingly sweet guy who has also lost someone he loves, he lost a brother. Gavin and Jenny become close very fast.
That night when Jenny returns to the dorm she finds that Angel-a is belting show tunes very loudly and does not want to be disturbed. She's practicing for a Broadway audition. Though she's singing at the top of her lungs she eventually opens the door to tell the people outside that they're being too loud. (Have i mentioned I don't like this girl?)
While Jenny's out in the hall waiting for the Prima Donna to finish her solo she gets hit on by the film's token Lesbian, a surprisingly pretty character with short dark brown hair and self-defense training. The Token Lesbian (Sorry, I forget her character's name, they don't say it often) flirts with Jenny but is somehow shot down by Jenny saying the lines 'I'm from North Carolina.' To which our would-be romantic interest goes 'Oh...' (... How does being from North Carolina suddenly mean you're not interested?)
Angela finally allows Jenny back into the dorm, just after Jenny passes by Angela we see Angela say through the half open door to Gavin 'She's shy. And a freak.' Angela shuts the door and turns around and Jenny is SUDDENLY dressed in nothing but a towel and sopping wet. How the...!? BAD edit, movie! Bad! There's no way in Hell she undressed and showered and then put a towel on in the time it took Angela to say 'She's a little shy and a freak.' What the Hell!? Movie! Explain yourself!
Jenny goes out to a convenience store with Gavin. The Convenience store gets robbed, coincidentally while they are there. The clerk gets shot in the head right in front of Jenny. Because Jenny acts a little shaken by this on the very night it happened again she is labeled an over reacting freak. (MOVIE! ANYONE would act a little freaked out after seeing someone get murdered! What is wrong with you!? Do you think all New Yorkers are USED to seeing store clerks get shot in the head?!)
Jenny gets on the phone with her mother but does not tell her what happened for fear she would send her home. However as soon as Jenny's finished talking to her mother the actress playing Jenny does NOT press any button on the phone. She doesn't flip anything. She just takes the phone away from her ear and tosses it onto the bed.
A few days later Jenny thinks someone is following her. It turns out to be Lt. Fox (Terrence Mann). The Lesbian comes to Jenny's rescue and bonks Terry in the head with a shoe (Best scene in the whole movie if you ask me). Lt. Fox explains that he was sent by Jenny's parents to keep an eye on her. So Jenny says 'Where were you when I was being shot at?' (Making reference to the convenience store robbery). He replies with 'Your parents only called me two days ago.' How does he know how long ago she was shot at? Because he's Terrence Mann and knows all, apparently...
The next day is the scavenger Hunt and everyone in the dorm has been roped into it. The head of the scavenger hunt (Tim) will be contacting everyone via text messages on their phones under the name Red Hook. (Dun dun dun!) Jenny has joined up to prove she's not paranoid (even though she's witnessed two murders, a robbery, had a strange man follow her into the shower while naked, and really was stalked by Terrence Mann but apparently she's paranoid...)
Jenny is upset because Gavin isn't there to be her partner. He had promised to be there. Everyone splits up to do the scavenger hunt.
Angela and her partner find a clue at a karaoke bar where her clue is a lyric sheet to the tune of Oh Susanna. Angela looks at the lyrics for literally a split second and then belts out the entire song / clue. This character is a ham but seriously if she can remember a song THAT quickly maybe she really does belong on Broadway.
Meanwhile unbeknownst to anyone else our blonde bimbo who promises sex for homework assignments is murdered in the park.
A clue is found in a video store that is a small locked box. A small key is found in Jenny's dorm. The key in Jenny's dorm room happens to fit the box. In the box is a bloody plastic bag with a finger in it.
Everyone in the group insists it must be fake but Jenny refuses to believe it. They call her the girl who cried wolf and say she's cried wolf before. Okay, let's reflect. The girl who witnessed her sister's murder, was followed into the shower by a strange man, saw an armed robbery where the clerk got shot, and was stalked by Terrence Mann is the girl who cried wolf!? What is WRONG with these people?!
So they all make light of the severed finger and Jenny's 'freakish paranoia.' I hope all these characters die horribly...
There's a note with the severed finger saying to continue with the scavenger hunt or Gavin will die horribly.
Meanwhile Angela gets a short video recording of Tim apparently being stabbed to death but she laughs it off as a joke. Because apparently their dorm leader is very good at faking his death... apparently.
Everyone continues with the scavenger hunt thinking all the morbid stuff is a big joke. When Angela is trying to reach through the metal mesh of a closed shop door to get a clue her bangle bracelets get stuck. This makes her easy prey for the killer. The killer finds her and brutally murders her.
While this is going on the blonde bimbo's body is found in a yoga place where she was apparently successfully hidden under a stack of thin blue yoga mats. Yes, a human body was hidden under a stack of flat, thin, blue yoga mats. I'm scratching my head about this one too.
Slowly the gang starts to realize that maybe Jenny's right and this stuff IS real after all.
Jenny gets worried and calls her mother but without telling her what's going on. She figures she needs Lt. Fox's number. Well, apparently her mother tells her she never sent Lt. Fox to look after her and didn't even know he had retired to New York. So he's stalking her for his own reasons.
The Lesbian character, Jenny, and some other girl (I can't remember much about this girl at all) get a clue that tells them not to take the subway or a bus but to use a car. It turns out the Lesbian character has a car. So they all get into her car but Jenny hears a strange noise. Then the other girl hears it. So the lesbian character gets out to check the trunk. Here's where she finds Tim's body. She tells the others not to come out, they don't need to see this. But as she's covering up Tim's body the masked figure comes out from behind him and stabs her in the stomach. That's right, apparently this trunk is huge enough to fit two grown men and you can even successfully hide the second man out of view. That's a HUGE freakin' trunk she has there.
Anyway, the lesbian character (I wish I could remember her name) starts kicking ass. She fights the masked hooded baddie and looks like she even killed him. But when she gets back to the car he comes up behind her and stabs her in the back of the neck, killing her. (I liked her...)
The other girl and Jenny flee to the final location where two other surviving male members of the scavenger hunt are also headed. There's video and projector equipment everywhere. The murderer (Now going by Red Hook on their phones) has recorded everything he did.
Jenny and the other girl idiotically split up though they know there's a homicidal maniac near by. The other girl goes up stairs where there's an open balcony. There's literally only a few feet above Jenny's head to where the other girl is. Jenny sees one of the videos revealing that the killer is following the other girl. Jenny tries to warn her but for some reason that few feet is enough for her to be not hurt. The other girl gets murdered.
Jenny gets chased by the masked killer while hearing Lt. Fox's voice calling to her 'Jenny! Jenny, are you all right? Jenny!' Since we can't see the killer's face this is meant to mislead the audience into thinking that Lt. Fox is the killer. I didn't fall for it.
How or why he's there I don't know. He just is.
Jenny eventually finds a pile of large plastic bags hiding the apparently wounded Gavin. Gavin's bloody hand is covered in a cloth. Jenny helps get him to his feet and lead him down stairs where the two other male survivors of the killer are waiting. Here it gets revealed that Gavin is the killer. His hand is fine. He murdered the others because they have no idea what it's like to lose someone they love. They would go their whole lives without suffering loss whereas he and Jenny have suffered it. Riiiight, and entire college dorm has only two people who have ever experienced death? Ever?!
So one of our geniuses decides to pound the crap out of Gaven so Gavin slits his throat. Because NO ONE thought to search him for a weapon when it was revealed that he's the killer! These kids are morons!
When it's just Jenny she asks Gavin 'Do you plan to kill me too?' He says no. He loves her. She tries to kill him / escape him and this angers him but just then (Cue Super Man music) Lt. Fox shows up and heroically shoots our bad guy. How he got there right on time or where he was for those several minutes since we heard him calling for Jenny is beyond me. He shoots Gavin repeatedly and takes Jenny into his arms saying 'You're safe now.' She replies with 'No, I'm not.' And then the credits roll. That's it.
This film is so bad I couldn't help but laugh at it. It had just about every horror movie cliche except the good cop mistaken as the killer didn't die after all. He was the hero. Though a lot is left unexplained about where the Hell he was for most of the movie or why he always swoops in at the last second to shoot the real bad guy. Terrence Mann, admittedly, is the best actor in the whole thing but that doesn't say much when the rest of the cast felt like over the top drama students (including the character who was supposed to be an over the top drama student).
If you want to heckle a cheesy movie with your friends check this out. If you want a GOOD movie... find something else. I'll admit it was fun to watch but there was more to laugh at than be frightened of. The writing his horrible. There are large plot holes and this is the unrated version.
Pick it apart as you will.