10 Horror Movies Where Pranks Brutally Backfired
3. Don't Hang Up (2016)
Don't Hang Up is one of the first 'prank gone wrong' films to really allude to the potential of modern technology like viral videos, texting, and online research to pull pranks.
In Don't Hang Up, teens Brady, Sam, Jeff, and Roy convince a woman that not only has an intruder broken into her home, but that her daughter is in grave danger. They film the whole call, including the laugh-filled admission that it is only a prank, and go viral on Youtube.
A year later, Sam and Brady begin getting prank calls of their own, from a man named Mr Lee, who has apparently been watching them for some time. Eventually Brady's parents and his friends Jeff and Roy, as well as Sam's girlfriend Peyton, are pulled into the chaos, all winding up dead. Sam, however, in a fitting end, is framed for the murders, soon to be a celebrity for a very different reason.
Mr Lee turns out to be the husband of the woman from the initial call, who dropped the phone and didn't hear that it was only a prank. Thinking her daughter was the intruder, she shot her, then shot herself out of guilt. Mr Lee then makes it his mission to stop pranksters like Sam.
The film deftly deconstructs what fame means in the 21st century, and how easily people can and will ruin the lives or reputation of others for glory, often with irrevocable consequences.