Hacked
2021 was a time of strangeness, disconnection, frustration, a loss of independence coupled with the need to support others and rely on their support, and while some adapted and coped any complex system is only as safe and reliable as its weakest point, and for the Rumble family, Mark and Amy, working in media and finding their income curtailed by the pandemic, it was trusting others which was their downfall.
The deposit for their new home scrabbled together and the notice on their rental handed in, the wire transfer of $20,000 will seal the deal, but with their broker distracted and his support team uncommunicative, Mark and Amy are not to know that they have been hacked and the details they have been given contain one character different from the correct recipient, homeless, broke and with the bank blaming them rather than offering support.
Subtitled A Double Entendre of Rage Fueled Karma and presented as a fictionalised expansion of a true story all too common to tens of thousands of people each year, often elderly, isolated or otherwise vulnerable, who have fallen victim to scams and found themselves with no clear path to restitution, Hacked is written and directed by Synchronic’s Shane Brady who also stars as Mark Rumble, based on his own hideous life-changing experience in Tampa, Florida.
With Augie Duke as Amy and Owen Atlas and Collin Thompson as terminally online internet agitator teenage sons Ralph and Freddy whose goading of “the Chameleon” sets off the chain of events which brings the hammer of consequence on their anonymous nemesis, that they are in reality adorable puppers does not detract from the fully justified cathartic chaos as parents and kids set out separately to find who is to blame and arrive at the same undeserved gated community destination.
The cross-jurisdictional nature of cybercrime and the specialised skills needed to resolve it often lagging behind those of the dedicated perpetrators who simply create a new digital identity and move on, help is on hand in the unlikely form of teenage CIA agents and Kris Kringle (Richard Riehle), a man who is not to be crossed conveniently on vacation in Tampa as the tangle of victims wanting revenge and remuneration expands while the police blithely shrug.
Chandler Riggs as easy to hate as he was in The Walking Dead, frittering away vast sums of other people’s money and showing no consideration for those whose lives he has casually destroyed, his smug expression only improved by torture, Hacked is a manic “if only” fuelled by ADHD meds, high fructose corn syrup and audacity made for those who worked hard and abided by the rules only to be blamed when they were cheated by the system.
Hacked will be available on DVD and digital download from Tuesday 2nd June
