The first 10 Minutes of this brilliant, disorienting and altogether unique “Double Entendre of Rage-Fueled Karma” from 2026 are apparently based on true events, whereas the rest is “A Work of Fictional Parody About What We Wish We Could Have Done to the Bastard Who Stole Our Money.” That screed refers to how in 2021 HACKED’s writer-director Shane Brady and co-producer Emily Zercher-Brady were scammed out of $20 thousand by a notorious cyber-criminal, with the film, which takes the form of a broad and caricatured splatter comedy, being a wish-fulfillment fantasy that leans quite heavily into its meta nature.
Standing in for Shane and Emily are movie soundman Mark Rumble (Brady) and his event planner wife Amy (Augie Duke), who live in Tampa, FL with their (fictional) offspring Ralph (Owen Atlas) and Freddy (Collin Thompson). The pandemic has hit Mark and Amy hard, forcing them to sell vacuums door to door and donate bone marrow to make ends meet. Ralph and Freddy, meanwhile, have gotten into an online spat with Rob Huberton (Chandler Riggs), a notorious hacker who’s victimized countless individuals. As Mark and Amy are initiating a wire transfer to buy a house, Huberton seizes the funds and vows that next he’s “going to steal from the LGBTQ community and female filmmakers.”
Mark and Amy have no luck attaining justice through official channels. It’s up to the CIA agents Kate (Katelyn Nacon) and Nova (Mia Castillo) to help make things right by using Ralph and Freddy’s online info to contact Huberton. They, together with the Rumbles, kidnap and immobilize Huberton (appropriately enough in the days leading up to Halloween) in an abandoned store, with the aim of forcing him to give back all the money he’s filched. They’re aided in this endeavor by none other than Santa Claus (Richard Riehle), who’s pissed about the many Christmases Huberton has ruined, and Santa and the gang gleefully subject Huberton to beatings, a cheese grater to the skin, tabasco sauce in the eyes, a hockey puck to the stomach, etc.
Shane Brady never lets us forget that what we’re watching is a fantasy, with highly antic staging and a barrage of stylistic flourishes—sequences done up in the form of infomercials and/or music videos, etc.—that will drive some viewers to distraction (this film makes previous excess-driven satires like NATURAL BORN KILLERS look like models of stately restraint), but we’re also never allowed to ignore the very real sense of outrage that drives the proceedings. At one point in the final third the film’s creators Shane Brady and Emily Zercher-Brady turn up onscreen to point out that they’ve been substituting Brady as Mark with a different actor (one Michael Reed) in the preceding sequence because “We felt it was important to show you just how easy it is to be tricked.”
Variations on the real-life ordeal undergone by the Bradys have happened to untold others, and (as is acknowledged in the film) only an exceedingly small percentage of those crimes are ever solved. Furthermore, a concluding subtitle makes clear that “Our hacker was never arrested, nor charged with a crime,” although “Thanks to us being hacked, we had the most fun adventures with the greatest friends and family ever,” so the high-spirited nature of the proceedings is not without some justification.
Vital Statistics
HACKED
Spooky Feet Films
Director/Screenplay/Editing: Shane Brady
Producers: Shane Brady, Emily Zercher-Brady
Cinematography: Evan Zissimopulos
Cast: Shane Brady, Chandler Riggs, Owen Atlas, Collin Thompson, Augie Duke, Richard Riehle, Katelyn Nacon, Hugh Scott, Brittney Escalante, Glenn Stanton, Mia Castillo, Rob Belushi, Elyssa Kim, Brett Maline, Michael Reed, Xavier Jimenez, Jeremy Harlin, Phil Esposito, Carmen Scott, Adam Peacock, Jamie Moyer, Emily Ashby, Jonathan Martin