Tables turned in taut horror film

It’s a standard horror movie trope to start off with a young woman on the other end of a menacing phone call, and “Don’t Hang Up” pays homage to this tradition. The callers are teenage pranksters who post their videos online for all the hits, likes and clicks they can get. But soon teenage flippancy and its unintended consequences come back to haunt them when a pranking victim retaliates.

Sam (Greg Sulkin) is the sensitive lover, mooning over his ex-girlfriend Peyton (Bella Dayne), while his wild best friend Brady (Garrett Clayton) is his partner in pranks. Writer Joe Johnson and co-directors Alexis Wajsbrot and Damien Macé rework typical horror conventions to put these pretty teenage boys in peril. They’re the “final boys” (rather than girls), trapped in a house and subject to the whims of a sadistic tormentor through phone, text, laptop and TV.

It’s a taut if somewhat hysterical cycle of bait and switch, twists and turns, retribution, vengeance and mental torture payback for immature mind games with deadly results. It resolves itself in a dark, Kafka-esque ending that renders “Don’t Hang Up” almost a fable and definitely a cautionary tale.

“Don’t Hang Up.” Rating: R, for disturbing violence, and language including sexual references. Running time: 1 hour, 23 minutes. Playing: AMC Universal CityWalk.