Directed by: Travis Cluff & Chris Lofing.
Written by: Travis Cluff & Chris Lofing.
Starring: Reese Mishler (Reese Houser), Pfeifer Brown (Pfeifer Ross), Ryan Shoos (Ryan), Cassidy Gifford (Cassidy Spilker).
I
have, at times, defended found footage horror movies – because even though many
of them have become clichéd and silly, they are still capable of providing
genuine scares. Most recently, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit was a
legitimately scary horror film – and one that doesn’t use the found footage
concept as an excuse for sloppy filmmaking. Yet, for every film like The Visit,
that actually works, there is at least one like The Gallows – which does not.
This is the type of movie that gives found footage horror films a bad name –
it’s lazily written and shot, with bad acting and a poor overall concept. Worst
of all, it provides zero actual scares. The film is only 81 minutes long – but
its quite a dull slog.
The
film is about Reese (Reese Mishler), a former high school football player who
quit the team in order to join the school play. For reasons that make no sense
whatsoever, the play they are putting on this year is the very same one the
school put on 20 years ago – where a freak accident lead to one of the leads hanging themselves
on stage and dying in front of everyone. Reese is a terrible actor – but he’s
landed the lead role (somehow) – and his buddy, Ryan (Ryan Shoos) has no
problem pointing out just how horrible an actor he is. And then Ryan finds out
Reese’s secret – he has a crush of the production’s leading lady – Pfeifer
(Pfeifer Brown) – a typical drama nerd. Ryan knows Reese will humiliate himself
if he goes on stage- but has an idea: they can sneak in and smash the set so
the production has to be cancelled. Ryan’s girlfriend Cassidy (Cassidy Gifford)
tags along – and Pfeiffer shows up as well for unrelated reasons. But they
cannot get very far into their plan – because they are not alone in the
theater, and they also cannot get out. Someone wants to put them through
precisely what that long dead star of the original production went through.
One
of the first questions any found footage horror film has to answer is why would
the people keep filming everything when their lives are in danger. The Gallows
answers this in the most obvious way – the four teenagers need the light on the
camera in order to see. At least, that’s how it begins – but as the film moves
on, this becomes less and less plausible – especially when there are fewer and
fewer of the teenagers left. Even less plausible is the twists and turns the
movie takes – especially in its final act as it goes from silly to stupid.
There
is not a moment in The Gallows that is original, nor at all scary. Horror
movies need at least a bit of originality or novelty in order to scare you.
When a film like The Gallows comes along, and doesn’t do anything the least bit
original, it’s a dull experience watching it. The found footage genre isn’t to
blame for a movie as bad as The Gallows – but movies like The Gallows are what
give a perfectly fine genre like found footage a bad name.
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