Another ‘Found Footage’ flick… yippee.
Written & Directed by: Travis Cluff & Chris Lofing
Starring: Reese Mishler, Ryan Shoos, Pfeifer Brown, Cassidy Gifford
The H-Bomb: Twenty years ago, a Nebraska high school put on a play called “The Gallows”, in which the main set was an actual gallows on the stage. That production ended in tragedy, when the lead actor accidentally hanged himself during the climax on opening night. Cut to present day, the school is inexplicably trying to put on the play again. Among the students involved in the production are Reese (Mishler) and Ryan (Shoos), a pair of douche-bag jocks who got roped into participating in it against their will, with Reese somehow landing the lead role, despite the fact that he can’t act at all.
Absolutely hating having to work with these “Drama Freaks,” and knowing that Reese will only make an ass of himself on stage, Ryan hatches a scheme to break into the school auditorium the night before the play opens, and destroy the set. So, with his video camera perpetually glued to his hand, Ryan convinces Reese to aid him in his plans to sabotage the play, and the two of them, along with Ryan’s vapid, bimbo bitch of a girlfriend, Cassidy (Gifford), sneak into the auditorium at night, and start hacking away at the set… with Ryan videotaping it all… because hey, committing a crime isn’t nearly as much fun when there isn’t damning evidence against you.
Anyhow, this school, particularly the auditorium, is kind of dark and quiet and creepy at night, and after hearing some strange noises, our brilliant heroes start to realize that they are not alone in there…
DUN DUN DUUUUN!!!
As far as found footage films go, The Gallows isn’t the horrendous shit geyser that Area 51 was, though that really is saying little to nothing. The reason I’m not as pissed at this as I was at Oren Peli’s sophomore slump, is that it is a solid ten minutes shorter. That may not seem like much, but when a movie consists almost entirely of jittering, jumbling camerawork and obnoxious-as-fuck characters who mainly do nothing but shriek and curse at each other for the bulk of the film’s runtime, ten minutes can make all the difference in the world.
The Gallows deserves some credit for picking a legitimately creepy location for its setting. The school auditorium at night is a vast, shadowy place that when deserted, can be quite unnerving. The eeriness of being alone there in the dead of night is something the filmmakers managed to nail, and credit must be given where credit is due. There is also a standout scene, in which a sinister figure gradually appears behind one of our would be victims, that is incredibly effective… unfortunately, I discovered that this scene, in its entirety, served as the trailer for the film. It is far and away the best scene in the movie… sadly, you’ve probably already seen it.
The genuinely spooky setting and that one terrific scene aside, The Gallows is no different from the hundreds of other found footage horror flicks that came before it. Don’t get me wrong, I am a firm believer in the notion, especially when it comes to the supernatural, that what we don’t see is far more terrifying than what we do see, it’s just that these found footage flicks have become formulaic to the point where I feel like I’m seeing the same goddamn movie over and over again.
In the utterly uneventful first act, we meet our lead characters, an astonishingly unlikeable lot of irritating ass-hats. Ryan, in particular, is an exceptionally stupid shit-head whose gruesome demise I eagerly awaited (SPOILER: the movie did not disappoint in that regard, I just wish it happened way sooner). Then, when the scary stuff finally arrives, it’s kept mainly to doors opening and closing by themselves, as well as strange noises happening off screen. This kind of minimalist horror can be effective, but again, we’ve seen it all, done better, before.
Of course, once the supernatural shit inevitably hits the fan, our heroes start making the worst decisions possible, because that’s what the story needs them to do; like separating instead of sticking together, or going back inside the auditorium after they’ve finally found a way out. These clueless klutzes have such piss poor judgment, one wonders how they managed to live to the age of sixteen. Never mind that ever present trope that exists in all found footage movies; that these retards never put the fucking camera down, and they never stop recording. If they did, there would be no movie… and frankly, I would be just fine with that.
The Gallows is far, far from being the worst movie of 2015 (that dubious honor still goes to Hit Team, and that probably will not change). As far as the faux-doc horror sub-genre goes, it’s about average… and that’s the problem. It’s watchable, but it brings nothing fresh or new to the table. I said it earlier and I’ll say it again, we’ve seen this all before. The location is creepy cool, that’s for sure, but the story and execution are cliche ridden and formulaic beyond repair. That, ultimately, is what kills The Gallows… a complete lack of imagination.
