elicopperman
In recent years, horror movies have come with critical and financial revenue, such as Insidious, Get Out, Don't Breathe, and A Quiet Place. Unfortunately, for every gem there's always a rough spot, and this film falls into that category. The found footage genre seems to be looked down upon in this day in age for how cheap and low quality they're seen to be, and after seeing this film, I don't think that sentiment will be changed anytime soon.Set twenty years after an accident during a high-school play called "The Gallows", some students try to recreate the play again. Soon after, students Reese, Pfeifer, Ryan and Cassidy get trapped in the auditorium whilst facing the wrath of the vengeful spirit of the kid who died on that fateful night. I'm ok with simple plots, but the story just isn't engaging enough to warrant an hour and a half of viewing. As such, the film becomes tedious as we merely subject ourselves to a lot of running, yelling, obnoxious acting, and a highly predictable payoff. This probably wouldn't be much better as a short film, but at least it would've been over quicker.Adding into that, you'd think the cast would at least be interesting, but there is not one likable character in this whole affair. Reese has little charisma or unique qualities to make him stand out, Pfeiffer's bossiness and demand to finish the play presents her as rather moody, and Cassidy.......uh......I got nothing about her. However, the worst offender is Ryan. I'm sure the filmmakers intended to make him snarky and arrogant, but he becomes obnoxious very fast since all he does is film stuff and annoy people for nearly thirty minutes. Also, it's funny how one of the students can't act in the play when the actor himself can't act in the movie either. When not even the acting is convincing enough, there's lots to be desired with these bland and unlikable characters.It's obvious this film was made on a low budget with the setting mostly consisting of a school, but that's where the film's cinematography also becomes problematic. Given that this is found footage, it becomes annoying and gimmicky to a fault, and the usage of filming everything in front, even during chase scenes, becomes old quick. Even the props range from a rope and a ladder and not much else, making the experience more lackluster than scary. There isn't even any reason for this to be found footage; they could have shot this any other way and nothing would change at all.Now I don't think jump scares are inherently weak, as they can work well if given the proper buildup and tension. In this case though, the jump scares just happen on a wham, making them feel unwarranted and tiresome. Even one scene with Cassidy sobbing by a stairway (which can be seen on the poster) that is built up with surprisingly slow and subtle atmosphere gets ruined by a cheap jump scare from the spirit. Considering that this film is supposed to be set up as pasted together clips of the story from the police department, one would expect even they would get bored of this drowsy experience.Did this film have potential? Kind of, as it does paint itself as a revenge tale of a high schooler named Charlie who accidentally died during the 1993 performance and is determined to have the play finished with one of the students, being Pfeiffer. There is a way to make a story like that work, maybe if Pfeiffer was the daughter of a girl Charlie got pregnant in high school and maybe just wanted to complete a father daughter play. Sadly, all that potential is squandered away for a cheap production set, a boring story, hollow and despicable characters, and nothing else to stand out in the horror genre. There are great horror films out there in the world worth cherishing for eons, but this film will forever be locked in purgatory with all the forgettable horror flicks that favor cheapness over quality.
Saiph90
When I go to review a film I look to look at the reviewers who loved and hated the film to see if I have missed something when I particularly disliked a film. I was surprised to read the following about The Gallows,"This is without a doubt, quite literally, the scariest movie I have ever seen! The Poltergeist remake scared me, but this terrified me. I still have a pit in my stomach, and my heart is still thumping as I type this." this poster must go through life in perpetual fear and basic household objects must send them into spasms of terror, looking at the other reviews the are children cartoons so that might explain it."I won't give away the end, but know that it is one of the greatest twist endings I have ever seen! Bravo!""Had no idea of what kind of terror it offered"I am sorry but these must be contrived reviews, this is truly an awful, lazy film. Found footage has been flogged to death and then flogged again. This has a ridiculously contrived story line and most of the action you see is in semi or permanent darkness with the occasionally shouted "awesom" or "dude" for dialogue, it is shot in the headacre inducing hand held camera. There was nothing in the film to give me the slightest scare, the characters are flimsy and you just want the ghoul to kill them and end this pathetic film. You can tell how lazy the film is as they use the actors real first name and maybe I should give it 2 as they unintentionally introduced humour when one of the actors repeatedly gets another characters name wrong, this takes some doing as they are using their real names. Not scary, nothing, avoid.
