Released: July 10th,
2015
Rated: R
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Starring: Reese Mishler, Pfeifer Brown, Ryan Shoos,
Cassidy Gifford
Directed by: Travis Cluff, Chris
Lofing
Written by: Travis Cluff, Chris Lofing
Personal Bias Alert: doesn’t like jump scares, was intrigued by the premise
3.8 of 10
You
know those mundane horror films that people like me are always complaining
about? Well, The Gallows is one of them. The
sad thing is that I was on this film’s side going in. The endlessness discomfort of high school makes
it a ripe setting for horror, and the marketing campaign had done a good job of
establishing this as a claustrophobic little creeper. Problem is, the film’s too small for its own
good. The plot, character, ambiance, and
yes, even the horror, is too scarce to fill it’s 81 minute runtime, and the
stuff that is there doesn’t add up to much that’s redeeming.
As
I said, The Gallows doesn’t even make
it to the 90 minute mark, and the first twenty minutes or so centers on the inane
hijinks of the most insufferable character of the group: the bully jock. He’s recording the last practices of the
school play, a revival of The Gallows,
which resulted in the accidental death of a student the last time it was
performed. And yes, while it’s
ridiculous to think that any school would allow such a play to be revived, let’s
not forget how ridiculous it is that a school would put on a play where someone
is fake-hung in the first place. Think
of the logistics of a fake hanging, the liability of the school, and the
outraged parents of the scarred young children in attendance. No way in hell that would ever be allowed to happen. And yet, hell is exactly what our humorless
brute gets when he, his best friend, and his girlfriend break into the school
to tear down the set and unintentionally come under the wrath of the play’s
previous victim.
To
make things even more fun, that first twenty minutes of setup only establishes
the rudiments of each character, namely that jock Ryan (Ryan Shoos) is a jerk,
friend Reese (Reese Houser) is in love with the play’s lead, and girlfriend Cassidy
(Cassidy Gifford) is, well, she never actually gets anything beside the ‘cheerleader’
label. The play’s lead, Pfeifer (Pfeifer
Brown), is also introduced as an overly-enthusiastic drama nerd, and she ends
up trapped in the school along with the others.
This is how The Gallows chooses
to spend one fourth of its time, blandly establishing a group of terrified
teens that you don’t like enough to care about or hate enough to revel in their
deaths, leaving you with nothing to give a crap about once the lights go off
and the nooses start flying.
Once
the horror elements do kick in, it quickly leans on a series of jump scares
instead of actual horror. That’s the
funny thing about The Gallows; it’s
never actually scary. It’s more a matter
of tension, which is delivered at a non-stop pace once it really takes
off. Sure, it’s all cheap or lackluster
jump scares (the ghost is neither well-designed nor well-used), but it’s hard
not to feel unsettled in a dark theater with things popping out and going bang
all the time. The theater, or at least a
large group, is the only way to find any enjoyment in this film. The camaraderie and chuckles that come with the
shrieks and jumps, which The Gallows encourages
with its continuous edginess, is a decent bit of fun if you’re into the
midnight madness thing.
Then,
just when you’re ready to forgive it’s awfulness for the sake of fun, The Gallows spirals into its finish,
crashing and burning under the predictable yet idiotic plot. The ‘twist’ is telegraphed pretty badly, and
even the shot construction of its climactic scene goes down exactly how you
imagine it. Even as it goes down, the
unmerited and irrational reasoning behind the nights events will gnaw at you,
and the final scene is nothing but the icing on top of a derivative, weak
horror film.
Other Notes:
Ø There’s an entire scene towards the end that’s shot so poorly that you
can’t even tell what’s happening.
Ø This film contains possibly the most otherworldly plot point I’ve seen
all year: that drama is a required
class.
Ø Let’s hope the school officials get the hint and never put on this play
again.
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