The Gallows

There was a time when found footage horror films were all the rage. They were cheap to make and would offer a more often than not profitable turnaround. Lately the genre has become nothing but a dumping ground for rehashed ideas looking to make a quick dollar. Case in point; The Gallows.

Charlie Grimille died during a 1993 high school stage production of the play The Gallows when the prop door on the scaffolding gave away and he was hung in front of the entire assembly. Beatrice High School is resurrecting the play in some sick and twisted way of honoring of the 20th anniversary, but Reese (Reese Mishler), Ryan (Ryan Shoos), and Cassidy (Cassidy Gifford) break into the school the night before opening to sabotage the stage and prevent the show from going on. Unfortunately for them, they’re not alone.

The Gallows is a shallow attempt at found footage horror that fails to deliver any scares whatsoever. It’s about as generic as them come, featuring a bunch of teenagers stuck in a high school with a noose-wielding executioner following their every move. There’s a lot of running, screaming, and shaking cameras but not much scaring.

I did enjoy how the film would occasionally switch the point of view between Ryan’s handheld camera and Reese’s cell phone to show a scene from two different points of view. It’s usually when the group gets split up so audiences get to see what actually happened when someone disappeared. It was an interesting film making trick that was used a handful of times and kept the film from being a total letdown.

The found footage genre has become stale over the years, and The Gallows ends up being a prime example. You can’t just shoot from a handheld perspective, throw in a few jump scares, and expect to terrify audiences. There needs to be more, and unfortunately The Gallows just doesn’t deliver much else.