THE GALLOWS
DIRECTORS: Chris Lofing and Travis Cluff
CAST: Reese Mishler, Pfeifer Brown, Ryan Shoos, Cassidy Gifford
CLASSIFICATION: 16 VH
RUNNING TIME: 81 minutes
RATING: **
Once there was a certain novelty to horror films in the “found footage” mode, supposedly shot with amateur video cameras rather than professional equipment. The Blair Witch Project launched the trend and since then we’ve seen Cloverfield, the Paranormal Activity franchise and many other examples.
So The Gallows is not going to win any prizes for originality. Any film that tries to revive this technique needs a clever story or unusual film-making ingenuity to stand out from the crowd. It has neither. But it does have enough mild scares to captivate the under-25 crowd.
First-time filmmakers Lofing and Cluff present most of this story as if it had been caught on cellphones, though they actually shot with a variety of cameras designed to have the right grainy look. Anyone prone to vertigo should avoid the film, since the dizzying hand-held shots, mainly in very dark rooms, are not a pleasure to watch.
The story itself is not unpromising. Twenty years ago, during a high school production of a play called The Gallows, a freak accident led to the young lead actor being killed onstage. Now, for rather unconvincing reasons, the school decides to mount this jinxed production again. But someone is clearly seeking revenge for what happened 20 years ago.
This revenge plot kicks in when three popular high school kids decide to sneak into the school auditorium on the night before the premiere to destroy the set. Their plans go awry when they are trapped in a locked auditorium with all phone lines down. A fourth student, the lead actress in the play, also joins them as they seek to escape from an unseen visitor who seems determined to wipe them out, one by one.
Since the kids’ decision to sabotage the production seems to have been a last-minute whim, it’s hard to believe that all of the mayhem could have been so well orchestrated, unless a supernatural force was at work. Even granting that possibility, there are too many plot holes. And the deliberately slipshod camera style limits the possibility of terror. A few shots are suitably creepy, like a shadowy figure, noose in hand, sneaking up on the head cheerleader. The effective sound design by Brandon Jones does compensate for the visual monotony, but this can only go so far in scaring viewers.
There is also a problem in terms of audience identification. Two of the kids – the videographer Ryan (Shoos) and cheerleader Cassidy (Gifford) – are fairly hateful teens in the mould of those who tormented poor Carrie (in arguably the best teen horror movie ever made) 40 years ago, so we don’t care about them when they are attacked. The other two are more sympathetic, but turn out to have unexpected connections to the original cast members from 20 years ago.
The lead actors, who all have the same first names as their characters, are appealing, but we can’t judge their talent on the basis of these one-dimensional roles. Similarly, the film-makers might do better if offered a bigger budget, but it’s hard to make any predictions based on this cheesy offering. – The Hollywood Reporter
If you liked Paranormal Activity you will like this.