July 10th, 2015 
James Shotwell 
Film: The Gallows
Starring: Reese Mishler, Pfeifer Brown
Directed by: Travis Cluff, Chris Lofing
2015 may be the year I finally stop defending found footage/POV storytelling in cinema. It’s been a good run, more or less, but after witnessing the hundredth-plus remix of the same twelve ideas presented with little to no original twist whatsoever in The Gallows I’m starting to believe my faith in shaky-cam storytelling has officially been depleted.
The year is 1993, and through the lens of a shoulder-mounted home video camera perched between two parents who don’t know when to shut up, we bare witness to the accidental death of a student in the middle of participating in a high school play called The Gallows. There are no bullies, ghosts, or poltergeists to be found, just screams and blurry images, which are quickly replaced by a police evidence tag.
Twenty years later, the school is once again putting on The Gallows, and we have a front row seat to the auditions thanks to a film nerd (Ryan Shoos) whose best friend, the classic jock stereotype (Reese Mishler), has been cast in one of the leading roles. What the jock does not realize is that, despite his best his efforts, he appears to have very little talent. His friend, feeling required by the unwritten code of brotherhood to do something, devises a plan to break into the school the night before the big show and dismantle the set beyond repair. Just for kicks, and a much needed addition to the body count, his girlfriend (Cassidy Gifford) will come along as well.
At this point, you pretty much know what happens. I could tell you about the reasons why these particular students are special, but it’s nothing you can’t predict with a working knowledge of the genre. The kids enter the school only to discover they cannot leave, and not long after all sorts of ‘bump in the night’ terror begins to unfold, including staples like slamming doors, stomping foot steps, and inexplicably decrepit passageways that seem to go on forever. The lights in the school never work, so the story is told primarily with the aide of cell phone lights and, on occasion, night vision. If you’re starting to feel like you’ve heard or seen this all before then you probably have, only now everything takes place in a school with a cast of unknown actors.
Speaking of the people given the task of making us believe ‘Charlie’ has returned, the only thing I can think to write is that they do their best with what they have been given. No one stands out as the next big thing, but fortunately no one altogether falls flat either. Cassidy Gifford, daughter of Kathy Lee Gifford, makes ‘dumb blonde who screams way too much’ look easy, but there is nothing to make you believe she inherited her mother’s endless charm.
The Gallows would at least have a leg to stand on if its villain–the supposed spirit of the unfortunate student whose life was lost in the original production–was presented in a way that justified everything that unfolded on screen. The film never alludes to bullying or any sort of foul play being involved in his death, yet his return is presented as a turn of vengeance. There are some plot details I’m leaving out used to explain this, briefly, but they never amount to anything substantial, let alone believable.
There is a part of me that hesitates to outright slam a film like The Gallows because I’m aware of its $100,000 budget and the restrictions that can place on storytellers. Filmmakers Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing certainly made due with what they had available, and I commend them for finding a way to deliver a found footage feature on par with anything a major studio has shared in the past. That said, The Gallows does very little to make the many tropes and cliches littered throughout its plot feel fresh once more. It’s perfectly acceptable, but never aspires to be something more than average, and that makes the entire thing all the more frustrating as the final moments wind down.
There will no doubt be some who see The Gallows and walk away telling their friends they were scared beyond belief during certain moments of the film, but I would wager those same people do not spend much time enjoying the found footage genre. Like so many other genre titles that find their way to wide releases, The Gallows is the same handful of scares you’ve seen before with only the slightest of variation. I urge you to watch the trailer below before buying a ticket. If it feels familiar to you, I swear to you it is, and there is nothing awaiting in the full feature that will catch you by surprise. Save your money.
GRADE: D
Review written by James Shotwell
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