Movie Review – The Gallows

Between the mocking, teasing and time commitments, school plays can be a pain in the neck for many high school students that are involved in the productions. This was the literal truth for one such unfortunate student, Charlie Grimille, who was accidentally killed by hanging during a school performance of The Gallows in 1993. Even after twenty years the fatal mishap has not been forgotten. Now a new class is looking to resurrect the play marred by tragedy by breathing new life into it. Unfortunately the ghosts of the past will be the ones center stage in this feature.
Directors Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing have their work cut out for them in trying to separate their body of work, The Gallows, from the countless movies most have never heard of that are currently streaming on services such as Netflix. The difference here is that their movie finds itself in theaters and therefore has a higher expectation attached to it from a quality standpoint. The shaky-cam, found-footage perspective has been used ad nauseam and yet every aspiring director seems to feel that they can reinvent the wheel. At only 81 minutes one might assume that there’s enough of a story to keep the interest level up for most of the movie but that just isn’t the case. It might best be compared to working all day to set up an elaborate fireworks show only to light everything at once and it all be over in a couple of minutes. The payoff versus the time invested does not justify each other.
Horror movies lately have fallen into a familiar trap time after time and it seems that studios are embracing this logic by greenlighting many features that would be best served as direct-to-video releases. The Gallows is yet another example of that. With a rumored budget to be in $100,000 neighborhood the motives are clear as to why it’s in theaters. Audiences could gravitate to it and might be the next Blair Witch Project or Paranormal Activity. Well it won’t. There isn’t enough substance present in order to make that a reality. The “jump scare” moments are minimal. The predictability level was through the roof. The acting though was realistic….for a high school drama. When all of the characters share the same first name with their acting counterparts it’s safe to assume that there will be no awe inspiring performances worthy of an Oscar.
The Gallows falls exactly where most will expect it to be, near the lower end of the quality barrel as far as today’s available movie choices go. If you’re hard up and just have to scratch that horror movie itch then by all means head out to theaters to check this one out.