The Gallows
Warner Bros. Pictures
Found footage horror films have been old hat for years. “Blair Witch,” though problematic, is definitely the best of the genre to emerge, with the original “Paranormal Activity” in a close second. Though there have been more copycats than original films produced the genre persists, and has even spawned two “Haunted House,” movies, which is in itself a monstrous side effect of this epidemic. Every year another article emerges saying that either the genre is over-done and lazy, or there are new innovations. “The Gallows” falls into the former.
The premise is simply ridiculous. A high school theater production is putting on the same play they did twenty some years ago, even though that original production saw the lead die on stage. That would just never happen, period. From that hackneyed premise a narrative of retribution and revenge emerges, but it isn’t doled out to anyone who actually deserves it. Instead four nearly random high school kids get the brunt of a ghost’s revenge, and they don’t have anything to do with the original issues of twenty years ago. Oh, the film thinks it explains itself with a random, nonsensical twist ending, but in actuality there’s little to bond the story other than a red filter and hyena like screams from off-screen.
Besides the idiotic plot, these characters are so painfully written that you may need a sedative to quell the rising anger you will feel at the back of your throat. Their two dimensional personas are bad by horror movie standards, which have been especially low in this era of found footage micro-budgeted laze fests. Everything about this film is intolerable and contrived. Do you really think we don’t know what you’re doing when you have someone follow their friends around with a handheld camera? No one films themselves opening doors, or pulling ropes, even when no one else is onscreen.
The only reason I sat through this underwhelming student film is because others like it have emerged and been lauded. “Unfriended,” “REC,” and the Paranormal Activity films have all been studio strongholds for the past three years, with some serious fan service to boot. This is strange to me, because there is nothing enjoyable about these films. The jump scares might make you tense, and the look and feel are popcorn for your brain, but doesn’t anyone miss the old stuff? Does anyone miss the novelty, the ingenuity, and weirdness of really diverse horror? Horror used to be the one avenue to explore things like trauma, obsession, and evocative terror in a creative way. A genre that once housed “The Exorcist,” and “Dawn of the Dead,” should not have to subsume to something of this nature. Not every horror film must be a masterpiece, but originally horror films did more shock and awe, because they had to. Directors like Wes Craven, Mario Bava, and Joe Dante made films for little money, and replaced studio effects with weird makeup, odd characters, and grisly action. There is nothing salvageable about this particular nonsensical trash, so find something better to get you in the Halloween spirit.
