The Gallows2015
The Gallows (2015)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: Narratively contrived and visually a mess, The Gallows sends viewers on a shaky tumble to the bottom of the found-footage horror barrel.
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Movie Info
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Cast
as Cassidy
as Pfeifer
as Ryan
as Reese

as Young Pfeifer's Mom/Mary

as Stage Boy

as Cheerleader #1

as Mr. Schwendiman

as Pfeifer's Mom

as Rick Houser

as David the Janitor

as Gannon

as Superstar Football Player

as The King

as Peasant #5

as Ms. Shannon

as Football Player #1

as Football Player #2

as Officer Lang

as Police Officer

as Mr. BHS

as Brooke/Kelly

as Police Officer

as Parents of the Nerds

as Police Officer

as Parents of the Nerds

as Police Officer

as Parents of the Nerds

as Parents of the Nerds

as Parents of the Nerds

as Parents of the Nerds

as Parents of the Nerds

as Football Coach

as Football Coach

as Soda Drinking Coach

as Charlie Grimille (1993 Cast)

as Rick Houser

as Football Coach

as TV News Anchor

as Scroll Reader

as Football Coach

as Assistant Director

as Chuckling Student

as Chuckling Student

as Stage Boy Friends

as Stage Boy Friends

as Painting Girls

as Painting Girls

as Drama Student

as Drama Student

as Drama Student

as Drama Student

as Gallows Director

as Called in Sick Kid

as Whispering Parent #1

as Whispering Parent #2

as Photographer

as Photographer
News & Interviews for The Gallows
Critic Reviews for The Gallows
All Critics (105) | Top Critics (22) | Fresh (17) | Rotten (88) | DVD (1)
The lazy way The Gallows bundles its tropes together suggests that its creators' ambitions went no higher than simply getting a horror film made.

In a quick 80 minutes, we get the back story, we meet the four core characters (all of the young actors do fine work), get the wits scared out of us about a half-dozen times and wind up with a VERY creepy ending.
As the latest entry in the tired "found footage" horror subgenre, this on-the-cheap film has never met a cliché it didn't embrace like sweet death itself.

A ridiculous fusion of "Paranormal Activity" and "Glee" that is so incredibly dumb that it is almost, but never quite, scary to behold.

A cautionary note: If your horror film is about a high-school theater production and still, the acting's not the worst thing about it, something's gone awfully wrong.
The Gallows has a cleverness that bobs, occasionally, above the surface of cesspool murk. You can't tell whether it's just flotsam or a corpse, but for most of the 80-minute run time it almost doesn't matter. It's at least something.
Audience Reviews for The Gallows
A near exact replica of that Goosebumps episode "Phantom of the Auditorium" both in essential plot as well as video quality/acting calibre.
Super Reviewer
okay story idea but the handheld gimmick killed the film and that ending was terrible. I'm amazed this film did so well at the box office, maybe some good promotional work tricked the audience. I suspect the handheld gimmick is nearing the end so fingers crossed.
Super Reviewer
I think the found footage genre itself gets unfairly maligned for the, perceived, notion that it fosters laziness. Though, I will admit, that there are films that make it very easy to give in to those opinions. The Devil Inside, Devil's Due and Grave Encounters 2 are all examples of terrible usage of the genre. Both of those films are terrible, lazy and uninspired attempts to cash in a fairly successful concept. Though GE 2's worst enemy was its own cleverness. Those are the only two that come to mind because those are the worst, but I'm sure there's many more out there. But there's just as many examples of found footage fostering some really inspired and clever films. REC 1 and 2, for example, Troll Hunter, Chronicle, Paranormal Activity 1 and 2, Afflicted, Man Bites Dog and the first Grave Encounters. And, if we're being technical, we can also use the subgenre of the webcam footage based films like The Den and Unfriended, both good films. Again, I'm sure there's many more that I can't remember at the moment. There's also the middle of the road found footage films like Frankenstein's Army, that have some good ideas but somehow fall short of being good. So, honestly, to me, it's unfair to lump in an entire genre based on a couple of shitty movies. With that said, however, this movie is just no good. It's not quite as bad as the worst in the genre, but I do think that it's a fairly lazy horror movie, relying on everything that has already been established as a cliche in this genre, ever since Paranormal Activity made it popular. Yes, it started with the Blair Witch Project, but it really hit it big with PA. The idea behind the film, however, was actually a pretty good one. At least I thought. I just like the idea of these students, trying to re-stage a high school play 20 years after a student died acting in the same play in a freak accident is, to me, a solid idea. It's not great, but it feels a little more inspired than your typical found footage film. Plus the setting of a high school, at night, is one that, as far as I can tell, hasn't been used a lot. So I thought that this, honestly, could've made for a pretty decent, if not good, horror movie. As you can see by the rating, however, this is not the case with the movie. First things first, and this is really my biggest complaint, the guy behind the camera, for a lot of the film, is one of THE most unlikable characters I've seen in any horror movie in a long ass time. Imagine like every jock asshole stereotype that you've ever seen and that's this guy, but like to the 100th degree. The fact that the movie, for its first 20-30 minutes, has this guy acting like a massive asshole to everybody is a huge fucking mistake. He's the guy behind the camera and you're pretty much sick of him, and want him to die the most horrific death possible, after the first five minutes. And there's still a lot more to go before the horror actually kicks in. I don't know why the screenwriters thought it was a good idea to have the guy with the camera for like 75-80% of the film be such a massive asshole. I'm glad that this motherfucker is the first one to die. I don't give a shit, I'm spoiling it. But, honestly, for the most part, I thought that the horror itself wasn't actually that bad. It was below average and it borrows heavily from found footage cliches, but it was ok. Like there's some horror scenes that were pretty effective, nothing amazing, but it got the job done. However, I do think the reveal at the end made the film really fucking goofy to me. Not to mention all the fucking questions it brings up that won't be solved because the film ends on a jump scare like 10 seconds later. Essentially, the ghost is controlled, I think, by his girlfriend, who has grown up and now has a daughter, who was absolutely obsessed with Charlie, the kid that died at the beginning and she was out for revenge, or something, because Charlie, the understudy, was given the lead role after the lead called. I have no idea what they were trying to do honestly. I'd be totally fine if it was just the ghost of Charlie haunting the high school, like that's fine and acceptable in a horror movie. It happens all the time and it's to be expected. But when you bring in girlfriends that have become obsessed with and they, somehow, are able to control Charlie's vengeful ghost, that's where it gets super silly to me. This is where the film loses me. It's definitely not what I'd ever call good, but a lot of it was perfectly fine. Not worth watching or anything, but it had its moments. The ending pretty much undoes all of that by trying to force in a ridiculous twist. Again, I know I've said this a lot, but it was never a good film even without the twist, but a lot of it was better than the worst found footage films I can think of, that I already mentioned, so that helped a lot. But the ending is fairly terrible and it drags the movie down. I can't really recommend it, of course. The few highlights can't really overcome all of its many flaws.
Super Reviewer
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