Official Synopsis
Twenty years after an accident caused the death of the lead actor during a high school play, students at the same small town school resurrect the failed stage production in a misguided attempt to honor the anniversary of the tragedy – but ultimately find out that some things are better left alone.
Shot and wrapped in the same vein as Paranormal Activity (shaky cam!), The Gallows does a decent job with the scares, but it struggles with the setup. That’s a real shame considering the middle of the film does fire on all cylinders. Anyway, let’s get this review going.
The first act of the movie starts by explaining, via rough 80/90s video, what happened at a high school play when prop usage goes horribly wrong. A young actor named Charlie accidentally hangs himself in front of parents and students in the middle of a play, forever trapping his spirit inside the school. Fast forward 20 years and the school is trying to bring the play out from the ominous closet it has been stored in and move forward from the tragedy that occurred two decades prior. Led by ex-football player Reese Houser (Reese Mishler), the play looks to be on the mend and the evil past looks to be forgotten…until Reese’s friend Ryan (Ryan Shoos) convinces Reese to ruin the play, so he doesn’t have to be in it.
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The setup for this movie is completely not compelling nor is it particularly interesting. While the tragedy of something going horribly wrong in a play is indeed quite horrible, the fact that they built an actual gallows and allowed a student to tie a rope around their neck is far-fetched at BEST. Why would a school do this? Why would a student or parent agree for this to happen? Why is this play even happening? WHAT IS IT ABOUT??? Questions that are left unanswered and are important when trying to make the wrapper stick to the inside content. None of it was answered, so there’s no emotional attachment to the perceived horror of the film. In short, act one doesn’t answer a lot of questions, it just seems to want to get to the horror.
Act two starts with Ryan and Reese breaking into the school, along with Ryan’s girlfriend Cassidy (Cassidy Spilker). They begin to wreck the set and then bump into Reese’s love interest and opposite play actor, Pfeifer (Pfeifer Ross), who freaks out after finding out Ryan and Reese’s plan. From that point, the spirit of Charlie shows up, traps the kids in the school and begins to systematically hunt them down one by one.
There is no question that act two is where the movie gets entertaining. The dark passages of the school, the lack of communication and entrapment, as well as the plentiful jump scares makes this horror film worth the watch. It shifts from first to fifth gear instantly and you’re running with the kids trying to figure out an escape plan. It’s incredible fun for a horror film. As the movie is spiraling towards act three, the one question that turns up, that seemingly pushes down the entertainment value, is what exactly is the motivation for these killings? That is an important question for a film like this to answer, even if the motivation is simply to torture the poor students. The motivation isn’t clearly stated, but that’s not the only issue as act three begins.
These movie types always have some big reveal at the end that ties it all together, right? Right?? Well, it tries really hard to do that and it seems like directors Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing have no idea how to end this properly. What happens in act three during the big reveal is nothing short of confusing, as the simplistic answers to the film stay that way. The big bang of the reveal is just a ‘poof’ and the film just ends on a very unsatisfying note. And, no, I’m not going to tell you how it ends, but just know that there is no Blair Witch or Paranormal Activity moment of reveal. Not even close to those movies.
Overall, I think The Gallows had potential, but the wrapper of the film just didn’t live up to the content in the middle of the movie, which affected the ending directly. The jelly in the middle was satisfying in this donut, but the crust surrounding it was a bit messy and somewhat stale.
On the Blu-ray side of the equation, bravo to Warner Home Video for making yet another gorgeous HD transfer. I think the use of video cameras helped a lot, as the frame rate and sharp looking content was pretty spectacular when transferred to the BD format. There was no blurring, no issues of artifacts/graininess, it was just a gorgeous transfer. Probably the best part of the film.
In terms of special features, you get the original version of The Gallows, as well as the following:
– The Gallows: Surviving the Noose
– Charlie: Every School Has Its Spirit
– Deleted Scenes
– Gag Reel
– Concept, Original Version and Theatrical Trailers
For a movie like this, there is a lot of special features here. They help the overall package, especially the gag reel, but they can’t make up the ground that it loses from the feature.
Own The Gallows on Blu-ray Combo Pack or DVD on October 13 or Own It Early on Digital HD Now!