Review of The Gallows (2015) by Lucas H — 06 Jul 2015

Came back from an early screening of this one and I had a fun time watching it overall. It's super predictable, light on story and has a ton of jump scares (hell I'll admit I covered my eyes a few times).

The movie is about a group of friends Reese Houser (Reese Mishler) the jock who's one of the main leads in a play, Pfeifer Ross (Pfeifer Brown) the leading lady who's a drama geek and Reese secretly has a crush on, Ryan Shoos (Himself) Reese's best friend and a really big asshole and Cassidy Spilker (Cassidy Gifford) Ryan's girlfriend and typical dumb blonde teenager.

The movie takes place 20 years after a horrific accident at their school during a play called The Gallows. A young man named Charlie accidentally was hung killing him instantly. Reese is playing the same role as the man and Pfeifer has worked super hard on getting the play back on stage to finally be completed.

Problem is Reese is kinda slow and is all over the place with his lines. He can't quite nail them, but he keeps trying harder and harder to get the lines down because he doesn't want to let down Pfeifer.

Ryan being a total idiot somehow convinces Reese the best plan is to come back at night and destroy the set, so that the play won't go on. Pfeifer will be mad, but she won't be mad at Reese for flubbing the entire play.

Reese is easily manipulated, so Ryan and Reese along with Cassidy go into the theater at night to destroy the set. Soon enough doors start closing and they are locked in. Pfeifer seeing Reese's car runs into them and joins them on trying to find a way out of the locked school.

The four of them encounter something truly scary with the ghost of Charlie pursuing them through the cramped halls of the school and theater. I'm glossing over a ton of stuff, but I don't wanna spoil the entire thing.

The plot itself sets itself up to a pretty creepy level. The actors and actresses are all unknown, but I found them to be pretty convincing. The movie is shot in a found footage kind of way and at times it's a bit cheesy for the explanations on why they're still filming.

The film has a very short run time (less than a full hour and a half), so the pacing is actually well done with very little non action going on. Nevertheless, it soon becomes a predictable killing spree with each kid slowly getting picked off one by one.

Overall, I still would recommend horror fans to give this one a look. It has some seriously creepy moments that will definitely give you a little scare! Everyone else it will definitely be a rent!