The Gallows

**Spoiler Alert**

Directors: Travis Cluff, Chris Lofing/Starring: Reese Mishler, Pfeifer Brown, Ryan Shoos and Cassidy Gifford

Ever since The Blair Witch Project introduced the found-footage concept to horror films, the genre has been unable to let the now-gimmicky narrative device die a a graceful death. Some films have actually used it to better effect--Chronicle and Paranormal Activity managed to transcend its gimmicky appropriation to tell more absorbing stories. Nowhere in the arts has imitation run amok more than film, particularly in the horror genre; where one original idea can be bled to bloody death. The found-footage gimmick has proven to be quite durable and may survive indefinitely.

I wish I could say the new horror film The Gallows makes its own statement in this horror sub-genre. Unfortunately the film arrives stillborn; its flaws are so numerous and glaring though it does claim one attribute: it's only eighty-two minutes.

Subtitles preceding the film inform us that what we will see comes from--what else--video-footage discovered by police. Uh-huh, I didn't see that coming.

Soon after, we see video from a 1993 high school play called The Gallows, which is shot from an audience member's POV. Based on costumes and dialogue, we see the story is set in the early American Colonial era. During the play, a teen boy climbs a wooden platform where gallows rest. What happens next is mind-bogglingly dumb; a simulation of a hanging instead becomes the genuine article as the floor beneath the actor gives way, leading to his accidental death. Questions abound: why would a high school drama production pursue realism to an absurd degree? Why would any drama teacher place a student at risk and court a charge of manslaughter? This ridiculous lapse in logic cripples the film right out of the gates. I was hoping this preposterous plot point might be a narrative aberration but it had company and lots of it.

The story continues in the present as an obnoxious, high school jerk named Ryan Shoos (played by Ryan Shoos) films a rehearsal of The Gallows revival. Would a community and the school administration permit the play's resurrection after the original production was marred by a grisly tragedy? It is strange that no one seems to think the revival shows poor judgement and even poorer taste.

As Ryan films the rehearsal, we hear his snarky commentary about his best friend Reese's performance. Reese (Reese Mishler); a former teammate of Ryan's on the school football team, makes himself the object of ridicule by taking on a part in the school play. He endures Ryan's taunts and resists his pleas to quit the production. Ryan believes Reese will embarrass himself and ruin the play with his very modest acting ability. Why would he care as much as he does about his friend's participation in the school play? Quien sabe.

Why Ryan would follow his best friend and everyone else around with his intrusive camera when iPhones and every other variety of cell devices have all but rendered video cameras superfluous can be added to the film's endless list of nonsensicalities. Add to said list the superhuman patience everyone exhibits for Ryan's incessant videotaping.

It is apparent Reese has been hopelessly miscast in the play and based on his performance in the rehearsals, it is also apparent he couldn't act his way out of a box of bandages (ditto for Reese Mishler's performance in the film), which Ryan mercilessly chides him about. Ryan discovers Reese is smitten with the play's female lead; Pfeifer Ross (Pfeifer Brown), which provides him further pretext for poking fun at his friend.

Ryan's concern for his friend's participation in the school play reaches a feverish pitch, prompting him to hatch a hair-brain scheme involving a school break-in. Ryan hopes to wreck the stage set, thus sabotaging the play and sparing Reese ridicule.

As Reese, Ryan and his girlfriend Cassidy (Cassidy Gifford)--who is every bit the irritant her boyfriend is--enter the school theater side door (we learn earlier that the door can't lock. The school administrators and maintenance personnel wouldn't be troubled by this?) they find the darkened stage a little creepy.

The rumor of the theater's haunting is on the group's minds though the subject is treated with disdain and derision by Ryan, who continually makes jokes about the former tragedy.

As the three friends ransack the stage props (their vandalism is really feeble), Ryan pulls down the noose from the gallows while Reese dismantles the wooden steps leading up to the platform. In the midst of their destruction, they begin to hear loud, jarring sounds, which they believe to be security. They step out into the lobby, only to be spooked by Pfeifer Ross, whose reasons for being at the school are flimsy at best. While Reese and Pfeifer are left alone to fan the flames of romance (Ryan's camera is left running, which conveniently captures their exchange), we see Ryan and Cassidy inside the theater, which is made possible by his cellphone camera (very clever). The two desperately re-assemble the stage before Pfeifer learns their true motives for being in the theater. As Ryan and Cassidy approach the stage, they find the noose has returned to its original place; as have the wooden steps, which have become mysteriously re-attached. As the four become spooked by loud noises, they head to the side door exit, only to find it locked. The search for an alternate exit proves fruitless, as every door is either locked or incapable of being forced open.

The film actually attains a respectable level of creepiness as the teens find themselves in the school basement, hoping to find a way out. Creepy occurrences abound. Cassidy suddenly finds she is being strangled by something unseen. The others find a mysterious rash on her neck, as if caused by a rope.

Unfortunately the characters and the story are soon beset by that age-old horror-film malady: dumb-ass disease. The characters do stupid things, like separate and venture places no sane person would. This comes after the group determines the rumored hauntings may be based in fact and an angry ghost is roaming the premises. Ryan's frequent ghost-taunting also doesn't help their cause.

When Ryan climbs a ladder to access a vent covering, hoping for another means of escape, he is blown off and plummets to the floor. While Ryan nurses his injuries, the others end up outside the theater and before they can return, the door locks behind them, trapping their friend inside. While Reese, Cassidy and Pfeifer try desperately to gain entrance to the theater, a specter appears before Ryan inside, causing him to scream. Unable to escape, he becomes the entity's first victim. He is pulled up forcefully to the rafters by a rope; his symbolic death a parody of the tragedy that befell The Gallows actor.

Of course someone has to assume camera duties, otherwise we have no found-footage, which the others manage without a second thought. It always seems strange that people in found-footage movies are always game to record one another, even when their lives are endangered by some malevolent, supernatural force. So it goes.

As the three remaining friends search in vain for an exit, the film follows a predictable course. And as the audience follows along, silliness begins to erode what little tension and horror remain. Even the spirit himself becomes a kind of joke. In a scene that stimulates ferocious face-palming, the ghost appears on stage with Pfeifer for a curtain call (I wish I were making this up) after Reese sacrifices himself on the gallows. The two actually bow to the empty seats, as if receiving applause.We learn soon after why Pfeifer is spared the ghost's murderous wrath.

The acting, which is crucial to found-footage movies, is so bad the flaccid performances in the school drama seem Shakespearean in comparison. One can hardly begrudge the ghost his hostilities; who wouldn't want to punish bad acting? Part of Paranormal Activity's power rests in the performances, which are natural and convincing. When awful things happen to the characters in that movie, it is quite frightening and upsetting. When bad things happened to the characters in The Gallows, I found myself thinking "good, only a few more characters to go." If your reaction to the movie is like mine, you might regard the ghost's lethal rampage as altruism.

Mild scares give way to chuckles, which is a sure sign a horror film has failed in its creative mission. Oh well; it happens, why should this crappy horror film be any different?

If the film has a message, it might be: don't build a working scaffold for a high school play, unless the production is Annie. Too bad The Gallows wasn't about the ghosts of Annie and Daddy Warbucks seeking retribution for their accidental deaths by hanging. Yeah, that might have been more fun. Unfortunately that version of the movie wasn't on the multiplex bill the night I saw this sorry mess. Sigh.