Gallows

I love found footage horror when it's done well, and there's a lot to choose from, and a lot of it sucks. So when I see one that doesn't have me cringing and eye-rolling from start to finish, I give it a break.

The Gallows moves along quickly, the storyline mostly makes sense and is engaging enough, the characters are identifiable, typical and even likable, and the ending was somewhat original and unexpected, so to me, this is worth a viewing.

The majority of bad reviews seem to be from people who already hate found footage, so it's hard to give those reviews any credence. But if you are like me and enjoy found footage horror, and understand going in that most of those films are pretty bad, then this film is for you.

Remember back when the found footage style was a unique style of filmmaking and only a handful of films used it? (I.E. The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, Rec.) But it's common knowledge nowadays that it's become a cliché and a cheap gimmick for studios to save on production costs. Most of the time, there is almost no effort put into the film's storyline, characters, or scares. The Gallows certainly doesn't help its case.

Pros:

-A few decent performances

-Good production design

-Has the potential to be scary

Cons:

-Insufferable main character

-Bullshit plot twist that makes no sense

-Plot itself is nonsensical

-Relies on cheap jump scares

-Has a few good ideas, but they're usually screwed up somehow.

-Found footage style is given no explanation

3/10 (Horrible)

This being a horror movie, you just know at the beginning that something will happen. It just has to. So no surprise there. One of the twists may not be as expected, but is at least superficial, not to say complete and utter nonsense. Having said that, we also get what many horror movies have: the bad idea/plan, that never, ever makes the viewer having any sympathy.

In this case it makes even less sense, for the main character to go along with it (as the story unfolds and things and other characters pop up). It does have a few decent effects and some of the jump scares might get to you. It would be a complete failure if they didn't now wouldn't it? Also the ending is kind of nice, though the whole "Found footage" thing really is boring - though the guy who found it, did a good job editing it ...

I saw "The Gallows" with low expectations, but at least expecting to see a decent horror movie, based on the IMDb User Rating (4.3). However, the film is awful in every aspect: the storyline is poor; the twist is nonsense and ridiculous; the screenplay is terrible. The camera of this cheap "found footage" genre is a pretext to produce low quality films with low cost. In this movie, there is no explanation for the use of the handy cam. Sometimes I question why I see flicks like this to the very end since time is irreversible and life is too short to spend watching low-quality films (like this one)! My vote is one (awful).

Title (Brazil): "A Forca" ("The Gallows")

As one of the most marketed horror films of 2015, The Gallows was strictly made to pick up money from teen audiences. The story revolves around a drama class at high school and drama between characters. The story is set up terribly making no sense at times and the characters were unlikable and had terrible dialogue. The writing was awful from the start. Besides the found footage technique which wasn't really needed, there is an element of originality with some of the concepts so I'll give it points for that. However, the film crashed for good once the ending rolled along, it was just terrible. Skip The Gallows unless you're looking for a movie with lots of jump scares or something to laugh at with your friends at the films absurdity.