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TimidTabby Reviews: The Gallows (MASSIVE SPOILERS AND RANT)
10 years ago
Hello again FA.
After another week of work, work, work and stuck in another creative funk as I always have been, I decided to use the free day I had today from work to catch up on some of the latest movies. I wasn't planning on doing any reviews since, well...I don't think a lot of people really read these here on FA, but after the first movie on my list I felt like venting a little. Yep, it's a rant review which has Spoilers galore (So anyone who actually wants to see this film I would turn away after the second Spoiler warning).
Otherwise; I will be attempting to get some real writing done again soon. It's only a matter of which unfinished story I should be focusing on.
Until then; take care everyone.
…So…I went off the deep end a bit with that one. My personal Bias for these kind of horror movie spirit revenge plot’s can get me flustered way too easily with a fiery passion that I tend to judge the rest of the performance a bit harshly. Mainly; the reason for the villain’s drive to kill certain victims unjustly can paint my eyes nothing but red. After rereading my original review and taking some time to blow off some steam and contemplate I realize I was judging the movie way too harshly…although I still say it isn’t the greatest horror movie. I also feel like kicking myself in the ass for being extremely SPOILERIFIC in my review as I do know there are people that actually do read my journals and have mentioned from time to time to be careful what I say about the plot of certain movies or shows.
So I’m doing a bit of backtracking and retreading and I’m going to act a bit more professional in explaining my reasons for why I don’t think The Gallows is that good of a movie.
Let me clarify the plot once more:
The movie starts off with footage from who I believe to be the Hangman’s parents commenting on how their son, Charlie, is doing a terrific job with the Lead role of the High School play (which happens to be the same name as the movie) when Charlie was originally supposed to have played said Hangman. Unfortunately; the play’s scene of Charlie being prepared to be hung by The Gallow’s goes sour suddenly as the Trapdoor beneath him breaks open while his neck is noosed, the drop (I assume) immediately snapping his neck and killing him in front of live audience (Including his folks and apparently his Girlfriend).
Flash Forward to 2013; the film is recorded mostly by Football Jock Ryan (your typical Obnoxious Asshole character) having volunteered (or forced to participate for failing grades or a need Extra Curriculum Elective to Graduate) as part of the camera crew for the school’s revival of the “The Gallows” play. His buddy Reese (Your main ex-Jock, mostly innocent, hero cliché) is part of the play as the leading man playing beside the leading woman and Drama Club’s heroine that pushed the school to bring back the play Pfeiffer (Your main character’s love interest, destined to either survive to the end as the damsel-in-distress or to be killed off later to motivate the Hero later Role). It’s revealed early on that Reese’s main reason for dropping football and participating in the Play is so he can get to be around his crush and get to kiss the girl, which Ryan goes to his Asshole-lish lengths to divulge this tidbit to Pfeiffer directly. Ryan also happens to be boyfriend/girlfriend with one of the Cheerleaders of their school, Cassidy (the poster-horror-common sexy Blonde that will most likely get the most screen-time of suffering the monsters/spirit’s wrath) who…admittedly, isn’t actually all a horrible character. While she does pretty much become destined to follow the summary I just mentioned, her character isn’t actually all that annoying or useless. Her choice in boyfriend’s though are questionable, but she only commits two selfish/stupid acts throughout the whole movie: One being a minor hiccup, and the other being the next paragraph…
So what events propel these characters to suffer Charlie the Hangman’s wrath? Well…Reese is a horrible actor and Ryan constantly eggs him about it telling him to just drop out and save him the embarrassment of being the next big joke in school ALL for being around/getting to kiss his crush. After a spat with one of the Drama students getting back at Ryan for pretty much being an Asshole, Ryan discovers that one of the backdoor exits of the Auditorium’s locks are broken formulating the proposed hijinks to Reese to come back to school later that night, break in, and demolish the Play’s set pieces so the Gallows would be cancelled and suggestions that Reese can be there for Pfeiffer to console and comfort for the travesty while getting out of being mocked for his eventually poor performance…which Reese reluctantly agrees after some “Real Talk” nagging. Cassidy “glare of displeasure”s Ryan effectively joining in on the apparent night of debauchery.
However; shortly after confirming the broken door and beginning to tear up the sets, they discover that Pfeiffer had somehow noticed Resse’s car and snuck in as well demanding an explanation. As Reese attempts to pull an unconvincing half-truth to his crush, Ryan becomes annoyed at Cassidy’s change of heart trying to fix their mess and wanting to leave immediately. They argue all the way to the exit doors…where it is suddenly locked. The group soon find that all doors within the school are complete locked and that all power and signals are shut off. And worst of all…they begin to realize they are not alone. What results from this night are jumpscare-tactics and moderately decent tension building that will have you questioning how long can any of them survive the night…if any at all.
Now; I will redact my earlier criticism in saying that The Gallows isn’t actually that horrible. It’s no mystery that most Found Footage horror movies are starting to tank or pewter off with the acting in them ranging from ok but not that great…to downright deplorable. For the most part, the actors and actress’s played the movie’s characters relatively well. And as I mentioned earlier; I’m rather surprised the Blonde wasn’t as completely cliché as horror movie tropes go…but there was a hint of flubs and whining here and there that brought her back down to it. So yeah…the acting wasn’t too bad.
I also admit that I did find the multiple camera perspectives an interest use. Unlike most found footage films where the movie attempts to edit each different camera’s perspective as seemly as possible without cutting away or keeping the flow smooth, The Gallows decided to go a different direction. Since Reese and Ryan split at certain parts of the film; when one person with one camera realizes someone has gone missing, we black out and cut away to the missing person going through his or her own ghastly adventure before they eventually met back up. Another use of this was when some event happened off-screen while we were focused on one perspective, and then we soon see the events that occurred thanks to someone having another recording device at the time. Did I make sense at all here??? So I will give credit for the unique take on the Recorded Event’s splicing part; that was somewhat fresh.
Being that this is a Found Footage movie, the crew had to be creative with creating a score. I do feel like they copied Paranormal Activity on this one since most of the first half creepy ghostly moments was followed by a similar crescendo background noise alerting us to the spirit’s presence. Either way, this method did help with the tension building moments that did keep me just a tad bit on the edge of my seat.
Now while I don’t fully agree that Charlie the Hangman can be regarded as the new iconic Slasher to revitalize that type of genre (considering how the movie ends up revealing why he exists), his presence does score some small marks on the chilling aspect. What he actually looks like isn’t all that terrifying, but it’s what little you see of him in the shadows or as a silhouette that helps his freakish factor. Overall; though, I kind of had to laugh when they did close-ups of him and his stitched school-prop mask.
Unfortunately; that’s as much positive criticism I can give this movie. In all honesty; The Gallows does not feel like the Brand New Thing everyone will be talking about and I kind of agree. It’s not really that scary and it does rely too heavily on Jumpscares. And as I mentioned; Charlie himself doesn’t look all that foreboding to me (at least not like Jason or Freddy). It is nice to see some horror films achieve some sense of fright and fear without having to get so gory, but it didn’t really give me that sense of paranoia that other die-hard horror films wish. I can promise you that I’ll still be sleepy soundly tonight (as long as the humidity doesn’t keep me awake). The movie as a whole just felt…eh.
Again; one of the biggest reasons I’m having trouble seeing this film as anything better than what I described is due to a personal pet peeve of mine with certain plot device reasons for the killer’s motivation. This time I won’t spoil the plot again, but let’s just say I can’t stand innocent victims getting offed just because of the…certain…thing…I can’t mention >____< If you’ve seen Dead Silence, there’s my correlation. However; I’ll admit the WHY is a bit more ‘mentally-ill’ disturbing than Dead Silence’s reasons…I think.
Finally; I would like to relist my little Logic-Hole list I made before here as to why extra points are also deterred from my final rating. I might just be thinking way too hard or missing the entire point, but I just felt like these Plot Conveniences hindered the overall effect of the movie. And these aren’t much as Spoilers, they happen twenty minutes into the film ;)
- The Cause of Charlie’s Hanging: Was the wood material Charlie was standing grown so weak that it coincidentally broke right at that moment…or did the Prop Department actually build a working malfunctioning Trapdoor? Don’t you think that was a very VERY bad idea from the start? I get that they would want to try for the realistic approach, but I find it very stupid that a High School Prop Department went to the trouble to create a working trapdoor for the hanging victim to fall into and hang. It just seems way too dangerous and POINT PROVEN in the very movie. Couldn’t they have just added some kind of curtain in-front of the set piece to hide some sort of cushioning device or box to have Charlie land on…or just cut the lights moments before the Hangman character is supposed to pull the lever and add in a Trapdoor swinging/noose tightening sound effect to create the illusion?
- Charlie’s Death: This one I may be stretching as I am aware it IS possible for someone’s neck to snap immediately from the fall…but the stage set was only two feet off the ground (…give or take >___> ) Are they really showing us that Charlie died by having his neck snapped? That’s the only reason that makes sense considering everyone on stage and in the audience looked like they were rushing to get him out of the noose and everyone screaming the heads off.
- The Broken Auditorium Door: This one seriously has me reeling from human stupidity. Why hasn’t the school FIXED those doors if (taking one of the student’s comment to Ryan’s inquire) EVERYONE knows about it for all this time? Is the school seriously out of money to fix two Fucking Doors? Isn’t the school afraid of some Hoodlums breaking in and vandalizing the place OR robbers sneaking in to steal their stuff??? Shouldn’t those doors have been barred or sealed off by now to prevent illegal night entries?????????? This plot device just baffles me a lot; I’m sorry, it just does (just as much as my pet peeve killer’s reasoning for killing).
After taking a moment to calm down and reevaluate this movie, I feel a bit more confident to rate “The Gallows” 2 out of 4 paws, scoring just a tad bit higher 2 than original considered. It’s actually not as bad of a movie as I originally ranted…just not really as iconic and original as the commercial’s boast. I don’t think you should see this at full price though. If anything, wait until it moves to a cheap theater near you…or once it comes out on Netflix or something.
Next time; I’ll be giving you all my thoughts on the latest installment of the Terminator Franchise: “Terminator: Gynesis”. Until then; take care everyone!
After another week of work, work, work and stuck in another creative funk as I always have been, I decided to use the free day I had today from work to catch up on some of the latest movies. I wasn't planning on doing any reviews since, well...I don't think a lot of people really read these here on FA, but after the first movie on my list I felt like venting a little. Yep, it's a rant review which has Spoilers galore (So anyone who actually wants to see this film I would turn away after the second Spoiler warning).
Otherwise; I will be attempting to get some real writing done again soon. It's only a matter of which unfinished story I should be focusing on.
Until then; take care everyone.
…So…I went off the deep end a bit with that one. My personal Bias for these kind of horror movie spirit revenge plot’s can get me flustered way too easily with a fiery passion that I tend to judge the rest of the performance a bit harshly. Mainly; the reason for the villain’s drive to kill certain victims unjustly can paint my eyes nothing but red. After rereading my original review and taking some time to blow off some steam and contemplate I realize I was judging the movie way too harshly…although I still say it isn’t the greatest horror movie. I also feel like kicking myself in the ass for being extremely SPOILERIFIC in my review as I do know there are people that actually do read my journals and have mentioned from time to time to be careful what I say about the plot of certain movies or shows.
So I’m doing a bit of backtracking and retreading and I’m going to act a bit more professional in explaining my reasons for why I don’t think The Gallows is that good of a movie.
Let me clarify the plot once more:
The movie starts off with footage from who I believe to be the Hangman’s parents commenting on how their son, Charlie, is doing a terrific job with the Lead role of the High School play (which happens to be the same name as the movie) when Charlie was originally supposed to have played said Hangman. Unfortunately; the play’s scene of Charlie being prepared to be hung by The Gallow’s goes sour suddenly as the Trapdoor beneath him breaks open while his neck is noosed, the drop (I assume) immediately snapping his neck and killing him in front of live audience (Including his folks and apparently his Girlfriend).
Flash Forward to 2013; the film is recorded mostly by Football Jock Ryan (your typical Obnoxious Asshole character) having volunteered (or forced to participate for failing grades or a need Extra Curriculum Elective to Graduate) as part of the camera crew for the school’s revival of the “The Gallows” play. His buddy Reese (Your main ex-Jock, mostly innocent, hero cliché) is part of the play as the leading man playing beside the leading woman and Drama Club’s heroine that pushed the school to bring back the play Pfeiffer (Your main character’s love interest, destined to either survive to the end as the damsel-in-distress or to be killed off later to motivate the Hero later Role). It’s revealed early on that Reese’s main reason for dropping football and participating in the Play is so he can get to be around his crush and get to kiss the girl, which Ryan goes to his Asshole-lish lengths to divulge this tidbit to Pfeiffer directly. Ryan also happens to be boyfriend/girlfriend with one of the Cheerleaders of their school, Cassidy (the poster-horror-common sexy Blonde that will most likely get the most screen-time of suffering the monsters/spirit’s wrath) who…admittedly, isn’t actually all a horrible character. While she does pretty much become destined to follow the summary I just mentioned, her character isn’t actually all that annoying or useless. Her choice in boyfriend’s though are questionable, but she only commits two selfish/stupid acts throughout the whole movie: One being a minor hiccup, and the other being the next paragraph…
So what events propel these characters to suffer Charlie the Hangman’s wrath? Well…Reese is a horrible actor and Ryan constantly eggs him about it telling him to just drop out and save him the embarrassment of being the next big joke in school ALL for being around/getting to kiss his crush. After a spat with one of the Drama students getting back at Ryan for pretty much being an Asshole, Ryan discovers that one of the backdoor exits of the Auditorium’s locks are broken formulating the proposed hijinks to Reese to come back to school later that night, break in, and demolish the Play’s set pieces so the Gallows would be cancelled and suggestions that Reese can be there for Pfeiffer to console and comfort for the travesty while getting out of being mocked for his eventually poor performance…which Reese reluctantly agrees after some “Real Talk” nagging. Cassidy “glare of displeasure”s Ryan effectively joining in on the apparent night of debauchery.
However; shortly after confirming the broken door and beginning to tear up the sets, they discover that Pfeiffer had somehow noticed Resse’s car and snuck in as well demanding an explanation. As Reese attempts to pull an unconvincing half-truth to his crush, Ryan becomes annoyed at Cassidy’s change of heart trying to fix their mess and wanting to leave immediately. They argue all the way to the exit doors…where it is suddenly locked. The group soon find that all doors within the school are complete locked and that all power and signals are shut off. And worst of all…they begin to realize they are not alone. What results from this night are jumpscare-tactics and moderately decent tension building that will have you questioning how long can any of them survive the night…if any at all.
Now; I will redact my earlier criticism in saying that The Gallows isn’t actually that horrible. It’s no mystery that most Found Footage horror movies are starting to tank or pewter off with the acting in them ranging from ok but not that great…to downright deplorable. For the most part, the actors and actress’s played the movie’s characters relatively well. And as I mentioned earlier; I’m rather surprised the Blonde wasn’t as completely cliché as horror movie tropes go…but there was a hint of flubs and whining here and there that brought her back down to it. So yeah…the acting wasn’t too bad.
I also admit that I did find the multiple camera perspectives an interest use. Unlike most found footage films where the movie attempts to edit each different camera’s perspective as seemly as possible without cutting away or keeping the flow smooth, The Gallows decided to go a different direction. Since Reese and Ryan split at certain parts of the film; when one person with one camera realizes someone has gone missing, we black out and cut away to the missing person going through his or her own ghastly adventure before they eventually met back up. Another use of this was when some event happened off-screen while we were focused on one perspective, and then we soon see the events that occurred thanks to someone having another recording device at the time. Did I make sense at all here??? So I will give credit for the unique take on the Recorded Event’s splicing part; that was somewhat fresh.
Being that this is a Found Footage movie, the crew had to be creative with creating a score. I do feel like they copied Paranormal Activity on this one since most of the first half creepy ghostly moments was followed by a similar crescendo background noise alerting us to the spirit’s presence. Either way, this method did help with the tension building moments that did keep me just a tad bit on the edge of my seat.
Now while I don’t fully agree that Charlie the Hangman can be regarded as the new iconic Slasher to revitalize that type of genre (considering how the movie ends up revealing why he exists), his presence does score some small marks on the chilling aspect. What he actually looks like isn’t all that terrifying, but it’s what little you see of him in the shadows or as a silhouette that helps his freakish factor. Overall; though, I kind of had to laugh when they did close-ups of him and his stitched school-prop mask.
Unfortunately; that’s as much positive criticism I can give this movie. In all honesty; The Gallows does not feel like the Brand New Thing everyone will be talking about and I kind of agree. It’s not really that scary and it does rely too heavily on Jumpscares. And as I mentioned; Charlie himself doesn’t look all that foreboding to me (at least not like Jason or Freddy). It is nice to see some horror films achieve some sense of fright and fear without having to get so gory, but it didn’t really give me that sense of paranoia that other die-hard horror films wish. I can promise you that I’ll still be sleepy soundly tonight (as long as the humidity doesn’t keep me awake). The movie as a whole just felt…eh.
Again; one of the biggest reasons I’m having trouble seeing this film as anything better than what I described is due to a personal pet peeve of mine with certain plot device reasons for the killer’s motivation. This time I won’t spoil the plot again, but let’s just say I can’t stand innocent victims getting offed just because of the…certain…thing…I can’t mention >____< If you’ve seen Dead Silence, there’s my correlation. However; I’ll admit the WHY is a bit more ‘mentally-ill’ disturbing than Dead Silence’s reasons…I think.
Finally; I would like to relist my little Logic-Hole list I made before here as to why extra points are also deterred from my final rating. I might just be thinking way too hard or missing the entire point, but I just felt like these Plot Conveniences hindered the overall effect of the movie. And these aren’t much as Spoilers, they happen twenty minutes into the film ;)
- The Cause of Charlie’s Hanging: Was the wood material Charlie was standing grown so weak that it coincidentally broke right at that moment…or did the Prop Department actually build a working malfunctioning Trapdoor? Don’t you think that was a very VERY bad idea from the start? I get that they would want to try for the realistic approach, but I find it very stupid that a High School Prop Department went to the trouble to create a working trapdoor for the hanging victim to fall into and hang. It just seems way too dangerous and POINT PROVEN in the very movie. Couldn’t they have just added some kind of curtain in-front of the set piece to hide some sort of cushioning device or box to have Charlie land on…or just cut the lights moments before the Hangman character is supposed to pull the lever and add in a Trapdoor swinging/noose tightening sound effect to create the illusion?
- Charlie’s Death: This one I may be stretching as I am aware it IS possible for someone’s neck to snap immediately from the fall…but the stage set was only two feet off the ground (…give or take >___> ) Are they really showing us that Charlie died by having his neck snapped? That’s the only reason that makes sense considering everyone on stage and in the audience looked like they were rushing to get him out of the noose and everyone screaming the heads off.
- The Broken Auditorium Door: This one seriously has me reeling from human stupidity. Why hasn’t the school FIXED those doors if (taking one of the student’s comment to Ryan’s inquire) EVERYONE knows about it for all this time? Is the school seriously out of money to fix two Fucking Doors? Isn’t the school afraid of some Hoodlums breaking in and vandalizing the place OR robbers sneaking in to steal their stuff??? Shouldn’t those doors have been barred or sealed off by now to prevent illegal night entries?????????? This plot device just baffles me a lot; I’m sorry, it just does (just as much as my pet peeve killer’s reasoning for killing).
After taking a moment to calm down and reevaluate this movie, I feel a bit more confident to rate “The Gallows” 2 out of 4 paws, scoring just a tad bit higher 2 than original considered. It’s actually not as bad of a movie as I originally ranted…just not really as iconic and original as the commercial’s boast. I don’t think you should see this at full price though. If anything, wait until it moves to a cheap theater near you…or once it comes out on Netflix or something.
Next time; I’ll be giving you all my thoughts on the latest installment of the Terminator Franchise: “Terminator: Gynesis”. Until then; take care everyone!
Enough! You did your work! No more is needed, they are all the same! xD Still, maybe some day check Sinister if you haven't watched it - did so with a friend and had some things I certainly didn't expect the movie to do.