Remember the found footage genre, films like the Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity (the first one not the crappy sequels) and Rec those films were friggin amazing but alas you do get the bottom of the barrel found footage movies, films like As above So Below, Grave Encounters 1 and 2 and The Gallows which is the newest entry at the bottom of the barrel.

Now The Gallows does have its moments I’m not going to lie, but some of the scares are rehashed over and over again which does get really really dull and very quickly do you find yourself going in circles, so let’s dive in to this bottom of the barrel and take a look at The Gallows.

We open on a teenager named Charlie Grimille who is in his school play known as The Gallows, halfway through the closing scene a freak accident happens with the noose killing Charlie. Cut to 20 years later and we find the same school 20 years on from the incident is putting on the same play, that’s like an incident happening on the stage show Macbeth and then reopening in the same theatre 20 years on you wouldn’t do it so why? Any who a guy called Reece is playing the lead role to fight for his love for his crush Pheifer Reece’s friend takes the piss out of him for being in the play, so they along wih Reece’s mates girlfriend Cassidy break in to the school and vandalise the set. 

Pheifer finds out what they are doing and is angry but once they get back on stage the set has magically repaired.

Halfway through the film they see a TV with news footage about Charlie along with an interview with his girlfriend, once out of the room thy hear footsteps above them and suddenly Cassidy is hung with a noose but survives only to have a wound round her neck which gets worse as time goes on, Reece’s mate has died after getting hung by the mysterious figure known as the hangman scared and frightened they try to find a way out but can’t (as everything is locked because they are in a school) the hangman almost kills Reece but he survives, meanwhile Cassidy is sitting by some stairs crying nursing the wound on her neck but suddenly a noose appears and she is dragged down the stairs kicking and screaming. 

Reece and Pheifer are on the stage trying to hide from the hangman then the stage lights come on and thy act out a scene from the play, the stage then opens on the gallows (the hanging noose where charlie died) Pheifer still in character yells her lines as Reece tells her to stop, in the background you see the hangman pull the lever killing Reece, the hangman along with Pheifer take a bow revealing a figure in the audience… Ready for the mysterious figure… It’s Charlie Grimille’s girlfriend who gives a standing ovation and claps. 

Now we cut to cops coming to a house after getting a call the two cops come in and see a mother and a daughter sitting on a bed while the mother is brushing the daughters hair, the news footage is rolling and it shows the story of Charlie, suddenly charlie appears outta nowhere and kills the cop then the screen cuts to black and then the credits roll.

And that was the gallows, wow, I mean wow what a disappointment this film was, the acting was atrocious as was the whole plot oh my god was the plot bad, when I first heard of this film I thought it was great I mean the trailer sold me, but alas the trailer proved to be better than the actual film itself. 

I do think the found footage is dying sadly, the Blair Witch Project an Paranormal Activity were I think the benchmark for the found footage genre, but now it’s all the same rehashed garbage that comes out of Hollywood, oh no there’s a ghost oh no, seriously Hollywood get some better ideas you have made some gems in your time like whiplash and foxcatcher, keep at that don’t just use the same old story again, okay rant over, anyway I would give the gallows a miss don’t waste your money or time with this film. Do you agree with my opinion do Hollywood use the same stories over and over and over again let me know, until next time catch you later.