n-doylemufc Definitely one of the worst horror films I have ever seen... Don't waste your time!

Tyler Sheirbon Now before I go on about this, I do enjoy most of the Paranormal Activity series. The 4th and 6th one were kinda meh, in my opinion but I've always loved the style. I've also seen Area 51 directed by the same guy who made those, and I was pleased to see this was too. For me, this absolutely blew Paranormal Activity out of the park. Yes it has cliché moments, but not as predictable as those movies. If you love found footage movies, especially with twist endings, I 100% recommend this movie. Not gonna give it 10 out of 10 cause of course this is a recurring style genre which MANY get bored of but I eat it up. Loved it, would watch it again. Would recommend especially with a friend.

BlueFairyBlog Found footage horror films have been old hat for years. "Blair Witch," though problematic, is definitely the best of the genre to emerge, with the original "Paranormal Activity" in a close second. Though there have been more copycats than original films produced the genre persists, and has even spawned two "Haunted House," movies, which is in itself a monstrous side effect of this epidemic. Every year another article emerges saying that either the genre is over-done and lazy, or there are new innovations. "The Gallows" falls into the former.The premise is simply ridiculous. A high school theater production is putting on the same play they did twenty some years ago, even though that original production saw the lead die on stage. That would just never happen, period. From that hackneyed premise a narrative of retribution and revenge emerges, but it isn't doled out to anyone who actually deserves it. Instead four nearly random high school kids get the brunt of a ghost's revenge, and they don't have anything to do with the original issues of twenty years ago. Oh, the film thinks it explains itself with a random, nonsensical twist ending, but in actuality there's little to bond the story other than a red filter and hyena like screams from off-screen.Besides the idiotic plot, these characters are so painfully written that you may need a sedative to quell the rising anger you will feel at the back of your throat. Their two dimensional personas are bad by horror movie standards, which have been especially low in this era of found footage micro-budgeted laze fests. Everything about this film is intolerable and contrived. Do you really think we don't know what you're doing when you have someone follow their friends around with a hand-held camera? No one films themselves opening doors, or pulling ropes, even when no one else is on screen.The only reason I sat through this underwhelming student film is because others like it have emerged and been lauded. "Unfriended," "REC," and the Paranormal Activity films have all been studio strongholds for the past three years, with some serious fan service to boot. This is strange to me, because there is nothing enjoyable about these films. The jump scares might make you tense, and the look and feel are popcorn for your brain, but doesn't anyone miss the old stuff? Does anyone miss the novelty, the ingenuity, and weirdness of really diverse horror? Horror used to be the one avenue to explore things like trauma, obsession, and evocative terror in a creative way. A genre that once housed "The Exorcist," and "Dawn of the Dead," should not have to subsume to something of this nature. Not every horror film must be a masterpiece, but originally horror films did more shock and awe, because they had to. Directors like Wes Craven, Mario Bava, and Joe Dante made films for little money, and replaced studio effects with weird makeup, odd characters, and grisly action. There is nothing salvageable about this particular nonsensical trash, so find something better to get you in the Halloween spirit.

eddie_baggins For years mankind has wondered about the possibility of there being someone/something out there in the great expands of the universe. Another intelligent life-force that may one day visit our lowly shores to learn about us curious beings and hopefully not blast us away with advanced technology or decide to take us away for some good old fashioned experimentation. If indeed one day we find ourselves in communication with a great race equal to our technological advancements let us all hope that these visitors do not find a copy of found footage horror film The Gallows, as their judgements upon mankind may be non-recoverable.A film so daft and downright dumb it's hard to fathom how it came into existence in the first place, The Gallows as directed by duo Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing (seriously it took two people to make this turkey!) is the type of film where you can feel your brain cells disappearing with each passing minute as annoying characters make unintelligible decision upon unintelligible decision and seemingly solvable solutions are ignored in the sake of more shakily handled "scares".A new low in the past it's use by date genre of found footage horrors, The Gallows plunges to previously unseen depths of narrative drivel to tell the story of painfully badly acted teenage brats breaking into their seemingly medievally secured school to wreck the set to an upcoming play only to be haunted by an ominous fiend who locks them in the school facility (really there's not a single window that could be smashed to break out of?) to wreck all manner of nasties on them.Watch on in disbelief as these unlikeable creations knock pot plants down, "dismantle" sets by taking a piece of wood out of a stage setting and generally fail at their objective only to be bettered or worsened by the fact that their school break in just happens to be in a school that seemingly has forgone any type of security, whether it be guards, cameras, motion detectors or even the locking of a door that would take 1 minute to fix, this school does not care who wonders its grounds come closing time! It's almost as if The Gallows creators Cluff and Lofing decided they were onto narrative gold or perhaps just an easy paycheck and set forth on making their film no matter if anything actually made sense or if logic was totally bypassed, it's almost akin to a home movie production, just far less funny or enjoyable.The Gallows is neither scary or original and nothing about the film feels even remotely believable, even in a genre that's not supposed to be clothed in reality.Taking place around some seriously lax logic and scenarios, The Gallows gets its rating purely based around the fact it's something that needs to be seen to be believed as for those that thought modern day horrors and found footage films had reached their lowest ebbs, The Gallows is here to show us all that the bar has been set even lower.In other words, all copies of this film should be locked away or simply destroyed quick smart…… before the intergalactic visitors arrive! ½ an unsecured school facility out of 5