Gallows, The : Movie Review


A small-town tragedy from the past quite literally comes back to haunt a group of high school classmates in "The Gallows," a methodically paced suspenser that unnerves enough for the viewer to forgive it for its commonplace—and not always plausible—found-footage conceit. Made by first-time writer-directors Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing for under $100,000 before producer Jason Blum and his Blumhouse Productions took it on and sold it to distributors Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema, the film has a plucky, home-grown quality that adds to its raw authenticity. When a lot of movies told through a first-person visage are too glossy for their own good, this one excels by retaining a suitably unpolished yet still skillfully conceived sheen. It helps that the premise is a sure-fire humdinger, ingeniously eerie yet feeling all the same like a lost slasher from the 1980s. Aspiring horror filmmakers, prepare to be jealous over having not thought of it first.

See Dustin Putman, TheFilmFile.com. for full review

Author : Dustin Putman, TheFilmFile.com.