About.com Rating

Despite a barrel-scraping cost that virtually ensures a profit (and thus ensures they continue to be made), found footage horror films have fallen out of favor with moviegoers in recent years, with only one (Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones) earning as much as $30 million at the box office since 2012 -- and that was a disappointment for the PA franchise. The Gallows, the latest found footage offering, won't do much to turn the tide.

The Plot

Twenty years after the accidental hanging of a student named Charlie during a high school play called The Gallows, the school decides to put on the play again (presumably with a much less deadly outcome). Reece, an ex-jock who gave up football in favor of acting, is cast as the co-lead, along with theater geek Pfeifer, on whom he has a crush.

The inexperienced Reece, however, is terrible, and letting his fear get the better of him, he allows his friend Ryan to convince him to go along with a cockamamy plot: they'll sneak into the school the night before the play and destroy the set, forcing it to be cancelled. In the process of trashing the stage, Ryan, Reece and Ryan's girlfriend Cassidy are interrupted by Pfeifer, who stops by the school when she sees Reece's car out front.

The group ends up mysteriously locked inside, and when strange events begin to occur, it seems as if the rumor that Charlie's ghost haunts the school is true. The kids have apparently intruded on Charlie's turf, and he's eager to put his noose to good use.

The End Result

The Gallows tries to breathe new life into two flailing horror sub-genres -- slashers and found footage -- by combining them, sort of like Paranormal Activity meets Scream. If only it approached the quality of either of those films, its dearth of originality would be more forgivable.

It starts out promising enough, with an enticing urban legend and the sort of believably acted humorous banter that the best found footage films use to fill the gaps between the scares. However, the longer it plays, the dumber The Gallows gets, culminating in a groan-worthy twist ending that's as unlikely as it is annoying. Along the way, the characters seem determined to out-stupid each other with bad decision after bad decision, beginning with the school thinking it's appropriate to mark the 20th anniversary of the biggest tragedy in its history by staging the exact same play in which the tragedy occurred. Then, we have protagonists using "horror movie logic" like splitting up for no good reason and deciding to climb through air vents to escape a building instead of breaking down a door or smashing a window.

It doesn't help that Charlie, The Gallows' attempt at creating a new genre icon, is dull and decidedly un-intimidating. He wear a blouse, for goodness' sake! Dressed in a hangman's hood, his weapon of choice is a noose, which limits the options for interesting kills and just seems, well, inefficient. It also makes for a nearly bloodless film -- a sin for a slasher -- and frankly, with no gore, nudity or appreciable profanity, it's hard to fathom how it earned an R rating. With just a couple of effective jump scares, it's certainly not because it's so terrifying.

If The Gallows is indicative of the level of found footage fare we'll be subjected to in the future, this format may find itself fading into obscurity as far as major theatrical releases go.

The Skinny

• Acting: C+ (Solid, believable.)
• Direction: D+ (Predictable misdirection and jump scares.)
• Script: D (Unoriginal but interesting setup; dumb characters and even dumber twist ending.)
• Gore/Effects: D+ (Little gore, mediocre digital effects.)
• Overall: D+ (A bland, dim-witted effort to reinvigorate found footage.)

The Gallows is directed by Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing and is rated R by the MPAA for some disturbing violent content and terror. Release date: July 10, 2015.