The lazy way The Gallows bundles its tropes together suggests that its creators' ambitions went no higher than simply getting a horror film made.

| Jan 21, 2016

In a quick 80 minutes, we get the back story, we meet the four core characters (all of the young actors do fine work), get the wits scared out of us about a half-dozen times and wind up with a VERY creepy ending.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 14, 2015

By now these techniques are too familiar to be truly unnerving, especially as the underlying narrative logic is never explained in any persuasive way.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 22, 2015

After a while, the cameras start to flash "low battery" and "power save" warnings, but only the cacophony of booming rumbles and loud BANGS stopped me from drifting into "sleep mode".

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jul 19, 2015

For a full hour, The Gallows is maliciously dull, with only a jolt involving sudden levitation registering whatsoever.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jul 16, 2015

Every exhausted cliche of the found-footage horror genre is paraded in this depressingly bad film ...

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jul 16, 2015

As the latest entry in the tired "found footage" horror subgenre, this on-the-cheap film has never met a cliché it didn't embrace like sweet death itself.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Jul 13, 2015

A ridiculous fusion of "Paranormal Activity" and "Glee" that is so incredibly dumb that it is almost, but never quite, scary to behold.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Jul 10, 2015

A cautionary note: If your horror film is about a high-school theater production and still, the acting's not the worst thing about it, something's gone awfully wrong.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jul 10, 2015

The Gallows has a cleverness that bobs, occasionally, above the surface of cesspool murk. You can't tell whether it's just flotsam or a corpse, but for most of the 80-minute run time it almost doesn't matter. It's at least something.

| Jul 10, 2015

The Gallows is one lazy film. There's no real effort or inventiveness here, whether we're talking about the character names, the jokes, the set pieces, or the predictable plot twist.

| Jul 10, 2015

Plot holes aside, the filmmakers provide enough well-timed jumps and energetic moments to keep the highly contained picture afloat.

| Jul 9, 2015

"The Gallows" starts with a decent if improbable premise, and it ends with a pretty good jolt. But in between, the film sure wears out the already tired found-footage device.

| Jul 9, 2015

Exaggerated screaming and squabbling doesn't cover up the inanity.

| Jul 9, 2015

The filmmakers needed to set themselves free even more than the characters, but they never find the path out. They probably never realized they were trapped.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 9, 2015

Nonsensical and virtually scare-free ...

| Original Score: 0/4 | Jul 9, 2015

The Gallows is only good enough to make you wish its creators did something novel with its formulaic style, plot, and characterizations.

| Jul 9, 2015

The movie is entirely ridiculous and ultimately a frustrating snooze - yet another exercise in half-baked legends, dark corridors and waiting in anticipation for something to go BANG.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 9, 2015

Despite its initial promise and some decent scares - you're in for a sharp and sudden drop in satisfaction in the final throes.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 9, 2015

[The Gallows] winds up telegraphing its final twist so far in advance that you begin to resent the characters for not cluing in.

| Original Score: 0.5/4 | Jul 9, 2015