The Gallows 2015

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: 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. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: 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. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Nonsensical and virtually scare-free ... Read more

Geoff Berkshire, Variety: The Gallows isn't without a certain amount of atmosphere, it simply feels borrowed wholesale. That would matter less with a better script, but the four main characters are paper-thin even by genre norms. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: Making audiences care about the characters is always a more effective fear-generating strategy than just knocking off a bunch of dimwits in the dark. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: Exaggerated screaming and squabbling doesn't cover up the inanity. Read more

Gwynedd Stuart, Chicago Reader: The Gallows is a perfectly fun entry in Blumhouse Productions' ever-growing roster of low-budget, mock-verite chillers (Insidious, Paranormal Activity). Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Lofing and Cluff certainly know the found-footage ropes, and the tropes; we'll see if their next project reveals a little more imagination. Read more

Kyle Anderson, Entertainment Weekly: This is another found-footage movie that, with a little art direction and some actual cinematography, could easily have been a decent little terrorizer. Instead, it comes mostly unglued thanks to its hacky gimmick. Read more

Stephen Farber, Hollywood Reporter: The Gallows is not going to win any prizes for originality. Any film that tries to revive this technique needs a clever story or unusual filmmaking ingenuity to stand out from the crowd. The Gallows has neither. Read more

Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times: Plot holes aside, the filmmakers provide enough well-timed jumps and energetic moments to keep the highly contained picture afloat. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The plot is a collection of contrivances (Oh no, the lights all went out! My cell phone won't work! I'm running for my life, I'd better keep filming!) and the scares are simple, sudden, stupid shocks. Read more

Neil Genzlinger, New York Times: "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. Read more

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: 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. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Too quickly, it's all just blurry camera work and noise - with neither scares nor drama. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: 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. Read more

Lenika Cruz, The Atlantic: The lazy way The Gallows bundles its tropes together suggests that its creators' ambitions went no higher than simply getting a horror film made. Read more

Barry Hertz, Globe and Mail: As the latest entry in the tired "found footage" horror subgenre, this on-the-cheap film has never met a cliche it didn't embrace like sweet death itself. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: Despite its initial promise and some decent scares - you're in for a sharp and sudden drop in satisfaction in the final throes. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: 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. Read more

Simon Abrams, Village Voice: The Gallows is only good enough to make you wish its creators did something novel with its formulaic style, plot, and characterizations. Read more