Where Paranormal Activities Comes to the Stage
A Potpourri of Vestiges Review
By Anirban Lahiri
Featured in IMDb Critic Reviews
 |
| The Gallows (2015) - By Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing |
Our Rating: 3.0
IMDb Ratings: 4.5
Genre: Horror | Thriller
Cast: Reese Mishler, Pfeifer Brown, Ryan Shoos
Country: USA
Language: English
Runtime: 81 min
Color: Color
Summary: Twenty years after an accident during a small town high school play results in death, students at the school resurrect the failed stage production in a misguided attempt to honor the anniversary of the tragedy - but ultimately find out that some things are better left alone.
Since The Blair Witch Project (1999),
nay since Cannibal Holocaust (1980),
found-footage films have been doing rounds in the indie circuits. Most of these
films are worse than Plan 9 from Outer Space
(1959). In recent years, we have seen films such as Paranormal Activities 1-4, Chronicle, Project X and The Curse.
Bollywood’s own Dibakar Banerjee tried his hands, partially, in this genre too,
in Love, Sex and Dhoka (2010). This
is a favourite genre for accent filmmakers who want to make films outside the
accepted ways of filmmaking, on their own money, not being answerable to
anyone.
But, the initial thrill is lost with the
overuse of same tropes. The idea of found footage film is borrowed from other
arts. Novels based on memoirs and letters have been doing rounds for the last
two hundred years. Installation art is conceptualized on already existing
forms. A mock Cinema Verité style has added flavour to such films for decades.
 |
| A Still from The Gallows |
The
Gallows, like most of such films, have a
minimal story, and a convenient plot structure within four walls of a building.
A play, titled The Gallows, is being enacted at the Beatrice high School. At
the end of the play, a trap door falls open under the feet of the actor in the
noose. He dies hanging before the full audience including his parents.
This was in 1993. The tragic death was
recorded in the video camera of Charlie Grimille, the victim. The modern story
opens in the next generation, two decades later. Rees Houser is to play the
same character. He is in the play because of a crush for his fellow actor
Pfeifer Brown. His classmate Ryan plays with a camcorder catching all the
moments in and out of stage. He wants to mess up the show, and persuades Rees
in doing so. They sneak in at the night along with Ryan’s girlfriend Cassidy.
They destroy the stage, and find out Pfeifer in the anteroom. Then spooky
things starts happening.
 |
| A Still from The Gallows |
Everything is recorded from the
point-of-view of the camera. There is another camera, an ethereal one. Nobody
knows who controls that. That shows the spectators, us, things which Ryan’s
camera cannot catch.
The
Gallows seems to be interesting in the
beginning. Slowly, the usual tropes of unseen shadows, destruction reverting
back to normalcy, unrealistic cut-aways and sneaky camera movements with cuts
to an unknown camera set the usual tone of an overused style.
It is interesting that Hollywood, just
like Bollywood and Hong Kong film industry, is in a repetition spree, this
summer. Character, plots, stories, situations, lighting, techniques, logic –
everything – is repeated. The world has completed a full turn to have stood in
a position economically and politically similar to the beginning of the 20th
Century. There is almost no dream left. Everyone wants to make films and be
famous. Indie and accent films are being appropriated by the big house. Even
Shyamalan has made a found footage film, to be released late this year.
 |
| A Still from The Gallows |
The
Gallows has been taken up by New Line Cinema,
and distributed by Warner Bros. It is just another film from the fraternity, to
inspire some hope for the newbie filmmakers. Ambitious and aware film-school
pass-outs can indeed do better.
The flow of the film is like a docudrama
just like other found-footage films, camera point-of-view is interesting
initially, sound design is conventional and professional at times, editing
pattern and pace are conventional, and acting is non-camera-conscious.
Verdict: One-time Watch. Good for film school students for their first dialogue exercise.
About Author -
Anirban is a Cinematographer and film teacher. After a marathon teaching of filmmaking for five years in Digital Academy, Mumbai, he is busy writing his own film now. He was with DearCinema during its first phase. Steeped in cultural theory, observation and history, he sees all his work as part of a continuum – critique. Anirban consciously plays the role of a critic while shooting films, teaching, writing stories, and of course while critiquing. His favourite filmmakers are Sergei Eisenstein, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Ritwik Ghatak, Satyaji Ray, Luis Buñuel, Andrei Tarkovsky, Abbas Kiarostami and Nagisa Oshima, to name a few.
Readers, please feel free to share your views/opinions in the comment box below. As always your feedback is highly appreciated!
The Gallows (2015) Trailer (YouTube)
Readers, please feel free to share your views/opinions in the comment box below. As always your feedback is highly appreciated!
References:
The Gallows (2015) Trailer (YouTube)
People who liked this also liked...
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for sharing for valuable opinion. We would be delighted to have you back.