The Gallows

My friend and I were looking for something to watch last night, and we decided on The Gallows. I knew it had plenty of bad reviews, but the plot sounded interesting, so I wanted to give it a chance. Unfortunately, in the end I had to admit it was pretty lackluster.

The movie follows Reese, former football player turned nervous star of the school play, The Gallows,  a play which had previously been staged by the school years before, ending tragically when the star was accidentally hung on the titular set piece. Reese's two popular friends convince him to break into their school to destroy the show's set the night before opening, ostensibly in an effort to save Reese from embarrassment. However, the play's female lead (and Reese's crush), Pfeifer sees their car outside and comes in to investigate.  All four teens soon find themselves trapped in the school with the ghost of the hanged thespian.

The main problems with this movie were the god-awfully obnoxious main characters, who seemed like stereotypes of high school students created by someone who has never actually met any, as well as the long periods of time focused on just about anything but advancement of the plot (whether it be high school pranks, inane conversations, or just extended scenes of everybody yelling in panic). And honestly, the twist ending was the worst; it was just ass-clinchingly-what-the-fuck awful. I mean damn. Even M. Night Shyamalan couldn't conceive of anything this ridiculous.

The worst thing is that, other than the ending, The Gallows was unfortunately more just dull than outright bad, so I can't even really recommend it on a so-bad-it's-good level. Watching it wouldn't be the worst way to spend an hour and a half, but only if you're really short on options.

Once that movie was over, we decided that we must wash the bad taste out of our mouth, so we decided to delve into some excellent stinky cheese and watched Splatter University. Now that one I can wholeheartedly recommend if you're looking for some so-bad-it's-good fun. Check it out, but you might want to be a few drinks in and with some similarly minded cheese loving friends when you do!