'The Gallows': Herky-jerky, lazy, loud horror

The latest addition to the growing refuse pile of dreadful found-footage horror pics, The Gallows labors under the delusion that shaking, bumping, dropping, sliding, throwing, pitching, and kicking handheld cameras and minicams while 20-something actors run around on an ill-lit sound stage amounts to an experience of terror.

It does not.

Cowritten and codirected by relative newcomers Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing, The Gallows is set almost entirely in a high school theater that's been readied for a production of some awful 18th-century costumer called The Gallows.

A prologue introduces the not-very gruesome premise: About 20 years ago, the school put on a production of the period drama that ended in a horrible tragedy. Captured by a (herky-jerky) video camera operated by one of the actor's parents, the play is supposed to end with its hero bidding farewell to his sweetheart before he is hanged to death.

Alas, something goes wrong with the equipment, and the boy ends up dead with a broken neck.

For some inexplicable reason, the senior class decides to commemorate the anniversary of the accident by mounting the same play, starring former football hero Reese Houser (Reese Mishler) as the tragic hero and the comely, if decidedly high-strung, Pfeifer Ross (Pfeifer Brown) as the lass for whom he longs, even as he's headed to the gallows.

Reese's BFF, Ryan Shoos (played by Ryan Shoos - did they run out of character names?), an obnoxious, idiotic, annoying, bullying twerp, is ashamed his pal is hanging out with a bunch of theater nerds. So, he persuades his friend to break into the theater overnight to destroy the sets. Ryan's bodacious GF, Cassidy Spilker (Cassidy Gifford), decides to tag along.

Then Pfeifer shows up. Why is she there?

Anyway, the kids get locked in, the lights go out (as does cell reception), and the ghost of the hanged boy from 20 years ago starts killing everyone.

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.

Instead of suspense, tension, dread - or even a little old-fashioned blood and gore - the film gives us choppy bits of action and a cacophony of inanely loud sound effects.

The only high point of the night is watching Ryan get what's coming to him. And that most assuredly ain't worth the price of a ticket.

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