The Gallows (3 Stars)

On October 29th 1993 a high school play is performed about a tragic love affair which ends when the man is hanged. Due to an accident with the props the young actor really is hanged and killed. 20 years later the school decides to put on the same play. Little do they suspect that the school is haunted, and the ghost wants to punish those involved with the new play.

This is a found footage style horror film. One of the high school students films his friends as they rehearse for the play and then break into the school to sabotage it when they realise it will be a flop. The school and the cellar below it become a dark labyrinth as they flee from whoever or whatever is stalking them.

As a found footage film it's adequate. The genre has become very stylized with its shaky camera techniques and poorly lit sequences. That's also the film's main weakness. The style is so well defined that it offers nothing new. The film does nothing wrong, but it also does nothing that makes it stand out from other films in the genre.