Arts & Entertainment
Film Review: ‘The Gallows’ Gives a Scare
Harrowing Horror Flick Blurs Line Between Fact and Fiction
that what you’re watching is a documentary.
However, that pretense is pretty much un-
dermined by the presence Cassidy Gifford
in the picture, since it’s hard to buy the idea
that the daughter of Frank and Kathy Lee
Gifford was raised in rural Nebraska. That
being said, she does deliver a decent perfor-
mance as a terrified coed.
Scary fright fare that puts a creepy new
spin on the meaning of school spirit.
By Kam Williams
For The Skanner News
B
ack in 1993, a student accidentally
died onstage during the opening night
performance of “The Gallows,” a
macabre play being staged at Beatrice High.
The unfortunate understudy, a last-minute
replacement for the suddenly-indisposed
star, was somehow hanged when the noose
around his neck actually functioned when
the trapdoor under his feet gave way.
Fast-forward twenty years and we find the
school’s theater club planning to put on the
same production, ostensibly as an attempt to
pay homage to the kid who lost his life. Dra-
ma teacher Mr. Schwendiman (Travis Cluff)
is now overseeing the well-intentioned proj-
ect with the help of a nerdy, student stage
manager (Price T. Morgan).
In terms of the casting, Pfeifer (Pfeifer
‘The Gallows’ puts a creepy spin on school spirit.
keeps his hand-held camera on “Record.”
That annoying habit might prove valuable
should anything tragic transpire on campus,
even if the shaky images are terribly dizzy-
ing.
A worthy addition to this low-budget, horror
sub-genre inaugurated by ‘The Blair Witch Project’
Brown) has been picked to play the female
lead opposite Reese (Resse Mishler) who
will be reprising the role of the ill-fated
protagonist. Other critical persons of inter-
est for these purposes include football team
captain Ryan (Ryan Shoos) and his cheer-
leader girlfriend Cassidy (Cassidy Gifford).
Ryan also just happens to be an amateur
filmmaker with OCD. So, he constantly
In fact, these clues are all the police have
to go on to decipher what happened in The
Gallows, a found-footage flick co-written
and co-directed by Travis Cluff and Chris
Lofing. The movie is a worthy addition to
this low-budget, horror sub-genre inaugu-
rated by The Blair Witch Project in 1999.
Just as in Blair Witch, the characters here
use their real names in order to blur the line
between fact and fiction, and thereby suggest
Very Good HHH
Rated R for terror and disturbing violence
Running time: 81 minutes
Distributor: Warner Brothers Pictures
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
DVD Review by Kam Williams
Lighthearted Sequel Features More Seniors’
Shenanigans in Indian Rest Home
W
hen we last saw Sonny Kapoor
(Dev Patel), he had just pro-
posed to his thoroughly-mod-
ern girlfriend Sunaina (Tina Desai),
much to the chagrin of his meddling,
more traditional mother (Lillete Dubey).
The ambitious young entrepreneur had
also landed the funds to renovate his
ramshackle hotel with the help of Muriel
Donnelly (Maggie Smith), one of the res-
idents of the retirement community.
At the point of departure, we find Son-
ny (accompanied by Mrs. Donnelly) en
route to San Diego where he hopes to
interest an executive (David Strathairn)
with the Evergreen Corporation in in-
vesting in the second old folks home he
hopes to open. After all, the first is now
flourishing and practically filled to ca-
pacity.
Meanwhile, back in India, Sunaina
is squarely focused on their impend-
See DVD on page 8
July 15, 2015 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 7