Summer 2015 could be called the Summer of Blumhouse. With “Insidious: Chapter 3″ already taking us ever deeper into the horror genre this summer, this week we are greeted by THE GALLOWS with “The Gift” and “Sinister 2″ following in August. When I spoke with Jason Blum several weeks ago about “Insidious”, he mentioned THE GALLOWS to me stating, “I know you’re not a fan of found footage films, but just wait until you see THE GALLOWS. I think you’re gonna love it.” Well, Jason, I am here to say, you were right. THE GALLOWS left me hanging by my fingernails, wanting even more.
Not your typical found footage film, first time filmmakers Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing up the ante for all found footage films with technical levels of excellence including the elimination of the shaky-cam while still embracing and enhancing the hand-held found footage visual style. Co-writing, co-directing, working on special effects jointly and with Lofing also serving as editor, this is truly a lo budget/no budget film of the highest caliber. Although not a perfect film and with room for improvement and growth with storytelling, THE GALLOWS nevertheless showcases the considerable ability and talents of cast and crew, making me anxious to see what the future holds for all. According to Lofing, he looked to his childhood slasher movies for inspiration in creating THE GALLOWS. “I grew up on John Carpenter stuff and Wes Craven. I loved the old classic slasher movies.” But one must then ask, why horror as your filmmaking entre? “ We didn’t have a lot of money and we knew horror is a great genre to get your foot in the door and just get your experience. Again, we had no resources. We were like, ‘What can we do with no stars, no money, and a simple idea?’.”
Set on the idea of making a horror film, Lofing and Cluff craft THE GALLOWS around stories and legends Lofing grew up with in the small town of Beatrice, Nebraska, population 12000. “I grew up with this story about a kid who died on stage. My dad told me about it. And then, when we thought about where the movie should take place, we thought it’d be cool to have it set in this small town that no one knows about and it feels almost creepier that way. . .[T]here’s just something eerie about an old school in a small town and that this story can just disappear. I think that’s why we stuck with it throughout the whole time.” Expounding, Cluff is quick to note, “It’s weird because there have been several events even since production and throughout; in Beatrice specifically, as well as just around the world, other accidental hangings and other things that are a little bit too eerie for us, but if you look up hangings and things that have to do with Beatrice…” You get the picture. The eerie happenings are “unusually high” in Beatrice. Attractive to producer Dean Schnider was that THE GALLOWS was set in a school. “You see many haunted house movies, but this is a haunted house movie in a school. If you go online, there are many people who have their own stories at their own schools that have apparitions.”
With the meld of high school and horror, our story opens in 1993 Beatrice, Nebraska to a high school drama production of THE GALLOWS, a take off on “The Crucible” or “The Scarlet Letter”. Unfortunately, as the play’s star Charlie Grimille is all set for the climactic moment of his hanging, something goes awry and Charlie is actually hanged. A shock to the cast and the audience, the reaction is visceral on multiple levels. (Cluff proudly admits that “We ultimately tricked [the audience and the cast] by dropping Charlie a little bit sooner than even they anticipated. So, every reaction that we saw on camera or experienced on stage was genuinely like, ‘What just happened? Something must have gone wrong. That wasn’t when they told us it was going to happen.’ . . .We really did give that sense of dread and terror.”)
Time passes and it’s now 20 years later and a young uber-excited obsessive drama student, Pfeifer, is anxious to pay homage to the 1993 production of THE GALLOWS and perform it as this year’s annual play. Despite a trepidatious community, the school allows the production to go forward. Interestingly, Pfeifer is hot to have football star Reese as her co-star in the role in which Charlie perished. Not an actor and tongue tied at every turn, yet having unspoken hots for Pfeifer, Reese agrees to perform but not without ridicule and torment from his best friend Ryan.
Ryan, a man with a smart mouth and ever present camera in his hand, is the obnoxious arrogant bully at school that we all knew, all hated, all feared, but also all envied. He knew everybody and everything but never ever shut his mouth. Ryan’s senior project is to document the production of THE GALLOWS, but despite the limited assignment, his camera is omnipresent 24/7 and in everyone’s face, including that of his cheerleading (and equally obnoxious) girlfriend Cassidy.
Thanks to teen angst and torment, Ryan and Cassidy convince Reese to break in to the school at night to destroy the set so the play can’t go forward and Reese won’t have to perform. Needless to say, Pfeifer shows up at the school the same night as the break-in which leads to hurried cover-ups of the destruction by Ryan, Cassidy and Reese. But its not just Pfeifer who shows up. Someone or something else is in the school with them and one by one, each of our four principals starts to disappear. But be on the lookout for some terrific twists and turns within the story itself, not to mention big reveals guaranteed to shock and surprise.
Not only are the filmmakers newcomers, but so are the cast members. Reese Mishler (a dead ringer in looks and attitude to a young Tom Cruise), Cassidy Gifford (yes, daughter of Kathie Lee and Frank), Ryan Shoos and Pfeifer Brown play their respective characters using their real names, a decision made by Lofing and Cluff in an effort to imbue the experience with even more authenticity and believability. Each of the cast more than proves their mettle and show real promise for future works.
Filmed four years ago, each of our cast had just graduated from high school, making them age appropriate for their respective roles. Shoos laughingly acknowledges “I was much more immature then” and finds that helped him get into character. “It was so easy because as soon as you tuned into being that kind of jerky jock making fun of people, it was so easy. And if you’re surrounded by all these people, immediately you have material here and there. So, I just fed off that. . .” Gifford sincerely hopes she’s “not anything like [Cassidy] at all.” Describing Cassidy as “the girl that we all knew in high school and didn’t necessarily like”, the one similarity between Gifford and her character is that “fear is fear when it comes to human nature. For all of us, even though we all started out as completely different characters, ultimately we’re all faced with the same things and that’s what brings us together. It’s just human nature to be terrified and that doesn’t necessarily manifest itself in completely different ways.”
Pfeifer Brown and Reese Mishler seem to be the two actors most akin to their characters. As described by Brown, “My character was head of the drama department and I can relate to that. I was never a head of the drama department, but I was always very artistic and singing and on the dance team and in school plays. So, I was able to feed off of that relationship.” Brown quickly admits, however, “My character was a complete perfectionist and always on time and organized, and I’m not those things in real life. I’m so horrible at being on time. Organization is not one of my strong suits.” Mishler in real life is perhaps the closest to his on-screen persona, something that elevates his performance above the other cast members. “I played football for a while, and I ended up breaking my pelvis so I couldn’t play anymore after that. When I started acting, I was actually very shy as a kid. I got held back in school because I didn’t speak. So, playing somebody who was extremely nervous and had this incredible stage fright I understood. That made total sense to me. I remember when I started doing theater in high school, I was the exact same guy. I was scared to even walk out on stage. . . I can totally relate to being this scared kid who has to grow up and learn to face his fears so he can become a real adult, a man.”
With well established horror tropes and plot contrivances interspersed throughout the plotline, Lofing and Cluff rely on veteran cinematographer Edd Lukas to create a visual tonal bandwidth that is exemplary. Utilizing multiple cameras, including the Red, Canon C300, Panasonic Lumix GH2 and a Sony, visuals are engaging, interesting and realistic, complemented by Lukas’ creative use of lighting. Shooting night for night adds to the ambient nature of the film. Also key is the location of the Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium in Fresno. The crowded backrooms, attic planks and other assorted horror tropes are not set dressing but the physical state of the facility. It just fuels the fear. Lofing’s editing then meshes everything into a visual design that guarantees jump out of your seat scares. But where THE GALLOWS really gets high marks is with the sound design. Brandon Jones amazes with auditory nuance that brings its own level of chills to the proceedings.
Adding further authenticity and fear to the proceedings is the work of production designers and costumers in the look and design of Charlie and THE GALLOWS mise-en-scene itself. According to Lofing, “I was looking online at what do executioners typically look like. We wanted something along those lines but unique as well and something cheap because we had no money. So, we were like, ‘Let’s just throw a sack on his head and see what that does.’ But this costumer designer we had added this stitching and added these little details. And in post, I would enhance certain things to make it even more dramatic and stark. That was just the look we ended up with. Expounding, Cluff notes their desire for “something unique and different”, especially when it came to the noose and the hanging. “We had early sketches and then [the costumer] helped us tie in the ultimate look and the noose. . .We’re wholesome guys not terribly into gore and that kind of stuff. So, we thought about the rope. We could just make a noose so eerie. We ultimately wanted to try to do that and that’s how our version of Charlie was created.”
With no gore, no nudity, no drugs and no violence, fear is the key with THE GALLOWS.
Written and Directed by Chris Lofing and Travis Cluff.
Cast: Reese Mishler, Cassidy Gifford, Pfeifer Brown and Ryan Shoos
