Back in 2015 directors Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing teamed up to bring their own horror entry into the found footage genre with The Gallows. It was pretty successful in its execution and now they are back with another performance to bring to the stage with The Gallows: Act II. Can this next chapter bring more of the same that made the first film work or will it be left hanging?  

 

The Gallows: Act II follows Auna Rue, a teenage vlogger/aspiring actress who logs onto a sinister website where she’s soon trapped in the malevolent world of a cursed stage play, The Gallows. After performing a passage from the play for her tiny online fan base, Auna instantly achieves the stardom she seeks—as well as a twisted challenge from a deadly spirit (The Hangman). I thought the first movie was decent enough to offer up some creepiness and scares for the found footage genre. Despite it being pretty good, I had no clue of them moving forward on the sequel until the first trailer hit. This time around they mixed things up a bit with found footage mixed with traditional camera work to offer up something a bit different.

 

This time around it was clear that they were trying to expand the film with a bit more depth to the story and ideas behind The Hangman. This works on some levels, but at the same time takes away some of what made the original film work on some level. I felt the kills this time around were great but a more straight forward genre instead of inspired or overly creative. The issue with them is that outside a few in the opening it takes forever for anything to really happen again. There is an attempt at getting the haunting build up to work in hopes to torment Auna, but instead torments the audience waiting for something to happen.

 

The offer up a twist ending that is fun, but not enough to really take this chapter out of the realm of average at best. Fans of the original film or horror in general might find the fun here and more power to you, but for me it just left me hanging in hopes for more.

​

Decide for yourself and check out The Gallows: Act II availabe now on Digital and On Demand and then on Blu-ray and DVD on December 24th from Lionsgate.