‘The Gallows’ Trailer Proves That Found Footage Horror Will Never Die

Found footage horror isn't going anywhere anytime soon, so the best we can do is embrace it and hope for the best. The new trailer for The Gallows features all of the tropes we’ve come to associate with this kind of movie, from extreme close-ups of crying faces to obnoxious teenagers getting yanked through the air by invisible forces. But hey, when these things work, they work. It’s the execution that matters.

The plot of The Gallows sounds well-worn and familiar: teens go into abandoned place, teens underestimate supernatural presence, teens start to die horribly at the ectoplasmic hands of a ghost with an ironically friendly name (Charlie, in this case). Still, the idea of a horror movie set in a high school theater where a student tragically died is going to strike a chord with a specific segment of the population. As anyone who was ever in high school theater will tell you, every auditorium has a ghost. Here's the official synopsis:

A group of students try to honor the anniversary of a tragic school play from 20 years ago but quickly learn that some things are better left alone.

Other than an odd song choice that dominates the second half of the trailer, this is a fairly effective preview the shows off plenty of creepy images and nifty scares. It’s not breaking any ground, but The Gallows could have that slow-burn-to-chaos energy that makes the Insidious and Paranormal Activity movies so much fun. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.

And then we’ll uncross them because the preview features what looks like high praise from a critic, only to reveal the source as “audience screening.” Nice try, guys, but that’s one desperate maneuver.

The Gallows opens on July 10.