There are some movies that are subjective, as some fans love the concept and characters and others don't connect. And then there are the movies that many agree just didn't live up to expectations. In the genre of horror, this happens from time to time, whether a premise is poorly executed, a remake isn't as good as the original, or the story just isn't scary.
It's rare for a movie to get a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but there is one horror film that did, and it's not a very well-loved sequel. Horror fans definitely have strong opinions about this particular film.
The Gallows was released in 2015 and wasn't well-received. It has less than 5/10 on IMDb and 14% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer, along with a 22% Audience Score. The sequel, Gallows Act II, came out in 2019 and has a 0% rating on the Tomatometer, which is definitely rare and not something that horror fans see every day. The movie has a 30% Audience Score. The problem? Horror fans don't think that the first movie is a good example of the found footage genre and the sequel's story doesn't have a hook to keep audiences interested. In both cases, it's hard not to wish for a more original plot and characters who have distinct traits and motivations.
In the first movie, teenagers are putting on a play at their high school, which is haunted by the ghost of Charlie Grimille (Jesse Cross), a student who died while starring in the play years earlier. In the second film, Auna Rue (Ema Horvath) wants to be an actress, and when she becomes part of a viral video, she realizes that an evil ghost is haunting her. The first film was made for only $100,000 and grossed $42,964,410, according to Box Office Mojo, but it's fair to say that The Gallows: Act II is an unnecessary Blumhouse horror sequel.
When a found footage horror film is boring, it feels particularly tough to watch, as this storytelling device needs to be used in a careful and intelligent manner. While The Gallows uses found footage and The Gallows: Act II is told in a more traditional manner, both films still struggle with characters who audiences care about and premises that feel dull and like they have been done before. The idea of a play being haunted is nothing new at all. Macbeth is a famous example. If a movie is going to go there, it has to do something new and fresh, and The Gallows and The Gallows: Act II don't do that.
The Gallows: Act II isn't one of the most popular Blumhouse horror movies and it's not often mentioned in discussions about horror releases from the last few years. There just isn't anything about it that makes it stand out. It can also be considered one of the worst teen horror movies because it's lacking interesting characters, a concept that makes people want to keep watching, and perhaps most importantly of all, actual scares. Critics and fans were disappointed in the movie's use of jump scares as they don't work well here. Auna is a vlogger who wants to be famous online, which has been done so many times before that it's just not compelling.
The way that The Gallows: Act II connects to the first film is disappointing as well. The main character, Auna, starts learning about the play that killed Charlie and she wants to know more. She feels that it's an interesting and exciting mystery when really, it feels like she should be doing literally anything else with her time. It doesn't even make all that much sense that Auna would become that interested in this story, as it seems more likely that someone would simply shrug it off and move on with their life.
In order to succeed, a horror film needs to feel at least a little bit chilling and eerie. It also needs a main character who audiences like... and if they don't like them, then they need to be well-drawn enough that audiences know who they are and understand their motivations and reasons for their behavior. These elements are all missing here, resulting in a sequel that most felt was just as bad as the first movie. The villain, "The Hangman," is more perplexing than scary.
Fans tend to agree that the sequel also has one of the worst horror movie endings as it is meant to explain the events of both films but, instead, feels confusing, cheap, and not well-earned. The Gallows: Act II is definitely a horror sequel that people can avoid in favor of so many other better ones.