While the first GALLOWS flick was a deeply average production about a cursed school play, this follow up is the pits. Our young, dumb heroine inadvertently finds herself the subject of a curse when she takes up amateur dramatics and a viral challenge; what follows is a succession of mindless jump scares in search of a plot. This lazily-written teen horror flick is in desperate need of interesting characters and one iota of originality, but you're not gonna find them here.

I didn't like the first feature. The photography was too poor. I didn't believe it deserved another one, yet here we are. Apparently the folks that made the film think highly of themselves. The Charlie Charlie pencil game is replaced by the "real" Charlie challenge, reading from the play, "The Gallows." Initially, the kid who read from it dies as did those around him. In the case of Auna Rue (Ema Horvath),it takes the entire film spanning days if not weeks. Auna imagines herself as an actress and goes to drama school where she excels when she reads from the play. But death stalks her, or at least Charlie with a rope in the bedroom. I didn't see the twist. In fact, they go to great lengths to disguise it. I thought the attempt at being clever took away from the feature. Sometimes less is more.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

Do you like eating the same bland food, day after day after day? Well, horror movies tend to be stuck in the same rut because they're cheap & easy to replicate. Thus our usual overdone hooks: 1. Attractive female soon to be victim, but 'till then there's a romantic guy hookup w/his studly tight rugby T. Acting was not very good, but consistent w/budget. 2. Returning from the dead is our shaky hand held camera to start us off, but thankfully mostly gone after a few minutes. 3. Another spirit being called from the dead & of course exacts revenge on the calling dummies, and of course needs a sacrifice to be put to rest (or is it? Probably Act III?) 4. Usual fleeting glimpses of something moving in the background (room or woods). Mirrors help. Usual moving person replica. 5. Usual creaking & haunts sound effects; usual sounds from the room ventilation; usual flying stuff. 6. Usual disappearing objects; usual doors opening/closing (wish my doors could do that). 7. Return of footprints showing up on the floor (spirit must sweat a lot). Positive thus extra star: Twisty ending (although not well developed or thought out),but some viewers might have guessed it.