Travis Cluff

  • The Gallows (2015)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, January 2022) I don’t necessarily object to teen horror movies, dumb premises, annoying protagonist or found-footage films by themselves, but blend those elements together and the result seems almost custom-made to exasperate. Beginning with a VHS-grade camcorder recording of a high-school theatrical play that goes horribly wrong when a teen actor is hanged for real (OK, who designed that set?), The Gallows does itself no favour by skipping ahead a few years and positing that the high school is putting together a revival of that very same fatal play. Seriously? Aren’t you just begging evil spirits to do their work at that point? But there’s even worse to come, since, as annoyingly chronicled through various handheld shots, the teenage characters are all as exasperating as they can be. There’s scarcely a difference to be made between protagonists and villains here, as they are all apparently as dumb as they can be while still passing their courses, and all blithely unconcerned about courting disaster with their new project. When they all start dying, well, it comes as a relief—the supernatural presence acting as a culler of the exasperating, cleaning house and leaving the school in marginally better shape once the caskets are buried. Yes, it takes a lot for me to cheer for the antagonist, but writers-directors Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing ensure that The Gallows handily earns that distinction within fifteen minutes of opening. Die, theatre students, die—and try not to leave a stain on the gallows so that it can be re-used. Because of course there’s a sequel… and it’s not any better.

  • Held (2020)

    Held (2020)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, November 2021) For the past few days, I’ve been overdosing on single-location horror films featuring a cast of a handful… so it’s not an exaggeration to say that I wasn’t particularly happy with Held, as it featured, once again, a minimal cast in a single house. The action gets going when a married couple on a last-ditch getaway wakes up to find themselves implanted with pain-causing implants, and led by a mysterious voice (and some electroshocks) through a sadistic couple’s therapy. Even the dullest viewers will notice that the “therapy,” especially at its bloody climax, only serves the husband’s interest — leading to an entirely expected third-act twist tying Held to The Stepford Wives. It’s not a terrible film — some images are quite nice, and there’s an effective element of set decoration (especially accompanying the twist) that shows that, from a technical perspective, the filmmakers are on to something. Alas, this is not always reflected elsewhere, and looking at the cast and crew does offer a clue: Of the three featured cast members, Jill Awbrey wrote the script, Travis Cluff co-directed and yet Bart Johnson is the most likable actor of the three of them. Awbrey’s lack of screen charisma aside, I’m very disappointed by her script — by the time the obvious twist is confirmed, the film stops making any effort as we default to the woman (an adulteress, the reasons for which are not really explored) being the plucky heroine in mortal danger and the husband flipping personalities to be a complete psychopath. (Plus, an infomercial to drive the point that, in this film’s reality, all men are complicit and no one ever notices women featuring rictuses of mortal terror.)  I can appreciate a good feminist thriller any day of the week, but you have to put some effort into it rather than lazily fall back on familiar genre tropes, and there’s a sense that Held is conceptually slapped together with clichés and received ideas that are never questioned. Even a better ending wouldn’t have excused the awkward first act, or the tediously repetitive second act. In the end, Held still manages to avoid complete failure, but it stays obnoxious in how it claims righteousness without earning it.

  • The Gallows Act II (2019)

    The Gallows Act II (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, October 2020) I barely remember anything about The Gallows, and chances are pretty good that I eventually won’t remember much about its sequel The Gallows Act II either. A soporific teenage horror film in which teenage drama club people battle a curse or something more directly dangerous, it’s hampered by the get-go from inferior execution from writers-directors Chris Lofing and Travis Cluff. It’s undistinguished throughout most of its running time (although, thankfully, it avoids the first film’s found-horror conceit)—familiar tropes used without vigour nor cleverness, wrapped in near-amateur filmmaking. There is a bit of a twist ending, but it’s the kind of twist ending that makes the entire film worse, as it makes a mockery of much of the plotting and throws the film into a confusion of genres that doesn’t serve it well. It also requires an implausible conspiracy, but you don’t need anything more to figure out that The Gallows Act II is not a good movie at all—it’s a blend of clichés with a dumb twist, the only thing worth remembering about being that it’s not worth remembering. No wonder it was held back from release by two years—even its producers were embarrassed about it.