Chris Jordan reviews The Gate, where haunted houses, tiny monsters, and satanic heavy metal collide.
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| "If you play the record backwards, it sounds like a producer trying to talk you into signing on for at least two sequels." |
One of the most fun, deliciously cheesy
subgenres of '80s horror was the heavy metal fright flick: movies
themed around the idea that listening to metal will literally summon
the forces of hell to consume its hapless victims. This of course
originated with the rampant, senseless fears among parents of this
era that this type of music was corrupting their kids, as best
exemplified by the famous lawsuit brought against Ozzy Osbourne by
parents who claimed his music incited their child to commit suicide.
Some of the films of the Metal-Is-Evil subgenre made fun of this
outbreak of paranoia, while others played on the fears, but either
way, this minor movement in horror created some highly entertaining
films that are all the more fun because of how dated their cultural
sensibilities now seem. There is one movie that stands out quite distinctly from
the formula; one that blended this narrative format into a larger,
highly unlikely horror cocktail with insane results. The Gate
is a hybrid of heavy metal horror, post-Poltergeist surreal
haunted house thrills, and Gremlins-style
tiny monster action. And it's for kids, too; at least in
the same PG-13 way that The Monster Squad
is for kids. If you want to feel nostalgic watching the sort of genre
flick that you might have loved as a youth in the '80s or early-'90s,
this odd little gem is definitely one to add to your Halloween watch
list.
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| "Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and destroyer, The Crawling Chaos Nyarlathotep?"' |
The
mix of genre archetypes listed above really tells you everything you
need to know about the premise of The Gate.
Some kids open a portal to hell in their suburban back yard, and must
tame the occult powers of satanic heavy metal in order to fight off
tiny monsters and a barrage of strange supernatural manifestations.
The film really doesn't care about the hows and whys, it basically
just boils down to “portal to hell; crazy stuff happens for no
reason, because special effects are fun.” Honestly, what more do
you need? It's all pretty ridiculous, but it knows it's ridiculous
and has just enough sense of humor to make the viewer forgive the
willful absence of internal logic. Remember, this movie is basically
for late-1980s 13-year-olds who wanted more of the
just-barely-safe-for-kids craziness that Poltergeist gave
them; it's a target audience that honestly won't care why everything
is happening, as long as it's a lot of fun. And oh yes, it is a lot
of fun.
As
with many films like this, the special effects steal the show, with a
great mix of nostalgic and honestly quite impressive. There is some
very strong effects work present in The Gate
– particularly the excellent claymation used to bring the movie's
monsters to life. The off-the-wall nature of the story's supernatural
threat allows it to take pretty much any form, and we get an eclectic
variety of monsters, ghouls, and hallucinatory craziness that keeps
things interesting and unexpected. Writer Michael Nankin and director
Tibor Takacs brought some great imagination to this film, and Takacs
did an excellent job of realizing its ambitious visuals on what was
clearly a very well-utilized low budget. As little sense as its
supernatural twists and turns sometimes make, The Gate
thoroughly sweeps viewers along for the ride once it builds up
momentum. The expect-anything style is not unlike that of our earlier
31 Days of Hell selection Spookies,
and the results are just about as entertaining. Spookies
has the stronger and more varied
effects work of the two, but it must be said that The Gate
has the more cohesive and satisfying story; though that isn't
Spookies' fault so
much as the unfortunate narrative fallout of its notoriously troubled
production. Either way, fans of either of these two films should
definitely check out the other.
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| "No one should have to see the things I've had to..." |
The
child stars of The Gate do
a solid job with the material, giving us believable kid protagonists
who the film's target audience could relate to. Films like this are
often made or undone by whether their young stars can provide a
convincing vision of what children would do when faced with monsters
they have to fight, and these kids carry the script well. The main
character is none other than a young Stephen Dorff in his first
theatrical film role, and he actually gives a performance with more
emotion and sincerity than a few he would give as an adult. It's not
too surprising that this film would help launch his career as a child
actor.
The Gate is
a silly movie; there's no denying it. It's not trying to be
Poltergeist as we view
it as adults, it's trying to be like Poltergeist as
we first experienced it as kids. It isn't concerned about narrative
logic, just having a good time with supernatural craziness and cool
special effects. It's the sort of film that is best viewed with
nostalgia – either nostalgia for this specific movie if it's one
you grew up with, or for this era in horror cinema in general. If you
can watch it with that nostalgic mind-set, and put aside more cynical
grown-up viewing methods to enjoy the sheer fun of it, The
Gate is an awesome time-capsule;
the kind of movie that could only have been made in the 1980s.
Score:
-
Christopher S. Jordan
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