Movies
The Gate
“Vaguely exploring tweener issues such as grief, peer pressure, and social embarrassment, it’s clear that The Gate intends to be more than just a forgettable kiddie horror flick. In fact, there are some moments early on, before the haunted tone gives way to screeching mayhem, that manage to tap directly into the fears of pre-adolescence. It’s a kid’s movie that somehow manages to be both raw and cheesy.”
It was 1987 and Satan was back in vogue. Following a 10-year period of relative seclusion, a sudden increase in reports of Satanic ritual abuse allowed the Dark Lord to come roaring back to the scene. It didn’t take long for Hollywood to pop a monster rod for demons, eagerly pumping R-rated Satan fare like Witchboard, Witchcraft, Night of the Demons, and 976-EVIL into movie theaters.
But hey, man, what about the children of 1987? Don’t they deserve a demon movie that they can relate to?
Director Tibor Takacs—the man behind Mansquito, Mega Snake, and two of the more popular Sabrina the Teenage Witch TV movies—proudly answered the call with The Gate, one of the rare PG-13 rated horror films from the late 80s, a period when studios were still tentatively test-driving the new MPAA rating.
Stephen “The Dorff” Dorff plays Glen, a 10-year-old boy who inadvertently opens a gate to hell while digging for pretty rocks in his backyard. With the help of his nerdy friend Terry and his big sis Alexandra, Dorff must find a way to close the gate before his absent parents return to town or the demons take over the universe, whichever comes first.
More than anything else, The Gate is a product of its own time. From the quaint 80s hobbies (model rockets were the shit, yo), to the well-lacquered cloud bangs (updated to meticulous crimp jobs for the big party scene), to the use of a Barbie doll as a stabbing weapon, it’s a movie that evokes wave after wave of soothing nostalgia.
The home-spun special effects were considered impressive at the time, but it’s important to remember that the horror cinema of the late 80s took place in a pre-digital no-man’s-land that vanished when films like 1990’sThe Abyss took the world by storm. Rather than relying on the lazy green-screen of its predecessors, The Gate’s special effects consist primarily of forced perspective shots (in the DVD Extras, Darby O’Gill and The Little People is cited as an influence), which work to fantastic effect in the scenes featuring the devil’s minions, little rubbery-bald creatures that bust out of hell to terrorize The Dorff and his posse. This attention to detail may explain why the minion scenes are frequently considered the most memorable of the film.
Vaguely exploring tweener issues such as grief, peer pressure, and social embarrassment, it’s clear that The Gate intends to be more than just a forgettable kiddie horror flick. In fact, there are some moments early on, before the haunted tone gives way to screeching mayhem, that manage to tap directly into the fears of pre-adolescence. It’s a kid’s movie that somehow manages to be both raw and cheesy.
DVD Extras: A Creatures/Effects doc, a Writer/Director doc, and a blurry trailer that gives away every single money shot from the movie.
A contemporary reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Herbert West: Reanimator is on the way, and Deadline has unveiled the first look at the new Herbert West and the pathologist drawn to his orbit.
The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallis.
Michael Grossman (“The Originals”, “Pretty Little Liars”) directs.
The new images introduce star Joseph Morgan (“Vampire Diaries“), who plays “brilliant surgeon and scientist Herbert West, who is obsessed with creating a serum to reanimate the dead.” Katie Cassidy (Speed Demon) stars opposite as the pathologist with a troubled past who joins his efforts.
Together, they prove that conquering death may be the ultimate sin against life itself.
The film’s official synopsis: “As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death. Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession.
“Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Supporting cast includes Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
Makeup artist Jeff Lewis (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and cousin Roger Lewis are heading the production via their newly established Woodlake Entertainment.
Lovecraft’s short story, first serialized in Home Brew magazine in 1922, is the first among his works to mention the fictional Miskatonic University. It was most famously adapted into a 1985 horror movie from Stuart Gordon, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West.
Herbert West: Reanimator is set in Alton, Illinois, where production is now underway.
Herbert West: Reanimator. Photo credit: Matt Lief Anderson
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