Oh, to be an adolescent in the mid-1980s. I was only learning to walk at the time, but if nostalgia for something I really wasn’t present for (I’m looking at you, my entire generation) and movies I didn’t see in their original release have taught me anything, it’s that there has never been any finer time to be alive. Nearly all actions were accompanied by a score that sounds as if it’s coming out of a midi file, completely ridiculous pieces of logic go totally unscathed, and you could frequently find yourself battling monsters and demons for no other reason than that they were there (and defeat them; don’t forget that part). With all of that being the case, one would think that The Gate would be awesome, but it’s not. It takes pretty much all of the aforementioned elements and tries to combine them into something cool, but in the end, it’s merely that guy you know who says he likes what you like, but you can’t help but feel is doing so only to try and be your friend. It’s a nice effort, but also more than a little off putting.
Glen (a very young Stephen Dorff) is a fairly average American kid with few to no other distinguishing qualities (save perhaps that he has a preternatural fondness for model rocketry). He is awakened one morning to the sound of workmen’s chainsaws cutting up a fallen tree in his backyard. When he goes out to investigate, he sees that the tree has revealed a giant hole in the yard that reaches deep into the Earth. Not long after, his parents leave for several days, leaving him alone in the house with his sister Al (Christa Denton) and his best friend Terry (Louis Tripp), and fairly soon, mysterious occurrences begin. Through a strangely logical series of deductions, Glen and Terry determine that they have, in fact, opened the gate to hell, and must now do battle with the stop-motion creatures that have come out of it (which are actually very cool).
There are a number of problems integral to The Gate, and each of them have a corresponding success in another kid-themed horror film that was released the same year, The Monster Squad. While that movie was by no means any sort of masterpiece, it fully understood how to engage an audience in a story of kids fighting monsters. First of all, the kids have to be interesting, which Glen, unfortunately, is not. Dorff, though he went on to a much more successful career, simply doesn’t make much of an impression, nor does the role cry out for a more dynamic personality, which was probably a bad sign in the first place. In one of the opening scenes, when his sister is having a party at their house, he falls down during a levitation trick and cries in front of everyone. Monster Squad, on the other hand, featured a fat child screaming “Wolfman’s got nards!” I feel that this sort of speaks for itself.
The way in which both films deal with their own derivative nature also says a great deal. Monster Squad features kids fighting Dracula, the Wolfman, the Mummy, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon for no real reason whatsoever (save that it’s the cool thing to do), and never once makes anything resembling an apology for it. The Gate, however, samples from Poltergeist, Gremlins, and E.T. with a recklessness that would make Mac and Me blush. But with its premise about opening the gates of Hell (and nary an appearance of the devil), the movie seems to be covering its tracks. This hurts it, because by doing so, it only invites comparisons to those films, which are inevitably unfavorable. But with its scenes of terror towards the end that seem to be flirting with an R rating, it also inadvertently invites comparisons with The Monster Squad, which treated all of its well-staged battle scenes with the right degree of invention and humor, while The Gate seems to be asking to be taken completely seriously. Due to the fact that the hero of these scenes was observed running away crying from an embarrassing moment just over an hour ago, this is frankly impossible.
Maybe I’m being too mean to The Gate. It clearly never wanted to be anything brilliant, and if sold to the right people (those eight and under), it might hit the right note. But to anyone else (the people who would most likely buy this DVD), it can’t help but feel quaint and distinctly uninvolved.
DVD Bonus Features
The disc also has a feature-length commentary with Director Tiber Takacs, Writer Michael Nankin, and Special Effects Creator Randall William Cook. Then you'll find two documentaries "From Hell: The Creatures and Demons of The Gate" and "The Gatekeepers with Tibor Takacs and Michael Nankin", as well as the original theatrical trailer. Even if the movie doesn't suit your fancy (and it's possible that it may grow on me, although it hasn't yet), the presentation is good and (better yet) well-judged, with every bit feeling necessary without being exhaustive.
"The Gate: Monstrous Special Edition" is on sale October 6, 2009 and is rated PG13. Horror. Directed by Tibor Takács. Written by Michael Nankin. Starring Stephen Dorff, Christa Denton, Louis Tripp.
