The Gate

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler

Those little demons in Don't be Afraid of the Dark left me nostalgic for this film. A Genuine 80's kids horror film and a childhood favourite. This film is balls out awesome, filled with great freak out moments and has some of the greatest 80's Toronto teen fashion this side of Degrassi.

Randy Cook, visual effects supervisor on Lord of the Rings, was doing FX on this and they use every old-school trick in the book. Some truly wonderful work including some shots I have no idea how they could have pulled off back then. For the longest time I was convinced the only way most of the shots were possible was if they actually summoned real demons to help out with the filming. When I got the new Anniversary DVD, which has a nice shiny widescreen transfer and some behind the scenes extras and retrospective interviews, they were the first things I watched and the craft is fascinating. But they still don't give everything away there so there's still a few shots I'm just baffled by.

Little Stephen Dorff, who recently played one of the most enjoyable characters in Immortals is great as the young kid who unwittingly unleashes hell. I forgot how epic in scale the finale of this is and he really sells it all.

This is just a brilliant film to scare the crap out of kids, it really feels to me like something Amblin would have released if it just wasn't so dark. Avoid the dreary sequel but definitely seek out this forgotten gem. I love it dearly.