Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		3.5

The Gate Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 23, 2017

Years ago two kids showed up at the door of a house I was renting and announced that they were “amateur archaeologists” and wanted to know if they could dig for treasures in the back yard. Not seeing any harm in it all, I gave them permission, only to be a little shocked when I looked out just a little while later to see that they had actually managed to dig a rather sizable pit, one probably at least five or six feet deep. They were thrilled that even this “little” excavation had unearthed an old glass bottle, and they wanted to expand their investigation. With thoughts of an angry landlord in mind, I put the kibosh on any further exploration, but the fact that after just a few minutes these two intrepid history buffs were able to find something that they at least treasured is a perhaps fitting example of just how much stuff is buried beneath the dirt and grasses that we traipse over daily. Luckily these two young boys weren’t like the kids in The Gate, for when a lightning strike upends a mammoth tree in the yard of Glen (Stephen Dorff), a gaping hole is left, one that ends up being, well, a gate to a demonic realm. Glen, his buddy Terry (Louis Tripp) and Glen’s older sister Alexandra (Christa Denton) are then left to face the consequences since in true horror movie fashion the parental units have left, putting Alexandra (who goes by Al) in charge. The Gate has some really fun special effects that help to elevate it a bit, though its general ambience is kind of lo-fi and almost intentionally B-movie like, but interestingly at least a couple of its ideas and/or images were later recycled in higher profile films.

The Gate is one of those films that depends on a seemingly endless supply of really stupid behaviors on the part of the various kids involved in order for the different types of mayhem to be unleashed. The film begins with a probably needless dream (nightmare?) sequence that quickly establishes Glen’s somewhat fraught state of mind. But after a huge tree is felled in a storm (evidently in real life as well as in a dream), Glen and Terry make their first mistake by deciding to dig out the hole that was initially left by the tree but which had been filled in by the work crew. That decision is perhaps understandable since Glen discovered a rather huge geode in the wake of the tree’s demise, one that brings visions of riches to Terry’s mind, especially if even bigger geodes can be unearthed.

A number of interstitial stupidities intervene, including not one but several incantations and perhaps even a hint of a blood sacrifice of sorts, all leading to the unleashing of a variety of demonic forces that suddenly assault Glen, Alexandra and Terry, as well as a bunch of other teens that Alexandra has invited over to the house for a party, in time honored tradition of what teenagers left in charge of their parents’ house do when the parents depart. There are a number of narrative lurches at play in The Gate, with the onslaught of both little and big baddies probably never sufficiently explained, a tendency that extends to other fanciful and admittedly effective elements, like a figure supposedly stuck behind the wallpaper (later used spookily in Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners) or even an eyeball that suddenly appears in the palm of a hand (later used spookily in Guillermo del Toro’s Pan's Labyrinth).

If the actual story never makes a whale of a lot of sense, The Gate derives consistent energy from some really fun, if now kind of quaint looking, special effects. As is exceedingly well documented in a bounteous series of supplements included on this release, the crew, while working on a pretty limited budget, were all seemingly incredibly enthused about the project, and that enthusiasm shows in a variety of techniques that while “old school” now provide the film with some memorable images. Performances are a little iffy now and then, due more to the performers’ ages than anything, but some of the terror on display is relatively real feeling. Kind of interestingly, one of the more disturbing things that occurs in the film has nothing to do with the variety of entities that attack the kids, but instead the more “mundane” fate of a family pet.

The Gate Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Gate is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Film's Vestron Video imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This is a somewhat variable looking transfer, one that has generally decent color saturation and good detail levels in some of the (relatively few) brightly lit outdoor sequences (especially in the film's early going). However, the vast bulk of this film takes place inside various environments (including the underground lair), and often at night or in the dark, and detail levels are understandably suppressed pretty regularly in these sequences. Due to the various special effects techniques on display, including stop motion, grain structure is also variant at times, though generally speaking the grain field resolves naturally. A lot of the darker moments don't offer much support for an already kind of wan palette, one that might have used a bit of color correction, since flesh tones are sometimes a bit brown and the entire look of the film doesn't really pop with much force. There's some noticeable wobble during the credits, something that may indicate an older master, or at least one that hasn't undergone serious restoration. I've scored this at 3.0 to temper expectations appropriately, but my hunch is fans of the film will probably be generally pleased with the presentation here.

The Gate Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There's some surprising low end on The Gate's DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track, one that finds regular rumbly force in some of the score by Michael Hoenig and J. Peter Robinson. (It's kind of fascinating to hear the composers reference composers like Stockhausen or even Terry Riley in their interview included on this release, since their score is pretty resolutely 80s horror synth material.) There are some fun if patently goofy sound effects, including "echo-ey" reverb in some POV shots up from the underground lair toward the boys looking down from above, as well as both the chatter and pitter patter of the littlest demons. The cataclysmic finale gets a little busy sounding at times, but generally speaking dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly and is well prioritized.

The Gate Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director Tibor Takacs, Writer Michael Nankin, and Special Effects Designer and Supervisor Randall William Cook


• Audio Commentary with Special Effects Designer and Supervisor Randall William Cook, Special Make Up Effects Artist Craig Reardon, Special Effects Artist Frank Carere and Matte Photographer Bill Taylor


• Isolated Score and Audio Interview with Composers Michael Hoenig and J. Peter Robinson


• The Gate: Unlocked (1080p; 27:54) is a fun retrospective with some good interviews with Tibor Takacs and Randall William Cook among others.


• Minion Maker (1080p; 22:36) is an appealing interview with Craig Reardon.


• From Hell It Came (1080p; 13:13) features producer Andras Hamori.


• The Workman Speaks! (1080p; 12:12) features Carl Kraines.


• Made in Canada (1080p; 28:28) documents the film's Toronto shoot with some interviews with locally based cast and crew.


• From Hell: The Creatures and Demons of The Gate (1080p; 14:53) features a number of good interviews which get into some of the appeal of horror films and the SFX of this film.


• The Gatekeepers (1080p; 15:46) features some good interviews with writer Michael Nankin.


• Making of The Gate (1080i; 22:55) is an older archival piece sourced from some pretty rough looking video.


• Teaser Trailer (1080i; 1:08)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:50)


• TV Spot (1080i; 00:32)


• Storyboard Gallery (1080p; 9:27)


• Behind the Scenes Gallery (1080p; 10:20)

The Gate Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Gate is a whirlwind of some really fun effects sequences, and those sequences give the film an enjoyable energy that the film's kind of haphazard story telling never really does. There's so much going wrong in Glen's world that it almost becomes comical after a while, and in fact some horror fans probably will be prone to giggle at the hordes of little demons overtaking the family home. This release has some variable video, but audio sounds great and this is probably the most stuffed to the gills assortment of supplements that Lionsgate's Vestron Video imprint has offered yet, something that in and of itself may make this more of a "must have" for some fans. Recommended.