Friday Night Nostalgia: The Gate
This has to be one of my favorite horror movies, and I remember the first time I watched it was when I was kid and I just randomly happened to catch it on TV. I think it was about 20 or 30 minutes in, but man it was just so damn awesome. Perhaps you might have seen this gem too. Take a look at the trailer on YouTube and see if any scenes look familiar.
So, yeah, The Gate. I guess I can start off by saying it’s also one of the most original and thoughtful horror movies that I’ve ever seen. And even though it’s from the 80’s, the special effects are still awesome as hell. A lot of forced perspective work is used here, and it’s certainly an admirable feat. Stop-motion was even used in some scenes too. Some may think it looks antiquated, but I think it looks great on monsters that are not of this world. Stop-motion gives movie monsters an unnatural look, and I think that’s the way it should be.
The plot is pretty original too. It’s basically a battle between good and evil after three kids open up a gate to hell in their backyard: Glen, his sister Alex, and his friend Terry. The whole thing kind of feels like one of the sleepovers you had as a kid where you would explore the house when it was dark and pretend everything was scary or there was a monster lurking around somewhere. I won’t explain the entire plot, but I love the way the tension rises and how things escalate from bad to good to worse. There’s a lot of little personal touches that give it a different feel from your typical horror movie. Give it a watch if you want to know what I mean.
If you’re any kind of horror fan, you owe it to yourself to watch this gem, or to watch it again if you saw it as a kid on cable TV. It’s totally worth it.
