This
is to me what I imagine 'ET' is to most people. Two friends
accidentally open a portal to hell, and (with the help of an older
sister) must close it before a demon lord escapes into earth and ends
civilisation. No cutesy crap here, no sir. As a horror film for kids
'The Gate' works perfectly, but even when viewed again as an adult
it's still a decent flick, well acted and put together, and even
somewhat scary at times. The film really seems to understand it's
target audience, and doesn't fuck around with talking down to them at
any point. The film never has any concepts that are particularly hard
to grasp, but it doesn't spoon feed it's viewers, and there are lots
of plot points that are built up to pay later in the film.
Well
constructed then, but also well cast, with three great leads. Adults
are barely in the movie, so quality child actors are important, and
the film delivers. The script is also spot on for believable
dialogue, helping the kids seem like real kids (quite a rare thing
for cinema to achieve). The viewer will be able to identify with one
of them easily too - there's the older sister that's just starting to
go to parties and stuff, the younger brother who feels a mixture of
confusion and resentment about being abandoned by his sister so often
as well as an obsession with model rockets, and a slightly nerdy
friend who's very into rock music and who lives alone with his dad in
a messy house (guess which one was my favourite). I liked the depth of
character for each kid. The way that the nerdy kid isn't just a nerdy
kid, he likes rock too, and there's a reason he's a bit off. The
siblings don't just hate each other, they're just at a difficult time
in life and are struggling to express their love for one another.
It's all really sweet, and on top of that you have demons and a
surprising amount of gore and shock-scare visuals. What more could
you want, as a child?
The
entire film feels somewhat dreamlike, even before the demons enter
centre stage. I think this is because of the absence of the parents,
or any authority figures really. The house becomes this huge empty
space, filled with shadows and percolating mists. Both full of
opportunity and terror. This quality is used for fun at first, with
the digging up of crap and rocket launching and whatnot, but then the
absence of parents is twisted when the demons start showing up (the
dead mother turning into a dog corpse in the kid's arms, and the
other kid pushing his fingers into his father's face, before it falls
off and turns into a pile of steaming maggots, were both good
examples of this).
These
things aren't that scary to an adult, and it's difficult to review a
kid's movie for this reason. Just imagine being younger though - your
parents are your whole world of safety, and to have that twisted is
much more effective than twisting one of the many things an adult
relies on. Don't
get me wrong, I don't consider this a master piece, but it is a very
enjoyable film and I think hugely under appreciated. The huge range of
effects used deserve applauding too, and they hold up pretty well.
The Gate: 55.0