THE GATE (1987)

Mediocre late 80’s supernatural horror that would have benefited from some gratuitous violence/gore and nudity. I saw THE GATE when it first came out and for all these years I’ve thought that the kid opened up the gate to Hell by backmasking a heavy metal album. That would have been awesome! But I was wrong, because the pit first opens up when a tree falls down. How...lame.

Anyway, so this hole opens up in a family's suburban backyard and nobody really thinks that it's strange that this large hole just showed up and keeps reappearing every time you fill it in. Random shit happens: a kid cuts himself near the hole; a intellectual disability dickneck buries a dead dog in the hole and BAM! Faster than you can say “HBO should discover Robert McCammon.” a bunch of ugly little minions start running around tearing up shit. They looked pretty menacing at first, but outside of the clawing up a door and unorganized your closet, they’re pretty harmless.  But I don’t think scary was what THE GATE was going for...hum…now that I think of it I have no idea what this movie is trying to do!  Still, even with the low budget and lack of action, THE GATE is an alright movie and a enjoyable time waster. You could definitely do worse. I think the reason this film has such a cult following now is because a lot of people saw it when they were kids.

Director Tibor Takacs went on to direct the smash hits MEGA SNAKE and MANSQUITO.

Part 2 - Gate 2: The Trespassers (1990)