The videocassette market has spawned innumerable sequels to films of which no one has ever heard, and GATE II is one of them. That's not to say that Tibor Takacs's THE GATE is a bad movie; just that it's a very minor one that would hardly strike the average moviegoer as a likely candidate
for a sequel. After all, that 1987 release's only real asset was some imaginative special effects work, particularly a walking corpse that dissolved into a hoard of tiny, chattering demons. Cool enough to rent, though hardly compelling enough to get most people to shell out $7.50 at a movie
theater. Still, GATE II was made and received a limited theatrical release before joining its predecessor on video store shelves.
Young Terry (Louis Tripp) is going through a bad time. His alcoholic father has lost his job as a pilot, and Terry himself is a Grade A geek with few friends; as for the opposite sex, well, things are truly dismal in the teen romance department. But he has a plan. Everyone else dismisses the story
that some local kids opened up the gate of Hell in their backyard as nonsense; Terry knows better. With the help of a computer and a book of spells, Terry plans to reopen the gate and make a deal with the powers of darkness to improve his lot. His ceremony is interrupted by local toughs John
(James Villemaire) and Moe (Simon Reynolds), and John's not-so-tough girlfriend Liz (Pamela Segall). Like it or not, they're in it together when the incantation works and a tiny demon materializes.
At first, things go well. Terry wishes that his father would get his old job back, and it happens. Liz asks for a new car and the cash for a major shopping spree, and they're there. But soon it all goes terribly wrong. Terry's father is horribly injured in an on-the-job accident, the goods
dissolve into excrement, and John and Moe become possessed by demonic forces. Liz and Terry must team up to reverse the spell and close the Gate a second time, before chaos reigns on the earth. Not only do they manage to do so, but all the damage they've done is reversed--even the hamster Terry
sacrificed for the first ritual is brought back to life.
The virtues of THE GATE were modest, and those of GATE II are even more so. The little demon, a stop-motion creation that recalls the work of Ray Harryhausen (JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, CLASH OF THE TITANS and many, many others), is foremost among them, and played for more charm than the throng of
similar creatures in the first film. It's more a sprite than a monster, a mischievous imp that's forever being stuffed into bags and boxes and jars from which it invariably escapes and wreaks havoc. The demon is far and away the most interesting character in the film, utterly eclipsing the
stereotypical kids--with the exception of Terry's father, adults scarcely seem to exist. John is a bully, Moe a hanger-on, Liz a misunderstood girl whose bad exterior hides a good heart and Terry a smart misfit traumatized by the tyranny of teen society. Nothing new in that department.
The story is just an extended, updated riff on the fairy tale about the couple who get a limited number of wishes and employ them badly, finally using the last one to undo all the others and restore things to normal. There's a nice set of morals there about being careful what you wish for and not
getting anything for nothing, but who wants to be preached at by a low-budget horror movie? (Violence.) leave a comment
