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      The Gate

      PG-13 Released May 15, 1987 1 hr. 25 min. Horror List
      40% 10 Reviews Tomatometer 45% 5,000+ Ratings Audience Score When Al (Christa Denton) and Glenn's (Stephen Dorff) parents (Deborah Grover, Scot Denton) leave town for the weekend, Al uses the opportunity to throw a party while little brother Glenn and his friend Terry (Louis Tripp) decide to explore a hole left by a tree-removal service in the backyard. When unexplainable phenomena begin occurring, Terry -- with the help of his extensive heavy-metal music collection -- comes to the conclusion that he and Glenn have accidentally opened a gateway to hell. Read More Read Less Watch on Fandango at Home Premiered Jan 16 Buy Now

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      Audience Reviews

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      Teddy B Imaginative, well-executed (especially some of the remarkable special effects for such a meager budget), and well-acted enough to distract from the lack of a consistently flowing story structure. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/07/24 Full Review David W An enjoyable 1980's light horror that's become something of a cult classic. Low budget but effective given that its primarily a horror for kids, staring kids. The young cast do well in the main and the effects are quite decent. It's not aged that badly all things considered. Think Goonies meets Stephen King. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 12/11/23 Full Review nick s The child actors weren't always believable, but I guess they're always a challenge. Great effort on special effects for the 80s. I suspect children would find this quite engaging. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 11/15/23 Full Review Stoner J I loved this movie as a kid, and after rewatching it now, I still think it's good. What's best about it are the little hoard of demons and we're done so well. The story is fantastic Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 10/05/23 Full Review Audience Member I remember watching this 14 years ago; not particularly frightening Harmless but not awful Crazy this was a young Stephen Dorff in his first feature role A cautionary tale of every parents worst nightmare: their child accidentally summons demonic creatures from the gates of hell from a satanic ritual It stars two best friends Glen and Terry Glen has his mom and dad and his sister Al Glen and his family move to a new house in a neighborhood, their tree in the backyard has been removed and leaves a hole They uncover a giant rock that glows when they crack it open Unbeknownst to everyone the hole is actually a gateway to the pits of hell and thanks to a ritual performed unintentionally demonic little creatures start crawling out Terry being a metal head discovers that his fav band actually got their music inspiration from reciting verses from The Dark Book or bible for demons Soon after making only 1 album they died mysteriously in a plane crash so the passages might be the key to sealing the gateway These creatures then make all kinds of trouble appearing as people, killing the family dog, and terrorizing these kids Interestingly the line, “Suck my nose until my head caves in,” won the award for the most confusing insult in the history of confusing insults but it does show that PG-13 rating The film is like 'Evil Dead' for little kids; more family friendly horror than delivering gore and all that other stuff praying on children's innocence It's also an excellent gateway into the genre for children The effects are dated but the practical stuff holds up particularly the demon puppets Yeah the story makes no sense and it takes 40 min to kick things off Stephen Dorff is really good in the movie next to Christa Denton and Louis Tripp though A pretty good viewing I gotta say and families can definitely watch together without scaring their young ones too much Rated 4 out of 5 stars 05/15/23 Full Review jonathan d A kids movie that passes the time. Nothing very scary about it but it was decently entertaining and had its moments. Decent for its time but has some pretty glaring cgi that can kill immersion. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Critics Reviews

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      Grant Watson Fiction Machine The poor scripting, the awkward performances, the synth musical score – it all feels so wonderfully, ridiculously ’80s. It is a bad movie, but an oddly fun one too. Rated: 5/10 Jan 10, 2024 Full Review Michael Heaton San Francisco Examiner Aside from the magic supplied by the smoke and mirror boys, The Gate has little to offer in the way of acting or writing. Rated: 1.5/4 Mar 29, 2023 Full Review Ángel Luis Inurria El Pais (Spain) The worst aspect is the scarcity of ideas. [Full Review in Spanish] Apr 22, 2020 Full Review Kat Hughes THN Essentially, The Gate is a horror version of Home Alone, and with the addition of Al's bratty friends (one of whom is played by The OC's Kelly Rowan), there's a nice amount of humour to balance out the scares. Rated: 3/5 Aug 23, 2018 Full Review Robert Martin Starburst Given the film's $2.5m budget it's incredible what was achieved here. Rated: 7/10 Feb 14, 2018 Full Review Felix Vasquez Jr. Cinema Crazed Like Lovecraft for the Goonies audience... Nov 1, 2014 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis When Al (Christa Denton) and Glenn's (Stephen Dorff) parents (Deborah Grover, Scot Denton) leave town for the weekend, Al uses the opportunity to throw a party while little brother Glenn and his friend Terry (Louis Tripp) decide to explore a hole left by a tree-removal service in the backyard. When unexplainable phenomena begin occurring, Terry -- with the help of his extensive heavy-metal music collection -- comes to the conclusion that he and Glenn have accidentally opened a gateway to hell.
      Director
      Tibor Takacs
      Executive Producer
      Robert Lantos
      Screenwriter
      Michael Nankin
      Distributor
      New Century Vista Film Company [us]
      Production Co
      New Century Entertainment Corporation, Alliance Entertainment, The Vista Organisation
      Rating
      PG-13
      Genre
      Horror
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Theaters)
      May 15, 1987, Original
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Oct 11, 2016
      Box Office (Gross USA)
      $11.9M
      Sound Mix
      Surround, Stereo
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