31 Days of Horror 2024 Day 27 The Gate

 

TITLE-The Gate

SOURCE-Vestron Video Blu Ray Steelbook

When I put this in to watch it after gettiing this release I was surprised cause I had seen this movie often back in the late 80s but remembered so little of it.

Back in the days before streaming and having 300 channels whenever I got a movie on VHS I kept it and watched it over and over. Had to be 88 and an Aunt had recorded a pile of movies off HBO for me. The Gate was one of them.

Our lead and his sister are preparing for their parents to be gone for a bit. The sister being in her mid teens is left in charge. 

A storm hits ripping down a tree in their backyard. The boy and his best friend ,a nerdy as hell metal head kid,end up bleeding into the hole and opening up this gate to Hell.

Crazy stuff starts happening. The family dog dies and the metal kid realizes his favorite metal album is some how coonnected to this hole/gate.

Ok this is one where if I hadn't seen it back when I was 13 or so I doubt I would givve a fuck about it now. It really is a 80s horror film that is aimed at the pre-teen/young teen audience. 

The FX work is the highlight. With the stop motion mini demons looking amazing. Then the big demon at the end is another stunning piece of practical FX work.

Being a Vestron Video release this is loaded with piles of extras. 2 commentaries an isolated score andd then interviews with so many people that worked on this film.

Glad I didn't drop the 30 or so this cost with it's first Blu release. And really 20 bucks for this steelbook feels a bit high to me.

The Gate gets a C.

31 Days of Horror Day 19 Decoys

Title-Decoys
Source-Sony Double Feature DVD

Back in 2008 or 2009 I was trying to find something to watch. Saw that SciFi Channel was airing something called Decoys. It looked like a Invasion of the Body Snatchers style sci fi horror hybrid so I turned it on.

After a few minutes I realized that the movie was gonna be heavily cut on Sci Fi. Cause I kept seeing lots of jarring cuts happening. Then the gorgeous Kim Poirier came on the screen.

I knew I had seen her in something before this but had no clue. Once the movie was over I went and looked up Ms Poirier up on IMDB. Turns out she played the semi slutty blonde in the Dawn of the Dead remake. And Decoys was her second movie,with American Psycho II being her first and Dawn of the Dead remake being her third.

After finishing the movie I saw that the sequel was airing next.But I now wanted to see both of them uncut. Checked Netflix and they didn't have either film for disc rental. The one video store we had left in town didn't have them for rent. And when I would search for them on Dish Network they only seemed to air on channels that would edit them. So I gave up on seeing the movie uncut.

Skip ahead to this past summer. A friend had realized she never watched any of the hundred or so DVDs she owned. She told me to come over and see if she had anything I wanted. I started digging and saw the DVD that had both Decoys films. And after almost a decade I finally got to see Decoys uncut.

The film's plot is pretty simple. A bunch of dopey guys learn that there is an alien invasion. These aliens look human but got piles of tentacles on the inside. Plus they seem to get sexually aroused by cold. And besides the language the only part cut out of the Sci Fi Channel airings was a short scene,that gets repeated a few times through out the film,were Kim Poirier and the other lady get naked. While it was nice to see Ms Poirier naked it didn't make the movie any better. We get a plot that has been done 100s of times before this. The acting is OK at best. Looking at the cast looks like most of them are Canadian TV actors. The FX work,which is mostly CGI,is ok. It is at the level you expect from a DTV early 2000s film.

Decoys gets a D+.