Beyond the Gates

Beyond the Gates-360P

Beyond the Gates-480P

If you love horror, you must love the eighties. That's almost a given thing. Have you noticed how, recently, homages and references towards 80s horror aren't just used as a gimmick anymore? 80s throwback horror has now even become an entire sub genre on itself! The successful show "Stranger Things", and the remake of Stephen King's "It", are undoubtedly the most famous examples, but there are many other equally enjoyable but slightly more obscure titles as well, like "Summer of 84", "You might be the Killer" and "The Final Girls". "Beyond the Gates" also qualifies in this category, with a good old-fashioned video store setting, a phenomenally catchy synthesizer soundtrack and an authentic contemporary scream-queen in the shape of the wondrous Barbara Crampton. The plot can shortly, simply and aptly be described as an amalgam between "Jumanji" and "Hellraiser". Two estranged brothers gather in the abandoned video store of their missing father, and in the back room they stumble upon an interactive VHS + board game called "Beyond the Gates". The game's hostess, the still-ravishing Mrs. Crampton, addresses herself directly to the brothers via the screen, and they soon realize that playing the game will lead to solving the mystery of their father's disappearance. But, at what cost? I can safely say that I like "Beyond the Gates" a lot more than most people. I really dug the moody and borderline melancholic atmosphere, and the unknown (to me, at least) actress Bea Grant is terrific as the oldest brother's girlfriend. Admittedly, the film is heavily flawed. The pacing is incredibly slow, and particularly the first three quarters are very uneventful. Apart from the three main characters, and Barbara on TV, there are also very few supportive characters, so it's not too difficult to foretell who dies and who survives. But hey, the body count may be low, but at least they die spectacularly and quite gruesomely! Most of all, though, check out the soundtrack! Me, I left the DVD-menu playing for an additional two hours, just I could hear that great tune in the background.

Okay, not for the youngsters that are used to see horrors from nowadays. This one is just a throwback to the horrors of the early eighties and the late seventies. Not to be classified under slasher. That said some will leave this for what it is but for the old geeks it is still hard to watch it and I don't mean it in part of gore but it has a lot of talking going on especially in the beginning what makes it hard to watch and not to use the fast forward (no pun intended). It's towards the end like in those flicks from back then that the real horror comes in. I must say that some effects are ridiculously funny, not intended. Some do reveal that the head being smashed is a puppet. But others are well done too. The story wasn't my thing and I had problems with all the talking but knowing that it is a low budget I can dig it somehow. Nice to see Barbara Crampton (Re animator) back. Gore 1/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 1,5/5 Comedy 0/5

I regret watching this, there are no redeeming features, it's just awful. Bad acting, bad writing, bad camera work, bad bad bad. The store keeper's acting is so bad that he shouldn't be allowed to do community theatre.

I am a big horror movie fan. I've seen the best and now I've seen the worst. "Beyond The Gates" is arguably the worst movie I've ever seen. Unimaginative, utterly predictable, bad writing, bad acting, and if the actors were volunteers, I can imagine it being completed on a $1000 budget. If it was a high school AV project, I'd say it's an impressive effort. How it ended up on Netflix, I can't imagine. A total zero. It purports to be like Jumanji for adults, but falls short of any entertainment value. I was ready to turn it off by the time it was half over, but the friend I watched it with was curious-enough to see how it ended. "Curiosity killed the cat" pretty much sums up the entire plot line.

What a tedious, awful movie. No urgency in the characters' actions and the titular game requires very little skill or wit. The action is poorly choreographed and the dialogue is bland. The ending is simultaneously a relief and a disappointment. Avoid avoid avoid. Three highlights: 1. The "Weredad" poster. 2. The brother's best-friend's hairline. 3. The occult store owner's acting.

Now considering the fairly high rating some may argue I'm too harsh here. Which will come of as a surprise to a lot of people who have blamed me for the opposite thing. But while I can see a bit of charme here (old video store, some nerds, a couple of nice gimmicks), the movie is just plain bad. And not in a good sense either. Let's pretend you don't mind the simple nature of film quality (and I am putting it mildly here, and I also want to note that I didn't care about that, I guess you get used to it slowly if you don't fixate too much on it)! Let's also pretend the awful overacting is neither bothering you and you either like it or think it's so bad it's funny. You may roll your eyes on the cliché of a story, but also just go: Whatever, it's a Horror movie. If you succeeded to avoid experiencing any pain while watching, then congratulations. But I can not recommend this under any circumstances. Especially when there are way better movies for you to spend your time and money on

I saw this film at Frightfest 2016 in London and had to buy the DVD as soon as It was released. As a massive fan of 80s horror films this one hits all the right notes. Barbara Crampton (Re- Animator, You're Next etc) is brilliant as the otherworldly beauty in the VHS board game and the rest of the cast do an amazing job with the great script. There are a few things the film could have done better but it's so rare to see such a fun and entertaining horror these days that just wants to tell a good story. Any child of 80s cinema should pick this one up and will have a blast watching it!

I can't be the only person that could not even sit through this garbage. The worst horror movie of 2017 IMO. I can't even name something I liked about it. Sure, Barbara Crampton is in it, but she must be slumming it. Her role was so dumb it's unbelievable. I am sure she did her best but the quality wasn't there. The plot seemed cool but it was not done well, the actors don't seem to believe in their own dialogue, and the effects were beyond cheap. Maybe when other reviews say its fun and funny they mean because they think it's so bad it's good? Or maybe it's just got some good ratings from family and friends? I don't know but the good ratings convinced me to watch it and now I know they either confused this with a another movie or it was paid reviews. I don't trust IMDb anymore and I miss the message boards where you could find out more about a movie and more accurate reviews. I got a group of friends together to watch this.Not one of the 6 of us liked it. Dare I say it, we detested it. We shut it off. I saw one review say it was a slow burn. I wish I could burn it.