Gate II: Return to the Nightmare

The Gate II: Trespassers starts two years after the events of the original & sees Terry Chandler (Louis Tripp) disillusioned & depressed with life, his mother has committed suicide, his father is distraught, lost his job & drinking heavily, oh & Terry still looks like a geek which doesn't help. The house from the original is now empty & boarded up & the temptation is too much for Terry who decides to reopen the gate & use it's powers to wish for a better life. As Terry begins the ritual three uninvited guests crash the party, John (James Villemaire) his girlfriend Liz (Pamela Adlon as Pamela Segall) & their friend Moe (Simon Reynolds) who all think it would be fun to stay & open an inter-dimensional portal full of demons, as you would. Terry completes the ritual & a small demon known as a 'Minion' appears, John shoots it but Terry rescues it, puts it in a jar & keeps it in his bedroom. Since the incident Terry & Liz have be seeing a lot of each other & together they discover that the Minion has the power to grant wishes which unfortunately literally turn to crap. John & Moe find out about the Minion & steal it, however it scratches them & they slowly begin to turn into demons from beyond the gate... This Candian production was directed by Tibor Takacs & while on one hand I didn't think too much of it it is not without some merits. I have to admit now that while I have seen it's predecessor The Gate (1987) it was when it originally hit cinemas 19 years ago so I can't remember anything about it & can't really compare it to this. The script by Michael Nankin is a bit on the slow side, contains little horror & maybe tries a bit too hard. It tries to develop it's character's beyond what it needs too, sometimes it's good to just let go & have lots of blood, slime & monsters, things which are sorely missed in The Gate II: Trespassers. The film seems rushed at times almost as if the filmmakers simply didn't know what to do, the awkward start where Terry seemingly want's to hold some sort of occult ritual for no apparent reason & John, Liz & Moe are introduced very abruptly while their motives for staying & taking part are thin to say the least. I also have to mention the ending which is truly hideous, everyone in The Gate II: Trespassers comes back to life. During Terry's funeral he jumps out of his coffin alive & well & himself, Liz & his father all walk off laughing like nothing ever happened. A horror film where not one single person dies or even harmed & one which goes out of it's way to make sure of it? Are you serious? Director Takacs does a good job & gives the film a nice atmosphere & look throughout but what was he thinking about with that sickeningly happy ending where people actually come back to life? Forget about any blood or gore as there isn't any, I can't remember a single drop of blood being spilt. There is one scene when someone face is covered in spots which begin to burst but that's it, needless to say very disappointing. Technically The Gate II: Trespassers is made with competence throughout & has nice production values. The special effects are mixed, some of the stop-motion animation especially on the Minion is very impressive while other effects work less well. The acting is pretty strong from everyone, maybe the best aspect of this film. The Gate II: Trespassers isn't anything that I would recommend but it does have a few decent ideas, some neat special effects & it's well made. It's just a shame the story is weak, flawed & just didn't interest me that much. Just about worth a watch if your desperate.

A really bad movie. It repeat some of the same things happened in 'The Gate' And this movie deserve a R rating. The Gate was only a PG-13 rating. The makers of this movie think they can make a better movie for making it more bloody then the first to give it the R rating instead of PG-13. Boy they're wrong instead they make a other piece of history trash. Avoid this movie at costs. This is a stinker. Rated: No Stars

Sadly, despite some decent creature effects ranging from an actor in a demon costume to old school stop-motion animation, Gate II offers very little to the viewer with it's sub-standard storyline and dull characters. One never really feels that the four teens are in that great a danger...and the low budget seems to have had a greater affect on the production this time around. A surprisingly disappointing sequel (considering that the 1987 original was so well done) that is recommended for the unwavering, die-hard Gate fan only. Gate II was filmed in 1989 but sat on the shelf for three years until the resolution of distribution problems earned it a limited (yet ultimately unsuccessful) theatrical release in 1992.

The Gate II is a very underrated film (4.3 on here seems harsh). It's extremely well made (for a low budget horror picture). It's got some excellent acting and the characters are not so stupid that you hate them all immediately. It's beautifully shot with dark scenes that are actually discernible (not all films can boast this). It's got some excellent FX by Randy Cook and his team, and the ending made me chuckle to myself for a while afterwards. There's also a post credits joke at the very end that made me smile. I preferred this sequel to the original and I'm discerning when it comes to films. Well worth a watch - it's enjoyable horror pulp - and deserves more credit for not being a worthless piece of trash, which most people expect it to be.

Okay, "The Gate" was a remotely interesting little film but we can't have too much of this silly child-horror nonsense now, can we? Part two is a thoroughly dull and unknown (with reason!) sequel that adds nothing at all. For no reason whatsoever, "star" of the original Louis Tripp (looking like an early version of Harry Potter) restarts digging in the monstrous demon-hole, and he discovers that the little critters inside have the power to fulfill wishes. So he and three other, very stupid teenagers eventually face the not-so-pleasant consequences of messing around with ancient demons. After an uneventful first half, the script becomes really ridiculous, with the male teens turning into demons themselves, trying to sacrifice the girl teen… Or something like that. The characters are lame, the dialogues sophomoric and – once again – director Tibor Takàks stupidly pretends that it's a serious horror film. Nothing to recommend here

this movie was slower than freakin' 12 Angry Men. but at least 12 Angry Men had a god damn story line or climax. I am confused, a little angry, bewildered to the brink of exhaustion, and want to punch the sequel in its face. The first movie was incredible! it had a creepy element and included interested effects and top notch gore. this one's blood drive is dry as a whistle and the effects seem to be used as filler. actually, the whole movie seems to be a bunch of filler strung together with little scenes with the cool little demon and the actor from the first one, just to try and keep our attention. and THE ENDING. the ending is like me saying that my entire life did not matter when I spent my entire life walking in circles and pulling on my crank. so... my mind is completely numb and bleeding. thank you GATE TWO!

The Gate II: Trespassers (1992) was a tired sequel to the sleeper video hit The Gate. That movie made enough money to warrant a sequel. But the distributors left this film sitting on the shelf for a few years. When it was finally released, nobody cared. The film as disappeared into obscurity ever since. The same director and as co-star from the first film return for the sequel. Louis Tripp reprises his role from part one. His life has continued to go south. His father has become a total drunk and he has no friends. He has moved on since the last movie. The death of his mother has greatly contributed to the decline in his father's health and job status. One day he reminisces to the dark power that he saw that came from The Gate. Will this depressed and desperate teen temper with the "black arts" one more time? I can see why this film sat on the shelf. They should have released it when they had the chance. But now it's too late. Many fans of the first film have moved on. Should have struck whilst the iron was still hot. Not recommended.

Obviously not learning his lesson from "The Gate", the young man from the first movie again opens a gateway to another dimension. This time he uses the power to get wishes, but the demons don't give you wishes for free, you know? (Obviously, he hadn't seen "Filthy McNasty" at this point.) While I would have liked to see Stephen Dorff return for this sequel (his absence is poorly explained), at least we are treated to Louis Tripp, who is just as geeky as ever (though no longer sporting the Angry Dwarfs jacket or rocking out to Sacrifyx). As I say in my introduction, he thinks that opening a gateway is a good idea... and brings along three people for the ride. A hot chick by early 1990s standards (Pamela Adlon) and two greasers. Some aspects of this film were really fun and I enjoyed it a lot. The demon (or "minion" to use their term) getting high and causing a serious car incident was nice, and the idea of wishes turning to feces gives a whole new twist to the idea of "wishes in one hand, poo in the other". I really liked the visual of a minion in the jar -- where can I get a pickled minion? And if the stop-motion technology is this advanced in 1992, where was it for "Basket Case"? (Granted, that was much earlier, but how hard could it be?) What I didn't like about the movie was how forced it seemed, how dull most of it was, and the fact that a fair amount of the plot just doesn't make any sense. Tripp knows how to conjure demons and how to send them back, but waits for the right climactic moment to do so instead of finishing the job right away (not unlike how James Bond's villains don't shoot him when they have the chance). For example, he creates a box that has to be thrown into a pit (like the ring that must be thrown into Mount Doom) but just waits until after his girlfriend is almost sacrificed to Satan. Why? The end is also really cheesy (but I won't say what it is, you'll have to rent this one from Netflix). Despite my feeling this is a shadow of the original, it was still entertaining and I would have gladly welcomed a third film. There's a certain mythology about this series that I enjoyed, and I would rather sit through something like this than a film of a similar idea that just has no sense of itself. While this movie is not a comedy, clearly the crew wanted to have fun and it shows. If you really liked the original, this is worth a view. Unlike other sequels, this has the same director and star, so the continuity is very decent (how many sequels spin off from the original intent -- "Leprechaun" comes to mind). If you thought the first one was "just alright", I'm willing to bet this will greatly disappoint you. But hey, a bad 1980s or early 1990s film is still better than the average film today, in my opinion.

source: Gate II: Return to the Nightmare

Trailer—The Gate II: Trespassers