The Gate (1987)

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Posted By: brian@brianschell.com December 27, 2022

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Two kids dig up a gateway to Hell and let out some bad things. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a classic of the 1980s starring a very young Stephen Dorff in his first major role.

Synopsis

Glen comes home to an empty house. There’s food on the table, and the doors are open, but he’s all alone. He goes outside to his treehouse, but suddenly, lightning strikes the tree, and it collapses. BZZZZZ— He wakes up, hearing the loud chainsaw in the backyard. They are cutting up the old tree outside. The men outside remove the dead tree, roots and all. Glen finds a geode under where the tree used to be.

Later, he and his friend Terry dig under the sod for another and find a tunnel down there. Glen’s sister Al throws away a bunch of model rocket stuff. Weird moths come out of the tree-hole.

Later, Mom and Dad say they need to leave town for three days, and they grudgingly agree to leave Al in charge. Glen gets grounded for digging in the backyard. Glen says the hole in the yard is still freaking him out.

Al throws a party for all her friends as soon as the old folks are gone. While that’s going on, Glen and Terry work on cracking open their geode. They finally crack it, and it spits out purple smoke and is all lit up inside. It makes some kind of runes on a writing toy. They all try to levitate one of the guys in the party room with their minds. He’s too big, so they try with Glen. It gets out of control, and he hits the ceiling— it works. He gets upset, and the party ends.

That night, the moths on the windows spook Glen, and things in his room scare him. Terry, who is spending the night, sees his dead mother downstairs. After a while, he realizes he’s hugging the family dog, who is dead. The next day, Terry goes home; the dog was ancient anyway. Glen wants to call his parents about what happened, but Al forbids it. Terry recognizes the runes on his album artwork. That band knew all about the magic.

Al goes out with friends, leaving Glen home alone. He hears the bug zapper in the backyard going crazy, so he unplugs it. He then finds the hole in the backyard steaming— he filled it in a few days ago. Between the hole and the levitation, Terry thinks they have a case of demons. They cover the hole with remnants of the treehouse.

Terry shows the record lyrics that explain the ritual to open the gate— they read the words from the tablet. The hole, the levitation, the geode, and the sacrifice. At least they didn’t put a sacrifice in the hole, that would be bad. Meanwhile, Al’s boyfriend Eric is driving around town trying to find a pet mortician without much luck. He ends up sticking the dead dog in the nice big hole in the backyard.

Al comes home, and she buys Glen a new rocket. They launch it, and later, Glen finds the “Thunderbolt,” Al’s huge rocket. That night, Terry stays over again, and so do Al’s friends Lori and Linda. Glen reads the album notes and sees that the big demon has little minions to do his work for him. Meanwhile, downstairs, there are minions.

The moths break in through Glen’s bedroom window. Al goes inside to find the dead dog in a sleeping bag and two minion arms who try to pull Al under the bed. Everyone runs outside to find Mom and Dad, only it’s really not them, it’s demons in disguise.

The minions chase everyone around for a while. The telephone melts off the wall. They have to go into the basement to get the spell book, and it’s all creepy down there now. The album and book burst into flame. They decide to try a Bible instead. They go outside toward the gate, and Terry says that the demons need two human sacrifices before they can have Hell on earth. Hearing this, Lori and Linda go back inside.

As Terry reads from the Bible, the top blows off the hole, and purple light and wind come out. All the smoke starts rolling into the hole. Terry falls into the hole. Al and Glen help him while the subterranean minions try to pull him back. Eventually, they pull Terry out. They throw the Bible into the hole and it explodes— the hole burns and closes up. Problem solved!

Why is the hole still steaming? Al, Glen, and Terry go back inside, but where are Lori and Linda? Hiding in the closet! Everyone gets cleaned up and watches TV. Suddenly, a dead man pops out of their wall. That was from a story that Terry made up— it wasn’t even real! The dead man grabs Terry and takes him into the hole in the wall, which promptly seals up. Al hits the dead man with a boom box, and he breaks into a dozen minions.

Al tells Glen to get Dad’s gun, but first, Glen has to fight off a demon-possessed Terry. The dead man returns and, this time, takes Al. The demon only needs two human sacrifices, and he’s got both of them.

Something starts breaking through the floor. It’s another Hell-tunnel. Glen goes upstairs and grabs his rocket launcher and the “Thunderbolt.” He gets it ready to fire as minions and really bad sounds come up out of the hole. The big demon rises from the tunnel. It’s really something.

The demon takes Glen by the hand and then leaves. Glen looks at his hand; it now has an eye in its palm. Glen looks outside to see a huge cloud of smoke coming out of the hole, going way up in the sky. Glen grabs his rocket stuff again and assembles it near the hole.

The demon comes back up the hole, and Glen blasts it with the rocket. The demon sparkles and glows and explodes. The darkness outside fades, and the sun comes up. Glen returns inside the ruined house and finds Angus the dog, Terry, and Al, all alive again.

How are they going to explain the destroyed house to Mom and Dad?

Commentary

This is about as 80s as the 80s gets; never mind “Stranger Things,” this is the real deal. The special effects are not CGI; they’re practical, with stop-motion and animatronics that are really well done.

You can kill one of the Old Gods with a toy rocket? They aren’t very durable. Are they? None of the neighbors notices the Hell-tornado in the backyard?

It’s good. Maybe aimed a bit toward the younger horror fan, but it holds up pretty well.