Open Wide - THE GATE

I’m a parent, and as a parent, I’ve been putting a lot of thought into the most essential task every parent must face.  Obviously, I’m talking about introducing my offspring to horror movies.  It’s a challenging endeavor.  Start off too lightweight and they can’t get invested.  Go too strong, they have nightmares, and your wife has another reason to kill you (your significant other's reactions may vary).  

Picking the right decade is key.  PG horror from the ‘70s—GRIZZLY, for example—is a poor choice as entry level horror.  “See Timmy, the big bad bear didn’t eat the little boy, it just tore his leg off.  As long as he gets quick medical care, there’s a good chance he won’t die of massive blood loss.” 

Go for the sweet spot, the ‘80s.  For my money, the '80s had the best balance of chills and adventure, nail-biting moments without the permanent psychological scars.  GREMLINS is the gold standard, of course, but along similar lines is the tale of innocent, preteen demon summoning gone wrong, 1987's THE GATE.

The Capsule:

Glen (Stephen Dorff) is going through a rough patch.  His older sister, Al (Christa Denton) wants to spend more time with her lame teen friends than with him.  His parents confiscated all his model rockets after a miscalculated launch almost sets the roof on fire.  His treehouse got demolished in a storm.  And now a gate to hell is opening in his backyard.  Luckily, his best friend, Terry (Louis Tripp), has the answer to closing the gate, thanks to his substantial understanding of heavy metal music.  Unluckily, Terry isn’t very good at incantations, and soon freaky little demons are prowling Glen’s house, looking for a couple of sacrifices to finish the ritual.  When the big boss demon wakes up, the only thing standing in the way of hell on Earth is one grounded 11 year old.

Man, I love THE GATE.  At the time it came out, it was just what I was looking for.  Though I had a taste for horror by then, it hadn’t grown into a full obsession.  I wasn’t too jaded to be insulted by the notion of PG-13 kid’s horror movie.  There’s nothing explicit about it, no gore or nudity, very little swearing.  You could call it wholesome, even.  Glen (lil’ Stephen Dorff, long before he tried to ice skate uphill as Deacon Frost in BLADE) is just a regular kid with a bowl cut.  Terry (lil’ Louis Tripp, back when his teeth were way too large for his tiny mouth) tries to be all metal and dark, but he’s still 100% a suburban dweeb.  Big sis Al initially seems to be gravitating towards the teen tropes of boys and booze, but her close relationship with Glen steers her back to Team Dork. All the wholesomeness works in the movie’s favor, because you don’t want to see these kids get hurt. 

Between all the demons, zombies, and beasties under the bed, there is no shortage of things to hurt them.  In addition to the standard monster movie scares,though, THE GATE also mines more relatable childhood fears, like abandonment, and not being able to protect those you care about.  Sometimes the anxieties are obvious, like the scene when Glen’s parents show up at a stressful moment.  The dad is all smiles when Glen runs up and hugs him, but then yells “You’ve been baaaad!” and starts to strangle the kid.  That is your first clue that it might not really be Glen’s real dad.  The next clue is when Glen pushes his fingers through his dad’s face and goo ruptures out like it was a month old jack-o-lantern.  I think we've all had this dream before.

Other times it can be subtle, like when the family picture Glen passes several times eventually changes to show the rest of his family as bloody corpses.  Glen notices, but chooses to keep it to himself.  Not a great morale booster.

The whole premise relies on some startling coincidences. Terry just so happens to own the super rare Sacrafyx double LP fold-out album with a booklet that describes the exact events that are about to happen, along with instructions to prevent the demon apocalypse.  It is also worth noting that on Terry’s wall covered in heavy metal posters and pentagrams is a lone Duran Duran poster.  I’m not certain this has anything to do with demonic visitations, though.

A lot of the plot conveniences could be chalked up to the mystical influences seeping out of the gate.  There is a higher—or lower—power at work, and each step of the rather lengthy and detailed gate opening ritual falls into place like a Rube Goldberg machine.  The kids first crack open the gate by digging out a geode.  When they take it back to Glen's room and crack it open (it’s filled with smoke and pink neon, as all things in the ‘80s were), it rolls over one of those old magic slate toys, etching an ancient incantation into the surface.  Glen dumbly reads it aloud, just like a kid's version of EVIL DEAD.  (There is also a nod to the Room 237 scene from THE SHINING, when Terry thinks he´s hugging his thought-to-be-dead mom, but it turns out to be Glen’s very dead sheepdog, Angus.)  

Eventually the visions and illusions give way to more physical threats, as a hoard of one foot tall demon minions crawl out of the gate.  I don’t want to be one of those guys who goes on and on about the virtues of practical effects, but this shit is pure magic.  The effects team used a combination of stop motion, guys in suits, and perfectly blended forced perspective to pull off some stunning creature work.  I challenge anyone who even remotely digs monsters not to fall in love with these ugly imp bastards.  

These nether realm half-pints aren’t much of a threat individually (their mouths are even smaller than Terry’s), but when they work as a group, they are full of surprises.  When Al knocks over a zombie workman, the body bursts into a half dozen minions when it hits the floor, like the monster version of kids stacked up under a trench coat pretending to be an adult.  It goes the other way too.  When one minion gets its arm stuck in a door, the arm falls off and breaks into a bunch of maggots that wiggle under the door.  To this day, these are some of the most inventive effects gags I've ever seen.  

Using such an ordinary kid like Glen as the main character really emphasizes the feeling of helplessness and insecurity.  Al is the brave one, taking the danger head on (she even shotguns a zombie).  Terry is the smart one, or at least the one with the ideas.  Glen is powerless to save them, and you can feel his desperation when he’s left all alone.  It’s almost like the demons purposefully ignored him because he’s not worth the effort.  And just when he gets a spark of hope of how he can stop the demons…oh, shit, time to meet the big guy.

I have loved a lot of monsters in my day (metaphorically), and THE GATE’s Demon Lord holds a special spot in my heart.  It is gorgeously modeled, the most impressive stop motion creature this side of Harryhausen.  The design is original and beautifully detailed.  Just as the minions seem believably tiny, the Demon Lord feels massive.  Glen has to be on the second level balcony to even come eye to eye with it.  Four eyes, in fact, six arms, two tentacles, and that’s just the part jutting out of the living room sized hole it rose from.  Who knows how much farther down its serpentine body goes?  

Its interaction with Glen always fascinated me.  The big guy is terrifying and awe inspiring, but it isn’t vicious.  More than anything, it seems to simply be curious when it noticed the petrified boy quaking before it.  It grabs Glen’s hand and dangles him in front of its face, studying him like it never saw a human before.  Then it gently places its hand on Glen’s head for a moment, lets go of him, and withdraws back into its pit. 

I was puzzled.  Had I misjudged this creature?  Did its fearsome appearance belie a deeper intelligence, simply wanting to communicate with humans?  Was there something—HOLY FUCK, IT STUCK AN EYE IN GLEN’S PALM!!!  Okay, so it’s not misunderstood, it’s just an asshole.  Sparing the weakest person just to be its supernatural snitch bitch in the human world  is a serious dick move.   

Glen has no intention of being a seeing eye-hand dog, though, and after an appropriate amount of screaming, he politely declines the Demon Lord’s offer by way of stabbing a shard of glass into his brand new palm peeper.  The big guy doesn't think much of this decision, and soon a very pissed off demon is on his way back up.

Like Terry’s handy demon guidebook, Glen’s plan to close the gate is a bit contrived, but it’s so well executed that I don´t care.  In this case, it’s a reverse Rube Goldberg.  Every time the kid thinks he’s ready, he has to fix another problem, with an enormous, angry-ass demon getting closer every second.  Director Tibor Takács ruthlessly teases out the climax for all it’s worth.  Sure, the solution makes zero sense when you think about it, but it fits the movie's fairy tale logic.

It all wraps up with a [Spoiler] happy ending.  Al and Terry return unharmed.  Glen even gets his dead dog back, but no longer dead.  This isn’t one of those “was it all a dream” cop outs where everything returns to normal, though.  Their house is still totally fucked up.  I don’t know how Glen and Al are going to explain the giant hole in their living room to their parents.  Guaranteed, it’s the last time they let Al babysit.   

So instead of starting your kiddo off with TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE or THE BABADOOK, ease them into bloody waters with something like THE GATE.  It's creepy, innovative fun that will teach them an important lesson: in an emergency, a Barbie doll leg makes an excellent eye gouger.  And also something about bravery or whatnot.  

C Chaka