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5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Not bad, 26 April 2005
6/10
Author: HEFILM from French Polynesia

This film is finally coming out on DVD with awkwardly edited end credits to disguise how old it is. Despite its age no one has ever reviewed it or voted on it so it may have never really come out. (I'm writing this as of April 2005) A bed and breakfast is being haunted so the female owner has two guys come by to try to "de haunt" the place because no one will stay there. Jeff Rector is pretty good in the lead role of spiritualist one of his better performances. George Saunders is typically shallow.

The special effects are a bit uneven in spots but hold up pretty well over all and are certainly a break for the twitching jump cutting approach to ghost stories currently in vogue.

The transfer to video really dates the film more than any other elements other than maybe the music, but both of these elements lend a sort of vintage late night cable feel to the film that helps it.

Maybe it's nothing great but it sure seems like a whole movie and is better than a recent groaner like Darkness.

This is decent on all levels and worth a watch.

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5 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
S10 Reviews: The Black Gate (1995), 24 May 2005
5/10
Author: suspiria10 from The Void

Rebecca (Rebecca Kyler Downs) has sank her every dollar into a lovely bed & breakfast overlooking the sea on the California coast. Unfortunately for her although ideal, the place doesn't yield much in the way of customers because strange things occur and the guests don't usually last past a few hours. Cue up the ghost hunters Scott and Justin who are going to get to the bottom of the satanic ballyhoo going on.

"The Black Gate" is a potentially interesting film that echoes several others (The Uninvited. The Amityville Horror, etc.) but it really doesn't develop anything beyond the occasional "boo scare". The acting is decent but bland. No stand-outs due mostly to a under developed script and minor direction. You would think that with the close confines of the place that they could generate some tension but alas that is not the case. The music track doesn't help much either when most of the time it seems to disappear along with your interest.

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
How much worse could it get?, 29 June 2005
2/10
Author: Allyson King from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Unless you're the type, like my sister and I are, that likes to watch bad movies to laugh at, stay far away from this movie.

To begin with, the acting is horrible. But, then again, how can you convincingly kiss a ghost? She's dead, get over it! My favorite part was Richard's demonic growl. Now that inspires fear (maybe for small children and those weak of heart, but even then...).

Why hide the date of the film? To me, that seemed strange, to make it seem like a new movie, especially when the clothes and hairstyles are so dated.

I gave this movie a 2/10 just because it made me laugh.

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3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
It's linear, boring and uninteresting. Average., 13 August 2006
5/10
Author: siderite from Romania

The acting is mostly horrible. The lead is decent, though. The effects and editing are bad. The story is silly, with devil worshipers trying to "open the gate" to Hell and all that. The good guy is a psychic with knowledge of the occult and comes to fix the problem.

So, if you look at it differently, there is a problem with a door and they call in the mystical locksmith. With a lot of mambo jumbo that none of us, non technical people, would understand, he fixes the door and everybody goes back happy.

Am I joking? Not really. This movie is just as interesting as watching the locksmith fixing your front door and therefore I will stop here.

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3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Mostly bland, convoluted and soap-operatic, 29 April 2005
6/10
Author: Brandt Sponseller from New York City

Black Gate (aka The Darkening) is one of two thematically similar films I just watched back to back (the other being Devil's Harvest, 2003) that owe a strong debt to the classic "seaside haunted house films", ala Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), Lewis Allen's The Uninvited (1944) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz' The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947). They both mix a lot of semi-Satanic mythology with their relatively more hyperactive, modernized styles. Unfortunately, although Black Gate has promise, and there are positive elements, this was the bad film of the two, ending up with a 6, the equivalent of a "D" letter grade for me.

Rebecca Lacey (Rebecca Kyler Downs--her character's name seems like it should be an homage to Hitchcock's Rebecca, but as that's her real name, too, it might just be a coincidence) owns a struggling Bed & Breakfast on the California coast. It's struggling because it's haunted. Rebecca can barely get guests to stay for a few hours. As the film opens, we see an elderly couple experiencing poltergeist-like events, including a face stretching out of the wall similar to the famous poster/DVD cover art of Peter Jackson's The Frighteners (1996). They run out, never to be seen again.

Rebecca then calls in Scott Griffin (Jeff Rector) and his photographer assistant Justin Reid (George Saunders). Griffin is a self-styled "ghost chaser" who has written a book entitled Unknown Realms: A Psychic's View of Hauntings. Rebecca hopes he can solve her problem. While staying at the Bed & Breakfast, exploring and experiencing some events more typical of a haunting, Griffin comes across some occult items, including a box that's a gateway to a hell dimension--the titular Black Gate.

The chief problem with Black Gate seems to be the script by John Jones and Victoria Parker. That was disappointing to me, because although this may have been Parker's first film, Jones had previously penned Amityville 4 (aka Amityville: The Evil Escapes, 1989), which I loved, and Amityville 6 (aka Amityville 1992: It's About Time), which I haven't seen for some time, but I remember liking.

Here, the backstory is far too convoluted, which saps it of impact, and there are far too many non-sequiturs, such as the ridiculous romance that blossoms between Justin, who is a committed skeptic, and a female ghost, Katherine (Red Montgomery). The story lacks a definite arc--it feels more like a set of arbitrary events. The script is short, and the dénouement is way too long, but the ending is also somewhat abrupt and inexplicable. Additionally, the "ghost buster" functions of Scott and Justin are laughably shallow and amateurish, especially in light of the activities of groups like The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS), as portrayed in the excellent Sci-Fi Channel show "Ghost Hunters" (2004). Admittedly, some of these problems may have been due to director William Mesa (who has an extensive, impressive background in visual effects with his company Flash Film Works), but they seem like flaws in the script to me.

But Black Gate also has a number of admirable elements. The basic gist of the story has potential. Especially by referencing films like Rebecca and The Amityville Horror (1979), the groundwork for an effective haunted house flick is already extant, and the occult background material could have been intriguing. The performances aren't bad considering what the cast had to work with. Downs and Lyndis Durwin, as Maggie Stewart, were actually good, although Durwin doesn't have a very big part. There are some nice external shots of the sea, and I loved the surrealistic artificiality of the establishing shots of the house--Mesa created nice composite shots of the house with computer generated skies and geographic features in the background--but those are few and far between. However, the interiors left much to be desired, with their plain, stark white walls reflecting the blandness of the events that transpire. The cinematography is decent to good, but the extremely low budget that Mesa apparently had to work with does not allow him to excel at his niche--special effects. The effects in the film tend to have all the panache and impact of the average ghost scene on a weekday afternoon soap opera, which unfortunately carries over to the atmosphere of the film at large.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
best of the worst, 25 September 2008
1/10
Author: assassinblade from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Well to start this off...do NOT rent,films. The Black Gate is just a poor attempt at film making. Mesa is simply an awful director. Jeff Rectum spits out a dismal performance as "Scott" which reflects the past and present state of his career; no surprises there. What's truly surprising is the fact that the Black Gate is actually great entertainment. Well, that is if you love laughing at awful movies and hilarious "scary" scenes like my friends and I do. Of course, I'm still giving it a 1/10 because it's most likely the worst movie I've ever seen. All that being said, rent the movie or buy it off ebay for ~1 US dollar (yea, I'm serious) if you love cackling at awful actors and dreadful script writing.

I've viewed the film twice now and here are my picks for "Most Classic, Awful, Black Gate Scene(s)":

1) The beautiful shots of the ocean that are the only quality thing about the movie, which makes them awful. Speculation: 47% of the movie budget was spent getting such a vast array of oceanic shots. 2) The "Clown in the Attic" scene..."NO BATTERIES!" 3) Richard Locke's scenes, especially the one where he appears in a 1 second flashback and shouts "Gyahh!!!" 4) "Ghost Kiss"...self explanatory... 5) The sequence where the old caretaker is followed BY NOTHING and falls off a cliff because of NOTHING. 6) And finally (this Richard Locke scene deserves a number of its own) the scene where Richard Locke appears and runs up to Scott. Instead of striking him in any vital area, Locke decides he will just scratch at Scott's arm while wheezing "Ehhya! Ehhya! Ehhya!". Classic.

A message to anyone who has viewed the movie before: Any of you realize how poorly the time line in the movie fits together? If not re watch it. Almost every other scene is Justin sleeping. One poorly thought out sequence that comes to mind is the caretaker segment. I leave it to you all to figure out what's wrong with everything...it's not hard...Brooks knows what I'm talking about... :)

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Just Plain Bad, 24 September 2008
1/10
Author: BrooksRobinson05 from United States

Just a flat out bad movie.Awful acting and effects, and the stupid demon guy grunting and screaming just wasn't very scary. Very Low budget spent mostly on interesting shots of the Pacific Ocean and fake clouds, not very well thought out plot either because the time frame was just all messed up,awful pacing problems, too many shots of people sleeping cutting out of the story, the worst scene in the whole movie was the scene where the girl was running away from nothing and fell into a clearly fake spiderweb, with the camera spinning around in circles for no reason and then she tripped of a cliff. And the scene where Richard pretended to be an attractive demon and tried to seduce Scot was also a very bad piece of film making.

NOT VERY GOOD ONE OF THE WORST 1/10

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Great special effects but very bad plot and ending, 9 June 2006
4/10
Author: JMauder05 from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

OK, I pretty much just have a few questions because as far as what I understand...this plot makes little sense. First of all Catherine tells Justin that they loved each other in his past life but according to Maggie, the night of the dinner (when they met and also Catherine was killed) was only either 4 or 6 and a half years ago because she said she ran out of the house that night after coming back to explain to the husband that Catherine was telling the truth and then either 4 or 6 years later (can't remember which) Rebecca buys the house and she has only been living their for 6 months. So how does Justin have a past life from only 4 or 6 and a half years ago? Is there something I missed??? Also in the end (Spoiler)- Scott tells Rebecca in a mysterious way that he knows what she really brought him there for..What does he mean buy that because from what I saw she seriously only brought him there to get rid of the ghosts to rub a successful Bed and breakfast. Someone please help me to understand this because I am lost.

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Interesting portrayal of the real dark horrors of life, 25 May 2006
7/10
Author: gagnedd from Canada

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Since a movie has to be fairly interesting to keep me interested for several hours, I'll grant it a 7.

So far, most of the comments I have heard about this movie have been negative. However, having seen it in light of a more recent movie, The Skeleton Key, which I liked, I see a key thing that these movies have in common - they both delve into areas of life that we tend to shy away from or ignore. I didn't think either of these movies were particularly scary, but I wouldn't watch these movies looking for a scare. I would watch these movies for their interesting portrayal of the dark arts of life. While traditional horror movies create their own monsters, make up crazy rules for which a person will die, or just prey on childhood fears and ghost stories, movies like this attempt to create a glimpse into a more real form of horror. Every day some people believe in these dark beliefs, practice these dark religions, and perform these terrible rituals - these are the very people we like to pretend do not exist. Movies like this force us to look at our world and see that there are dark things going on around us and actually hiding in our shadows. This is perhaps the "real" horror story that we should be embracing rather than the cheap chills, willies, and screams that Hollywood sells us.

Secondly, I think the story of the "ghost chaser" serves as a warning of what it takes to fight the supernatural and the evil dark arts. One had better be prepared for all situations and be able to recognize evil from every angle, or else one could easily become a pawn of evil at the same time as one believes he is fighting it (e.g. see the last line of the movie - ask yourself what might have happened if he 'didn't know it'). Fighting dark evil is not for the feint of heart or the ill-prepared.

Perhaps the script kept true to the story to a fault. Maybe there should have been some more cool special affects, more music-induced tension, more ghosts jumping out at you, or even more research into realistic satanic rituals. However, I think the director did pretty good with what he had to work with.

7 out of 10. Thank you.

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Has it's moments, 28 April 2005
Author: Prolox from Canada

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

A Spiritualist & a Reporter spend some time with a young woman who owns a bed & breakfest that's haunted by unhappy spirits, hoping to get rid of them & resume business, she hires the two men to figure out what's going on which of course leads to ghostly visits & other supernatural attacks, until the lead hero of the film decides to exorcise the spirits trapped in the house but things don't go to easy. This is really nothing that you haven't seen before in about a zillion other supernatural thrillers that came before & after this one, but it does have it's moments, there are a few creepy scenes as well as good special effects, acting & music, but the film is too short & feels more like a made for TV movie. The ending is pretty good, but the first half just creeps along anticipating the next scare. Full marks for the music, acting & special effects, but rather less for the movie as a whole.

** stars

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