Official Score = 3 Devils[/caption]I first started following Stephen Dorff's career back in the 1990s when I first saw Blade (1998) and since then I gotta say that I have been quite pleased with this guy's film career!
But you want to hear something interesting? It turns out that although I have started following Mr. Dorff's career since Blade... It turns out that Blade was not actually the first movie that I had seen with Mr. Dorff in it!
It turns out that the first movie of his that I had actually seen was, The Gate (1987)!
Written by: Michael Nankin (Midnight Madness) and Directed by: Tibor Takács (I, Madman). Starring: Stephen Dorff (Brake), Christa Denton (8 Million Ways To Die), and Louis Tripp (Detroit Rock City).
Have you ever seen a movie that you really enjoyed, but hadn't seen in so long that you literally forgot about it?
Well unfortunately, The Gate is definitely one of these movies, you see I first saw this movie in the late 80s with my Dad (and it scared the hell out of me then), I watched it again on Cable in the early 90s and I gotta say that I really enjoyed this movie for the following reasons:
1. This story is awesome! You see this movie tells the story of, 'Glenn' (Dorff) and his best friend, 'Terry' (Tripp), now you see, after a tree that was set in Glen's backyard is taken down, Glen and Terry find a large hulking rock, and eventually while digging a hole in the back yard the two of them find an underground cave!
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Terry (Louis Tripp) and Glen (Stephen Dorff) as they find something that will change everything![/caption]Now this rock is basically impenetrable... Of course that is until one night when Terry and Glen are stuck in Glen's room while Glen's sister, 'Al' (Denton) is having a party because their parents are gone!
Once they finally crack open the rock, they find a beautiful geode inside... The only problem is that the opening of the Geode, leads Glenn, Al, and Terry in to a series of events that are meant to end the world, and give the Earth back to the Demons that controlled the Earth before mankind took over the planet!
And it will be up to these kids to stop the apocalypse!
2. The next thing that I wanted to mention is that I personally thought the acting in this movie was a lot of fun, and I thought that it was great seeing a young Stephen Dorff at the beginning of his film career, in a horror movie role!
I also wanted to mention the work of Christa Denton (The Burning Bed). Now unfortunately this actress seemingly has disappeared since the early 1990s, but I first saw this woman and the work that she did in the movie, The Burning Bed (1984), and I gotta say that I really enjoyed the depth that she brought to her roles in both movies, and I also wanted to say that if she came back to Hollywood bringing what she brought back then, then I would continue being a huge fan of her work!
3. The next thing that I wanted to mention that I really liked about this movie, is the special effects. The 80s saw a major upswing in special effects and how special effects can really compliment a movie, and I gotta say that the people who created and animated the Demons in this movie did such a great job, that it was very well reminiscent of the work that Ray Harryhausen did for such classics as, The Goden Voyage Of Sinbad (1973)!
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Above left:work that Ray Harryhausen did for, The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad (1973). Abovie right is the work the effects crew did on,The Gate (1987)![/caption]
4. I also have to say this, although this movie is a little dated, it is a little dated in a great way that could be a fond walk down memory lane for those of us that were around in the 80s!
In the end, definitely one worth watching!
http://youtu.be/hXVPisw8IHQ
