The Doorway

A rather mild horror movie; if not for a couple of sex scenes, it could easily have been a TV movie. Plot holes abound (one example: why would there be a secret passage from the 18th century leading from the upper floor of a house that was burned to the ground and a new building put ther 200 years later?), cardboard acting, characters doing things that anyone with an IQ bigger than their shoe size wouldn't do...

It's got a few fun moments, but overall it's a sub-par film that managed to get Roy Scheider because his bills were due. If you're looking for an extremely formulaic, predictable film that might provide a few laughs, it might be worth watching. If not, then this one's not for you.

The words I would use to describe this movie are this movie scared the living heck out of me!It's hard to find a horror movie that actually scares you these days,and this one is a fine acception.People that make horror movies try to make it scary,but alot of times they do things that mess it up.I actually loved this movie,it was terrific,not only because it was scary,but everything else was great,too,the plot,the acting,ect.Teresa Depriest is great with her performance as Evilyn/Lydia.Lydia is a woman descended from a woman many,many centuries ago.They look excactly alike,one is evil,one is good.The people that made this film were succesful to make it great.This movie is definately a ten.

Roger Corman's New Concorde produced this reasonable little straight-to-video low-budget demon feature that wears its b-grade quality proudly. Usually these films know what their target is and keeps to its strength, and "The Doorway" does that. Honestly the thing that caught my eye in the first place other than Corman's name; was the name of a establish actor Roy Scheider. He might not make an appearance to about 30 minutes in, but when he does it's dependably good even if it's nothing more than merely a small, but important role to the scheme of things.

Four college students looking to make some money, head out to an old abandon Georgian mansion to make some renovation repairs. However after just settling in weird things begin to happen, and one of them finds a book explaining the original occupants curiously demented past involving devil worshiping cults involving orgies and death. Soon they realise they're not alone as there's a demonic force at work.

You want blood… you got it. Cheap jumps… that's a tick. Nudity… yes plenty to go around. Sex… of course with depraved passions let out. And how about creepy dolls… oh yes it's a win-win situation. Well that's what happens when the mansion you're working in has a carnal past and a doorway to hell in its cellar, expect you soul to be corrupted by the evil. One sequence involving the group dancing away to a song while they clean… was just the start of it and nobody had been possessed yet. How to combat it in a logically sense is to get in a professor of the superstitious field and maybe a descendant (a smoking Teresa DePriest) with a physic link, who luckily enough knows the professor and is there on the spot. What are the odds? What they came up against is a ghostly succubus and hideous looking demon. For its obvious budget restrictions the make-up FX and visual effects are decently executed by Robert Hall / Almost Human. Sometimes cheesy, but not terrible. Low rent sets standout, but it's well photographed with it catering a claustrophobic remoteness to its house-bound terror.

You could probably nit-pick the creaky narrative and find a whole lot of flaws, but what's the point. It did take on some different fabricated plot roots, but the ending was unfulfilled in the way they closed it off. One aspect that I could have done without the cheeky humour that filled the fashionable script. The performances are passable enough and Lauren Woodland is likable.

If you let it, there's fun to be had.

When a true Hollywood film nut asks "Why do they make B-class Horror movies?" the answer is: because people want to see them, of course.

But, why do people want to see them? The answer is quite simple:

1) Bad Acting: There is nothing better than drinking beer and watching untalented people pretend to act. This movie had some great bad actors. But, it also had some semi-decent actors. Don Maloney's character became really funny as the movie wore on (and bears an uncanny resemblance to Paul Giamatti, which may be why I thought him so hilarious).

2) Cheesy Special Effects: Fingernails growing out of fake hands. Makeup from the local Halloween store. Blood that shoots in direct squirt-gun streams. Blue screens of death. What more can you ask for? This film had it all!

3) The Plot: There's always two girls and two guys, the haunted house, and the resident paranormal expert. There are the excuses they make to keep themselves in the house (I mean, after having a severed hand feel you up in the shower, would you seriously stick around?). Again, this movie had it all.

4) Naked girls: This is probably the most important reason anyone would watch a B-movie. It's a guaranteed boob fest! I was only disappointed in that we never got to see Tammy in the buff. Oh well, there were plenty of others.

All in all, The Doorway was a great B-movie that had all the elements that us B-movie fans love.

I watch this movie a couple of time and i see a lot of mistakes in this movie, the part that Evelyn floating in the air, when she face to face with rick and the gang, it doesn't show her whole body floating in the air, half cut. on the lower part of the dress. you can barley see her sanding on something to make her look like she floating in the air, another scene, when evenly was trying to attack Tammy and Owen, in that scene when Evelyn try to go float after them,i think the actress was standing on a wagon to make look like she floating in the air, when she floating after Tammy and Owen, on the bottom right you can see a bald head man pop up half way, you don't see his face just the head, he was the one them pushing her in the movie to make it look like she was floating in the air, now that seen that, know i how they make looked like she was floating, LOL

I was hoping their was a part 2, reason why because to understand how Evelyn and Walter meet, this movie the doorway leave me with a lot of question???