Incident at Raven's Gate

It was late one night and in effort to keep myself entertained, I decided to see what was on the On Demand menu. Zipping through the titles, I came across an obscure 1988 film called "Encounter at Raven's Gate". The plot description didn't say much, just something about aliens and the Australian Outback. Well, having seen the movie, I'm not sure I could even say that. The film begins with a police officer checking out an abandoned, seemly trashed house in the middle of no where who all of sudden gets jumped by a mysterious government scientist, who commandeers the officer into searching for the occupants of the house. From there, the film jumps back five days prior to Eddie Clearly, an ex-con working at his older brother's ranch and who seems to have a fancy for his brother's wife, Rachel. Naturally, this causes a little tension between Eddie and his brother, Richard. But they won't have time to dwell on that too long, for strange things are in the air. Soon birds start falling from the sky, water begins mysteriously drying up, strange radio problems start popping up, strange lights amid people disappearing, and most of all people and animals start acting more viciously all of a sudden.

One particular case of this is a police officer who holds a grudge against Eddie for some reason or another who murders the woman he's in love with but who's banging Eddie because she wouldn't go to the opera with him! What is the cause of all this? Is it due to aliens? Demons? Inter-dimensional beings? Some unknown natural phenomenon or cosmic event? Ultimately the movie never says, leaving the viewer in a frustrating state of what the hell just happened? In a way, though, this could be justified as trying to establish a truthful interpretation of the strange and unexplainable since most, if not all, of what is reported as unknown (UFOs, ghosts, strange creatures in the night, etc.) is, well, unknown. Despite the confusing state of things, the actors take their roles seriously which helps keeps the viewing engaged. Steven Vidler gives a solid performance as Eddie, as does Ritchie Singer as Eddie's brother Richard. The two do an excellent job of establishing tension between their two characters over the strange events and Rachel, played by Celine O'Leary. Furthermore, director Rolf de Heer should be credited with establishing a creepy atmosphere. So with all that said, how would I recommend this film? Well, if you're someone who wants a definite answer and conclusion, you probably want to stay away from this one. But if, on the other hand, you're someone who's up for something weird, wacky and a bit of a mind f--k, then check this out. The "X-files" always said "the truth is out there", but I'll be damned if I could find it here!

"Encounter at Raven's Gate" had potential to be an intriguing Australian entry in the sci-fi genre, but there are problems. One of the best features could have been the Australian outback scenery. Unfortunately the video quality of the VHS tape is so inferior that you are just trying to figure out what is going on, instead of marvelling at the cinematography. More than half are night scenes and are so dark that the images are the worst transfer I have ever seen. The movie is something about water shortages, growing plants, demonic possession, strange electrical charges, the sky raining dead birds, unexplained animal attacks, and makes little sense. - MERK

I'm not sure what to make of this film, or who to recommend it to. All I can say is I liked it, it was amazingly well made, and it definitely held my interest throughout the duration of its run time.

Visually, film has amazing composition. The cinematography and directing is striking. The audio is quite striking as well, like during the dog attack the sound of digiridoos (spelling?) blends with the dog's growling.

The film reminded me there are still many things in nature we do not completely understand yet. Some things seem to defy scientific explanation. Having just finished viewing this film for the first time, I could probably write a dozen pages about this film and how I interpret it. Someone else could do the same and our ideas might be quite different.

For one, this film is about is how every once in a while, whether you live in the city or the country, sometimes everybody's biggest problems can come to the surface all at once. In this film, the s--- hits the fan for several different people in the same place, but in different ways. There are no flat, one-dimensional characters here.

I don't want to muddle peoples' impressions of this film with comparisons to other movies. There is definitely some "X-Files" type stuff going on, and parts of it reminded me of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But in general this film is quite unique, and is virtually unknown in the United States.

There is no DVD available in NTSC Region 1, and the copy I watched was a dusty old VHS tape issued by HBO, I recently found it in the Sci-Fi section of the old, cluttered video store I work at. The cover looked interesting. Usually when I find a film made in certain foreign countries, I assume a lot of people there must have liked it if it a US distributor picked it up. Of course that is not always true, and thousands of great foreign films never get released here, while plenty of crap finds its way here thanks to the money hungry corporations monopolizing the distribution networks. But I've always had good luck with films from Australia, such as Chopper, Razorback, and The Last Wave.

I really hope this film gets a DVD release over here. I would love to view it with better picture quality. I am also curious to know if this film was big hit in Australia

An astro-physicist / government operative (Terry Camilleri) is sent to the tiny rural town of the title, to investigate a series of strange and tragic events. The movie goes back and forth from the present, to flashbacks showing what took place.

INCIDENT AT RAVEN'S GATE is a well-made Aussie science fiction-horror film. It's made more effective by giving us the stories of the characters involved, showing us their interactions and problems along the way. This way, we actually care what happens to them when it all hits the fan. There are some genuinely creepy and unsettling moments and the tension builds nicely.

Expect the unexpected...

an early film from rolf de heer (bad boy bubby, the tracker), it is also one of the most impressive pieces of visual art to be created in australia, and far superior to the majority of horror coming from the rest of the world. a tale of the human condition in the lonely mental wastelands of the australian outback, de heer succeeds in making us feel the insanity and discordance which lurks beneath the surface of country australian life for anybody who can no longer keep themselves sane through nature, sports or trips to the pub. far superior to picnic at hanging rock, this is a film that will truly creep you out and leave you thinking about what lurks outside. america has its backwoods, and australia has its outback.