Beyond the Gates

Two estranged brothers, Gordon (Graham Skipper) and John (Chase Williamson), reunite to liquidate the assets of their missing father's video store. As they sort out the contents of the shop, the brothers discover a strange old VHS board game—Beyond the Gates—that seems to have some connection with their dad's disappearance. Together with Gordon's girlfriend Margot (Brea Grant), they pop the game's tape into the player and are greeted by a mysterious woman (scream queen Barbara Crampton) who guides them through the horror that ensues.

Take the basic premise of Jumanji and give it a horror twist, and what you have is Beyond the Gates, except that Jumanji was, and still is, a whole lot of fun (despite some horribly dated CGI effects), whereas Beyond the Gates is a crushing bore for most of its running time, with long periods where absolutely nothing of interest occurs (the first 45 minutes are a real test of patience). About the only things the film has in its favour are a few decent gore effects (best being an exploding cranium), a cool synth score, and Grant's impressive rack (the actress wears a tight vest but fails to do a Crampton, keeping those puppies under wraps).

The film for me was really slow I was hoping for a horror type jumanji type board game and I just found the acting and story really lame. Halfway through I just stopped watching although it was on in the background. It maybe worth a watch for some But prepare for disappointment. The fist part starts out quite promising I love the old VHS stores and tenses me of being a kid myself, the creepy keyboard 80s style music was good and the images on google for the movie have a definite 80s vibe and i think that's what got me excited. With the lady from Heroes in the movie I expected it to be quite good with her being from a top show but found her to be really bland and boring . Could have been a good movie as the idea of a horror board game is one that excites me however the writers didn't do it justice nor did the actors in my opinion .

Okay, not for the youngsters that are used to see horrors from nowadays. This one is just a throwback to the horrors of the early eighties and the late seventies. Not to be classified under slasher.

That said some will leave this for what it is but for the old geeks it is still hard to watch it and I don't mean it in part of gore but it has a lot of talking going on especially in the beginning what makes it hard to watch and not to use the fast forward (no pun intended). It's towards the end like in those flicks from back then that the real horror comes in. I must say that some effects are ridiculously funny, not intended. Some do reveal that the head being smashed is a puppet. But others are well done too.

The story wasn't my thing and I had problems with all the talking but knowing that it is a low budget I can dig it somehow. Nice to see Barbara Crampton (Re animator) back.

Gore 1/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 1,5/5 Comedy 0/5

I really wanted to like this but I gave up with 30 minutes left. The acting and writing is horrible. The story is boring. The characters are bland.

Overall a not unwatchable effort, a story line with certain potential is littered with some enjoyable blood-fest elements. Unfortunately Beyond the Gates is marred by slow paced dialogue, between one dimensional characters, who all clunkily perform their way to the end. The issue here is that before anything begins to get going, you're likely to be half out of your mind with boredom. The 88 minute run time, which was reduced to about 80 after the exclusion of the opening and closing credits, still felt drawn out.

When things did get going, Beyond the Gates takes some particularly odd turns to create none too convincing or all that scary "monsters". In retrospect the film could well have borrowed more themes from greats such as Hellraiser and utilized them to bolster its own version of hell (assuming that's what the movie was trying to get at).

This may well appeal to die hard horror fans, but you're likely to be disappointed.