O Portão II: Eles Estão de Volta

Sequel to the surprisingly good first film boast the return of the original film's director, Tibor Takacs , and writer, Michael Nankin. However, this sequel is minus a before-he-was-famous Stephen Dorff and instead has supporting actor Louis Tripp taking over as the lead. He was a pretty funny supporting character in the original, playing the heavy metal nerd who accidentally opens a gate to hell in his friend's backyard by playing a metal album backwards and reading ancient words off of the album. This sequel picks up after the events of the first film, and Tripp and some new friends once again opens the titular gate to have the little demons do his bidding. As you'd expect, things don't go as planned and the new group of teens find themselves running for their lives and trying to figure out how to once again close the gate. This sequel features more stop motion special effects, as well as more monsters, which was a lot of fun. However, lost in this sequel is the childlike Steven Spielberg sensibility. The first film felt like a horror movie version of "E.T." "Explorers" or "The Goonies," but this sequel felt more like a straight horror movie. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but that was a strength of the original film. Overall, despite note being as good as the original, this sequel is well worth watching for fans of 80s horror films (even if "Gate 2" was released in 1990).

While this movie could have been much better, it is what you might expect for a low budget sequel to a b-movie.

With that being said, I think the film recalls enough of the charm that made the first a borderline cult classic to hold the interest of those who were fans of the original. One returning character, one returning plot line, one returning minion.

So for fans, its a nice hidden rental when your Netlflix Que runs low on must-sees, especially if there other fans out they're like me who didn't even know there was a sequel. I happened to be looking to rent the original and saw this as well. It sat at the bottom of my list for a while but finally I decided to give it a chance and while not blow away, I was satisfied enough by the nostalgic cheesiness this film provided.

Louis Tripp returns as Terry in this completely odd sequel to the surprisingly creepy The Gate. It's been a few years since the events of the last film where a crater leading straight to hell showed up in a suburban backyard and caused all kinds of nightmarish terror. Even after witnessing all the horror, Terry decides it's a good idea to try and bring hell back on earth, so he does a ceremony that's crashed by a few bullies who want to use the powers of hell for their own good.

It turns out that the creepy little minions from the previous film are a lot more harmless than originally thought and can be used for good if you know how to channel their energy correctly.

Gate II is a sort of confusing sequel that has a few inspired and creative moments here and there with some pretty decent effects to keep the viewer interested, but it's not a must see event for horror fans and it might have been best to leave The Gate as a stand alone movie.

While it never once achieves the pure creepiness of the original, this inevitable sequel to 'The Gate' is more palatable than one might expect. Michael Nankin and Tibor Takács (who wrote and the directed the first film) smartly take the material in a refreshing new direction here with a now older Terry willfully re-summoning the demons under the belief that he can manipulate them to grant wishes. The mythology driving this plot deviation is never too well explained, but there are several great moments as he manages to capture one such demon and keep it in a cage (the special effects for the creature are phenomenal). The film also manages to achieve lots of laughs thanks to some deft black comedy as it turns out that all the wishes the creature grants are only ever temporary. A French restaurant scene is especially funny as two bullies who have stolen the creature see their wishes turn inside out, one of them having to wipe away excrement that used to be money, while the other finds his face oozing like crazy - all this much to the bafflement of the posh restaurant staff. Unfortunately the film looses its way towards the end with an over-the-top ancient ritual battle/climax that lacks the subtlety of the film's earlier special effects; the upbeat ending is also terribly jarring. For the most part though, this is as wildly inventive a sequel as one could ever really hope for.

Gate II (1990)

** (out of 4)

This sequel tries to follow on from the original movie and now it features Terry (Louis Tripp) trying to close the doors that were originally opened. Things don't go as planned as soon he and three friends unleash the minions and two of them decide to try and get some wishes granted.

I must admit that I really wasn't expecting too much out of this sequel and especially since I wasn't overly thrilled with the original movie. There's no question that this film had a much smaller budget to work with and this is obvious during the special effects scenes. With that said, I really thought the movie was entertaining for what it was. Was it a masterpiece or an Oscar-winner? Of course not but it wasn't trying to be. I'm guessing fans of the original aren't fans of this one but for the most part I found it to be entertaining.

For me the best thing about the movie were the four lead characters and performances. I thought Tripp, Simon Reynolds, James Villemaire and Pamela Segall were all very good in their roles and I thought their performances helped make the film all the more entertaining. There's not always monsters or action on the screen so we needed the characters to keep us entertained and for the most part they did. I liked hanging out with them and felt they added to the entertainment value.

The special effects aren't as good as the first film but they are practical ones and for the most part they look good enough for this type of "B" movie. If you're expecting a lot of gore then you'll be disappointed because there isn't much, although there is a great sequence where one character begins to melt in a bathroom. With all of that being said, there's no question that the material wasn't the greatest and there certainly wasn't anything overly original here.

GATE 2 isn't a great movie or even a good one but it's pleasant enough and worth watching.