Review by The_Void

Umberto Lenzi will always have a place on my list of favourite directors. His Eurocrime films are second to none; and the director also delivered a handful of brilliant Giallo's, as well as some classic films in other genres. However, towards the end of his career, it would seem that he stopped caring and thus began putting some of the worst rubbish to come out of Italy. With the exception of Welcome to Spring Break, Lenzi didn't make a single half decent film after Cannibal Ferox; and Gate of Hell does nothing to improve that record! The film fits into that whole 'hell on earth' "genre" which was made popular by Lucio Fulci's The Beyond in 1981. The plot focuses on a bunch of cave explorers that find a gate to hell under the Earth's crust, with disastrous(ly boring) results. Seriously, this has to be one of the very worst films of its kind - there's absolutely NOTHING of interest in the whole film. Not even the special effects offer any entertainment...not that the film is particularly gory anyway. It really does just drone on for the entire torturous running time and there's absolutely no reason to bother tracking this dross down.