The Black Gate

The Black Gate

2017

Directors- Guillaume Beylard, Fabrice Martin

Cast- Jeanne Dessart, Nicolas Couchet, Jonathan Raffin , Fabrice Martin, Antony Cinturino, Benjamin Combettes, Michel Coste, Patricia Flecher, Charles Gréa, Carl Laforêt, Jaques Langlois

From France

            

     Sarah and David (Jeanne Dessart and Nicolas Couchet) are orphaned siblings. They have an uncle, Simon, who was known to be a little weird and Sarah receives word from him that hints that he may know something about the death of their parents. They journey to the picturesque remote village where he lives to find out what he knows. They soon find out that not only is their uncle dead, they realize that he was involved in something sinister.      

           

      In his youth, Simon found an ancient grimoire in a cave. In the years since he had devoted his life to unraveling its mysteries. He discovers that he book holds the secret to opening a gate to a dark dimension. He opens that gate and evil cloaked entities pour through, killing the members of the town.

            

     Thrown into this mix is Jeff (Jonathan Raffin), one of a trio of murderous bandits that are on the lam after a heist in which they killed a cop. His two fellow thieves soon meet with grisly ends and Jeff has to strike an uneasy alliance with David and Sarah.

            

     Sarah decodes the mysteries of the grimoire and realizes that to close the gate they will have to do it on the other side. They journey to the other dimension filled with zombies and more of the mysterious cloaked beings.

           

     Even though this is French, not Italian, there seems to be a heavy Lucio Fulci influence. First there is the whole gate to hell theme as seen in his Gates ofHell trilogy. There is also a fascination with corpses with no eyes, and people getting their eyes gouged /poked out.  The zombies, in their design, are very Fulci-esque. And last but not least, we get some gross maggots (though not nearly as many as a Fulci film). I think a good way to characterize this film would be what if Lucio Fulci had made The Evil Dead.

           

      This is a low budget, independent film and the viewer needs to go in with that in mind. It’s made by people with limited experience and resources, but they make the most of what they have. Some of the action scenes look cheap but they obviously devoted their budget to the gore and make up effects which look as good as anything in any big budget film. The cinematography needed some help. It was too dark to see what was happening in some scenes and so bright it was distracting in others. Some of the individual scenes ,though, were well shot with interesting angles and colorful lighting.

           

     

     The movie doesn’t take itself too seriously. It is more interested with being entertaining than thoroughly realistic. David carries a samurai sword for most of the film and even after two viewings I can’t figure out where he got it. There is even a brief 80’s style montage complete with some hair metal in the background.

           

     I really liked the idea of traveling through the gate to the alternate dimension.  It reminded me of the sequel to the 80s movie,The Gate. If The Black Gate ever gets a sequel, I hope they explore this more.

           

      Over all, the movie has some forgivable flaws, but it’s gutsy and takes chances. And in my book that goes along way.