The Gate (1987)
It's a shame I didn't see this back when it came out as it's a Horror movie made for and from the eye line of kids and I think I'd have enjoyed it even more at an earlier age. If you're wanting to show your 10-year-old-ish children a scary movie (but not too scary with no gore) this Halloween, they'd love
'The Gate'. When their parents go away for a few days three kids are terrorised by ancient demonic beings that emerge from a hole in their garden. I liked Terry the mischievous Metal-head geek the best. 'The Gate' is an FX extravaganza but it's a victim of it's own brilliance because those FX are often so good they could look like nothing. It appears to be a modestly budgeted b-movie shot entirely in a simple suburban house but it was a huge production. For example, a simple close-up of some steps covering what seems like 6-feet square, was actually a huge forced perspective set filling a soundstage. Even when I could figure out how some of the shots were done, I still couldn't see any joins (in HD). I wasn't a bit surprised to learn that forced-perspective FX genius
Randall William Cook went on to work on
Peter Jackson's 'The Lord of the Rings'.
Oooh a vintage 35mm trailer:
Tremors (1990)
I consider
'Tremors' a rare candidate for a "perfect movie" and that starts with the tightly written script. It's a screenwriting masterclass, the opening scene where we meet out two heroes foreshadows everything you're about to see (including the way they will defeat the enemy at the end) and sets up their bickering character interplay immediately, then we get the classic 3-act structure and a host of other strong characters who are established invisibly as the narrative develops.
Kevin Bacon and
Fred Ward's Val and Earl are introduced like "Dumb and Dumber", failures in life talking about their unrealised potential and course they go on to be the leaders and come up with most of the good ideas. The whole film has a very positive view of people and community. 'Tremors' is sometimes compared to
'Jaws' (it was called "Land Sharks" at one point) but it doesn't have a cynical Mayor, or an insane Ahab fisherman, all the characters in 'Tremors' work together. The two survivalist gun-nuts, Burt and Heather, aren't portrayed like irrational, death-seeking loons who won't listen to reason from the others, like they could've been in a lesser movie. They are shown to be pleasant, well liked, respected members of the community, who have their own set of skills to bring to the team. I just saw the woeful
'Halloween Kills', which is a textbook case of how not to do this sort of a community fighting back against a killer being plot. On this re-watch (one of countless viewings) I was marvelling at the way the script often dissects the questions, problems and potential plot holes of it's outlandish premise not by exposition dumps but by showing us naturally and by us observing the characters piecing things together as events happen to them. 'Tremors' is an action/comedy/horror but it never confuses the three things, the laughs are huge but the threat is never made light of, the characters feel genuinely terrified. I always have a massive smile on my face after seeing 'Tremors', what a ride!
The latest Arrow Video 4K negative scan on the blu-ray is good but has some issues. The grading looks exactly how you'll remember it from being a VHS rental hit in the 90s but the pin-sharp detail undoes some of the formerly seamless FX. The live action could not look any better but some of the miniature FX has a slightly different look to the grain and sharpness. I'd have preferred a 35mm print transfer, the way this was intended to be seen. I ate up all the bonus features on the Arrow box set too.
Another fan-scan 35mm trailer!:
