I'll tell you right away, I liked the movie. Very much so. Interest in the film increases with every five minutes. Events of the picture, although brilliant super originality, but the topic is quite fascinating. The gray background of the film is just right, because all the tension of this story just presses on the viewer, forcing them to stare at the screen, watching the dark and terrible actions of the characters of this film. The heavy musical background is screwed into this plot very competently, all those gloomy events to such music look more scary, but nevertheless quite beautiful.
Until people are convinced that aliens exist, a lot of films will be made on this topic. Everyone shoots in their own way and in their own genre. This is a fantastic drama with thriller elements. At least I think so. The relationships of the family members involved in the whole mystery are tense and even dangerous. Every step of the protagonist is questionable and is on a thin line. All this looks very exciting and the film flies unnoticed.
I can’t help but mention the film’s actors who played very well. Of course, Milo Ventimiglia stands out, whom many know for the role of Peter from the TV series Heroes, although he also has quite a lot of worthy works. His role as a farmer and father was well done. His ever-sad face mixed with horror grimaces is his thing. In general, it is very difficult to play in such a sullen and viscous film, because there is no reason to laugh a single gram and the whole weight of the role and the whole picture has to be transferred to actors who are not as masterful as their more starry colleagues. But second-rate actors did not destroy this film, but simply pushed into a worthy replenishment of the collection of films on alien subjects.
It is difficult to highlight something negative in the picture. When the movie hits me, I just don’t notice all the shoals that there are. But leave it to the critics. I consider this picture a magnificent sight and recommend to view all fans and fans of UFOs and other fiction. Do not wait for events and actions of the caliber Sea Battle or War of the Worlds. This spectacle is more calm, but at the same time damn addictive.
It was a very promising film, but it holds its 6 points firmly. In general, Milo’s game attracts attention with his non-linear serve. You don’t know what to expect from this character. The rest played linearly their types - a cop on the pickup, a special agent and the wife of a rural outcast.
Although viewers who have already watched all seasons of X-Files, Arrival, Body Snatchers, Something and more, this film is unlikely to surprise. But the special effects here are strong only at the end of the film. The beginning of the film was very cheap. And triggering a trap for the initial victim is generally ridiculous. There was a feeling that you start to watch some thrash about another maniac, but at the end the film gives heat.
Sometimes it was a shame that everything looked budgetary and gray at first. Although the truth is still not much to surprise the sophisticated. Although the movie looks good at the end, it could have been better. Especially after the "Secret Marerials" foreign guests turned out to be some one-sided growling and snorting. And again, these are the owners of high technology, who for some reason kill ordinary animals. In the end, I was hoping that the young cop and the dog would at least be replaced, but none of that happened. So the film was strong, but typical. Maybe a bigger budget would be better.
In the end, the film is worth one view, albeit worse than "The Signs." Just for Milo's game. Here he played brutally.
When I came across this movie, I thought it was another movie about the devil and exorcism, which I don’t really like. But the description did not confirm this. In short, sat down to watch:
FBI agent Francis arrives in the American outback to investigate the disappearance of Maria Pritchard and her son John. The main suspect is Maria Jackson’s husband. Together with the sheriff's deputy, the agent goes to the Pritchard house, around which traps are placed, and in the basement the owner of the house hides someone.
Gray tones, gloomy atmosphere, small town - I love this set. Add to this a good acting and a good musical accompaniment. Well, I couldn't stop making this movie. And he got it!
The events of the picture develop gradually, not flying at the speed of a steam locomotive, which is great. Slowly, the creators of the picture brought us to a fairly good conclusion, although during the film there was a feeling that the director would merge the ending, but no, the film ended well. Another story about the long-term presence of aliens on earth I consider successful.
Director Clay Staub is a debutant in the big movie both as a director and as a screenwriter. Congratulations to the aspiring director, he managed a rather smart fantastic thriller.
Actors.
Milo Ventimiglia, known mainly for the role of Peter Petrelli from the series Heroes, played very competently. However, full-length works with his participation are mainly successful: Pathology, Rocky Balboa, Cash collectors, Champagne Card, Separator. No complaints.
Bridget Regan played Ventimiglia's wife. Not to say that she failed, but what she did not show incomparable. I've never seen it before.
Amanda Schull, FBI agent Francis. Kind of like Regan. I played a little better, I haven’t seen it anywhere.
Sean Ashmore, Deputy Colt. Quite a famous person. I recently watched Acts of Violence with his participation, and I also remember the Wasteland, which came out a few years ago. After watching the filmography, he remembered him in Doomsday, and after that he himself remembered him in the X-Men as Bobby Drake. There are a lot of roles in Ashmore.
I didn’t expect another movie, but I liked it. I advise fans of dark fiction.
Obviously, having decided that films about evil aliens wanting to enslave our world, lately comes out a little bit, Clay Staub wrote the script and directed it “Devil’s Gate”. Well, films on this topic is really not enough, but to work out the idea to the end Staub, unfortunately, could not.
Daria Francis, a fined FBI agent, is sent to atone for sins in an unnamed fifth place in the world, where she is waiting for the case of a missing woman and her son. In the suspects - the husband of the disappeared, because statistics say that in 45% of cases it is the second half responsible for the crime against the spouses. A cursory examination of his home seems to confirm Daria’s version, but soon she will have to reconsider her views on the guilt of a man, and on the laws of the universe too.
The main idea of "Devil's Gate", frightening viewers for more than fifty years, in recent years unfairly bypassed, so the appearance of a film about aliens, replacing people, was only a matter of time. Alas, Clay Staub could not work it 100%, but in the conditions of a complete lack of competition in the genre, even what is looks quite good. For most of the film, the director manages to maintain a good intrigue, exploding two twists in a row. Not a total Mindfax, of course, but a pleasant sense of wonder is present. And considering that lately, one after another, I came across tapes generally unable to give any quality “unexpected turn”, the final scenes of “Devil’s Gate” were like a balm for the soul.
Unfortunately, if Staub handled the twists well, then the characters of the main characters and their motivation turned out to be a complete failure. In an effort to keep up with an hour and a half of timekeeping, Daria too quickly goes from the capital's schmuck to his maiden board, and her forced partner - local cop Conrad Salter - turned out to be some appendage of agent Francis, and not a full-fledged character. The sad thing is that even Daria herself notices its entire plane in one of the dialogues, which even looks ironic.
Special praise deserves the picture of the film. First of all, I am not talking about special effects, which are also present here, but do not represent anything outstanding, but about the work of the operator and the overall visual style. Almost all outdoor scenes are driven through sepia (or something close in spirit), which makes the exterior footage look depressing and hopeless, evocating an underlying anguish - in a good way. The interiors look slightly brighter, and depending on the context of what is happening on the screen, the picture gets a colder or warmer look. As for the camera work, it throughout the film pleases spectacular wide shots, and no signs of tremor at the cameraman was not noticed.
To caste, in general, do not want to find fault, but Amanda Schull, who played Daria, clearly could try at least a little harder. Sean Ashmore, that same appendage local cop, plays the way his character's depth and complexity deserves - almost nothing. The only felt line he says at the end of the film, all the rest of the time, something mulling under his nose. But Milo Ventimiglia shines, who played Jackson Pritchard, the husband of the missing woman: the actor coped perfectly with a relatively difficult role, and I was once again sorry that his star instantly rolled with the completion of the series “Heroes”. At the end of the film, Bridget Regan appeared in the frame, who played the missing, but eventually found his wife, and all 15 minutes of her time, the actress looked very worthy, sometimes even great.
“Devil’s Gate” turned out to be a secondary, but quite good fantastic thriller. And certainly too underrated. Yes, there is no deep morality or Emmerichian sweep, but the story is not bad, the picture is excellent, and the tape is quite able to help pass through an hour and a half of free time. On the other hand, if you miss, you will not lose anything.
You should not be stuck in the American hinterland, if you are not prepared for unforeseen situations of a very different nature. Seeming carefree town, may be the abode of a family of maniacs, turning random visitors into exhibits of the museum of wax figures. An ordinary summer camp, located near a crystal clear lake, is likely to serve as a hunting ground for an immortal maniac wielding a machete, and the Apalachian mountains, which do not descend from souvenir cards, are called a sadistic forest labyrinth, from which you can return home only with your feet forward. In the minds of urban people, the American outback has long been associated with an endless bloody nightmare, and this is facilitated by numerous television reports and newspaper reports, describing in detail the horrors faced by travelers who decided to temporarily change the comfortable conditions of their home to an alluring unpredictability. And since many provincial cities and villages are spread at a great distance from each other, it becomes much more difficult to maintain law and order in them. Thus, people remain at the mercy of themselves, which spurs periodic bursts of uncontrolled violence, feeding eerie urban legends. Of course, most of them are pure fiction, but this is only in the hands of filmmakers who are not averse to using the frightening flavor of the province, hiding a real intrigue. And the director Clay Staub fully took advantage of the audience’s fear of the outback, putting albeit quite prosaic, but attracting attention horror tape “Devil’s Gate”, which has a couple of moments in its asset, justifying the time spent watching.
So, the plot of the film takes place in a remote American town under the vividly speaking names Devil's Gate. The boring life of the local residents did not foreshadow anything unusual, when suddenly the police station received information that the wife and child of a certain Jackson Pritchard (Milo Ventimiglia) disappeared without a trace, and there are suspicions that something terrible could happen to them. Responding to the alarming message, FBI agent Daria Francis (Amanda Schull) and a police officer from the local department Conrad Salter (Sean Ashmore) go to the head of the family, as there are suspicions that he is involved in the disappearance of loved ones, and the closer the characters get to the separated house, the more the situation heats up. Around the house, law enforcement officers notice traps, and do not understand where the guy appeared with genuine fear in his eyes advises to bypass this place, as it hides a nightmare secret that can take innocent lives. However, it is the duty of Francis and Salter to get to the truth, no matter how terrible it may be. And once they step over the threshold of the building, they have to deal with far more than one suspicious Jackson, who turns out to be the lesser of evils. The house becomes the center of indescribable power, and if it is not stopped, it will be released and the number of innocent victims will grow exponentially. This is just the beginning.
Like any other ambitious debutant, breaking into a big movie from independent Canadian cinema, Clay Staub could not count on serious money and the scale of the shooting process, but at the same time he was one of the authors of the script of the film, which played in his favor. Simple in concept, the plot of “Devil’s Gate” with proper handling of the material had every chance to rise above the average level of template horrors, and the producers believed in Staub’s flair, giving him the opportunity to put what was conceived in his head. Moreover, “Devil’s Gate” interested Milo Ventimiglia and Sean Ashmore, who left a significant mark in major Hollywood projects and at the same time do not mind appearing in more modest crafts in which there is an opportunity to fully demonstrate their dramatic potential. In view of the existing inexperience, the director still could not avoid some logical inaccuracies, frank artistic and editing blunders, but it must be admitted that the work of the debutant was quite strong, although not phenomenal. Staub skillfully stirs up interest in the story, making viewers exhausted from the desire to find out what Jackson Pritchard is really hiding and why he is considered strange. Gradually, the story comes to explaining all the riddles, and even though they are not as resourceful as whipping up the main intrigue, the main thing here is still that the director managed to develop the plot without much loss of the quality of the story and after most of the secrets became reality.
Contented with very modest production capabilities, Clay Staub nevertheless managed to use computer graphics tools in his work and fully tested the nerves of makeup artists, who had to work hard to realize all nightmares at a high level. But no matter how worthy were the technical aspects of the production, it is worth admitting that for a confident performance of the picture, first of all, it is necessary to thank the director who managed to calm down the nervousness due to the debut and prove to everyone that he can hold the story firmly and not let it relax until the very last scene. I do not dispute that in some scenes Staub was unnecessarily carried away by twisting intrigue, which outplayed himself and dulled the sharpness of the tense atmosphere, but such moments in “Devil’s Gate” happened infrequently. And when one or another character begins to test the strength of his own instinct of self-preservation, then you begin to understand that despite all his creative ambitions, Staub still shoots a streaming film designed to interest potential buyers and viewers who want to spend their free time in an unassuming environment and frighten themselves a couple of times. And this tells us that Clay Staub perfectly understands all the laws of modern cinema, trying to dilute flashy ideological finds with what is guaranteed to give his work attention, not banning it in a dungeon where marginal masterpieces are collected for a select audience with specific views on art.
As for the acting, it was also very good, especially performed by Milo Ventimiglia. Once the actor had the opportunity to show us that behind his attractive appearance hides frightening demons, and it happened in the unforgettable “Severator”, raising brutal madness to the next level of credibility. Undoubtedly, the role in Devil’s Gate was much less pretentious, and yet Ventimiglia managed to attract attention, creating a suspicious and at the same time enticing image, through which the plot twisted and led us to an unequal confrontation with an enemy who is not going to forgive people’s mistakes. Some pale in comparison with Ventimiglia Amanda Schull and Sean Ashmore, but they are assigned much more mundane parties, designed to preserve in an environment of immense nightmare islands of common sense, excluding overly radical techniques.
In conclusion, I want to say that Devil’s Gates fully exploit the inhospitable glory of the American outback and demonstrate the undoubted talent of the director, which must be developed in the future. So prepare for a spectacle that causes tension and interest.
It is noteworthy, but the film "Devil's Gate" even had a chance to like - dark tones, an FBI agent and a deputy sheriff investigate the mysterious disappearance of a woman and her daughter, and their head of the family barricaded himself in the house with barbed wire and set traps waiting for something or someone. I strongly recommend not to watch the trailer of the film, because it will spoiler the main twist of this story, maybe if not for this moment – the tape would have had more to taste.
The authors of the film, in principle, unsuccessfully combined two concepts - religion and extraterrestrial, one can even say that they did not succeed in connecting the two categories at all. Crosses around the house, references to Scripture, but it is frankly difficult to catch how the owner of the house, who was preparing for the guests, connected one with another except for his primitive explanations to two law enforcement officers.
Also in the tape a sufficient number of blunders and editing gaps, when one dialogue implies one action, and the characters in the next scene behave as if the previous conversation did not happen at all. The special effects of the film are not the most squalid, but of course not of the level of Hollywood, so you should not expect anything impressive from a TV project like "Devil's Gate".
As a result, this film can be suitable for a one-time viewing, it did not turn out to be disgusting nonsense, but did not impress with its plot and production. If you are tolerant of TV horror and fiction, then maybe you will like this work much more. Although it is worth noting, the potential for a good development of the idea at the director still was.
A detective, fantastic thriller and horror movie turned out well, I did not expect this from the first directorial work of a certain Clay Staub, it is immediately clear that they invested enough in the movie. The film is very good, with good angles and lotions. In the film, a lot of good beginning talent actors, from the title characters to the actors of the second roles, all played perfectly and convincingly. The script begins as an ordinary detective in the case of a mysterious disappearance of people in a small town. Then, from the 35th minute, some kind of devilishness begins, the plot does not turn upside down and twists into something fantastically creepy and scary, with unexpected sharp nuances and fake moments. Visual and standard special effects are quite good and qualitatively implemented, alien creatures looked terrible. The music for the film played from dramatic to gloomy, tense and creepy. Towards the end, the dark truth of the past is suddenly revealed. The finale is logical and gloomy, sticking lies for the truth and the truth for the lie.
I loved the film in its genre.
7 out of 10
Fans of fiction, space and horror should appreciate.