Movie Review: THE GATES

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: June 27th, 2023 / 12:46 AM

THE GATES movie poster | ©2023 101 Films/Trinity Creative Partnership

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: John Rhys-Davies, Michael Yare, Elena Delia, Richard Brake, David Pearse, Brian Fortune, Peter Coonan, Claire J. Loy, Matthew O’Brien, Tristan Heanue, Graeme Coughlan
Writers: Tim Reynolds & Stephen Hall, story by Tim Reynolds
Director: Stephen Hall
Distributor: 101 Films/Trinity Creative Partnership
Release Date: June 27, 2023 (digital, VOD)

THE GATES is only intermittently scary. However, with a tone somewhere between Hammer horror and MASTERPIECE THEATRE, it makes up in entertainment value what it may lack in fright.

We’re in 1880s England, where creepy serial killer William Colcott (Richard Brake) is terrorizing a bound female victim, with his wife’s corpse stashed nearby. We’re watching Colcott performing a ritual designed to resurrect his wife. The police interrupt, too late to save the victim, but before the ritual can take effect.

Colcott is sent to Bishop’s Gate Prison, the first place in the U.K. to try out the new American invention, the electric chair. Colcott, found guilty of the murders of twenty-eight women, is elected to be the first convict executed with the device.

Colcott is unafraid, and we can guess why. It takes two tries to kill him. His body is then temporarily stored in the prison morgue.

Enter “post-mortem photographer” Frederick Ladbroke (John Rhys-Davies) and his niece/assistant Emma Wickes (Elena Delia). Although they are more accustomed to photographing the recently deceased with family members, they’re happy to be paid to take pictures of Colcott’s corpse for the authorities.

After this task, Frederick and Emma visit the British Paranormal Society. Frederick and Emma have invented a device that they believe can tune into an electronic frequency used by spirits that can communicate with the living, when the frequency is recorded and played back.

The device, alas, doesn’t work at the Society presentation. But Emma sees something strange in the photos of Colcott, and the device functions after all. Frederick and Emma are keen to revisit the Gates to take more pictures and prove their theories.

Meanwhile, the death row prisoners are terrified, committing suicide in horrible ways before they can be executed. The prison chaplain, Father Matthews (David Pearse) is attacked by an unseen force that he claims is pure evil.

Finally, the prison’s chief guard John (Tristan Heanue) decides to bring in a medium – Lucian Abberton (Michael Yare), one of the members of the British Paranormal Society who has seen Frederick and Emma’s failed demonstration.

Lucian condescendingly views Frederick as an amateur out of his depth, and Frederick decides Lucian is a superstitious fraud. (Father Matthews views them both as blasphemous.) But they may have to join forces to fight the power that has been unleashed.

There’s a lot to like in THE GATES, starting with the fun horror concepts in the screenplay by Tim Reynolds & Stephen Hall, who directed, from Reynolds’s story. Frederick and Emma’s tech is an intriguing gizmo, and it’s also a pleasure having lead characters who are driven by passionate curiosity. Listening to them argue has the kind of snap we get from the more playful British detective series.

Then there’s the benefit of the estimable Rhys-Davies, so often cast in staunch supporting roles, getting to play a lead. Frederick gives him a lot to work with: pride, excitement, shame, regret, and fear. Yare and Delia are both excellent company, and Brake is as alarming as he ought to be.

Director Hall gets a good sense of period from the sets and props, and the dialogue and motivations seem appropriate.

British Victorian sci-fi/horror is having at least a mini-renaissance, and a satisfying one. Certainly, THE GATES and the recent FEAR THE INIVISIBLE MAN would make for a most enjoyable double bill.

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