The Gate

This is a movie I got to watch when I was younger, not in my kidlet years but in my teens, and then I've watched it a few more times over the years, so I thought I had a pretty good handle on what it was about. A kid with an active imagination discovers that a hole in his backyard where workmen tore out an old tree is actually a gate to hell and if he doesn't find a way to stop it, demons are going to use the gate to crawl into the world and take it over. That's what the movie is about, but I guess I forgot how cool it is. Young Stephen Dorff is a lot of fun to watch as he fumbles his way around, and his friendship with his best friend as well as his relationship with his sister (antagonistic at times but loving underneath) ring true and make the movie more intriguing. The special effects aren't very special, but I expected that, and they're not so bad that they detract from the fun of watching kids fend off some monsters (which would have been so awesome if I could have done it as a kid). this movie takes me back to the fun of trying to solve mysteries and fight imaginary evils in my childhood, so for all the fun memories it brings back, the movie is a keeper for me.