User reviews

I must admit that I picked up the 2019 horror mystery "Gates of Darkness" as I saw the cover. And when I saw that both Tobin Bell and John Savage was on the cast list, of course I sat down to watch director Don E. FauntLeRoy's 2019 movie.

And while I did manage to sit through the entire movie, then writers Robert Hickman, Lesley-Anne Down, Chris Kanik and Randolf Turrow just didn't collectively manage to write an overly interesting or compelling storyline. Sure, it was watchable, but this movie was hardly an outstanding foray into the demonic possession and exorcism subgenre of horror movies.

It felt like the writers were trying to accomplish more than they were capable of delivering, and it definitely felt like they tried to cram everything that worked in previous demonic possession and exorcism movies into one movie, and that would be "Gates of Darkness". Yeah, well the movie just didn't really play out that way.

In fact, the storyline in the movie felt forced, wooden and as it was lacking a natural fluidity to it. It felt staged and awkward actually. And this reflected poorly on the actors and actresses, as they were struggling with an inferior script and storyline. And the fact that the character gallery in the movie was pretty weak didn't exactly boost their chances of delivering something grand either.

Now, it should be said that "Gates of Darkness" actually have a rather good ensemble of actors and actresses on the cast list, which includes the likes of Tobin Bell, John Savage, Adrienne Barbeau, Lesley-Anne Down and Mary Mouser. Just a shame that they had so very little to work with in terms of script, story and characters.

Visually then "Gates of Darkness" had nothing grand to offer. There weren't exactly an abundance of special effects or CGI effects in the movie. And whatever were there served their purpose well enough, but don't expect to be blown away by a grand display.

Ultimately then "Gates of Darkness" is not an impressive foray into the horror mystery genre, and this is the type of movie that you will watch once, and never again, only to completely forget about the movie existing. My rating of "Gates of Darkness" lands on a three out of ten stars.

Positive: now i know there's a plastic surgery centre for nuns. Negative: 1h31min.

The only interesting thing about this movie was Adrienne Barbeau (played Carol on Maude) and they only gave her a small part. Third rate CGI's a bad script that goes nowhere and characters with no depth. Boring and oh so long.

Very slow moving. This isn't even B rated it's more like D- rated. I expected more when I seen the actor from Saw played in it but he was the only thing that kept me watching. Snooze fest. Still don't quite understand what happened in the movie

Shallow and generic. It plays out like it was written by an occasional chuch goer/lifetime movie enthusiast that wanted to try to tackle the topic of exorcism. I would probably classify it more comedy than horror or drama.

I can tell, that they really tried to do something serious and great with this b-class movie - but oh my did it ever go wrong. It starts ok. We have this confusing modern family with some 25+ year old teenagers that go to this school that really is so absurd that you will just start wondering if this is going to turn out as a comedy after all.

Well they tried horror, that does not work at all - there is nothing horrory in this movie. They tried suspense, well that didn't work either. So what do we have? We have a movie that sucks so hard and gets so hilariously bad towards the end that you'll just wonder what the actual f did I just watch and more importantly WHY? It can't be unseen, sadly.

There are some decent actors here. The script is - well childish, outdated and ridiculously bad. Even the sounds are messed up pretty bad.

I have no idea? I couldn't keep the characters straight for one; white, black, boy, girl.....I guess this is today's modern family? The acting is bad, the special effects horrible. It's a mess.

Tobin Bell crushed his role in this movie. I enjoyed seeing him play a character that he typically is not known for portraying. This movie was intriguing and created good insight to the secrets of the Catholic Church.

Kept me anxious and uncomfortable throughout - just waiting for something bad to happen encouraged by an effective sound score.

This is movie is bad. Not "Troll 2" bad either. Like boring, hard to follow, waste your time kind of bad. Imagine all of the worst qualities of a made for TV movie on the lifetime channel. I only continued watching it because I hate myself. The premise could have been interesting. I assuming that of course because I had no idea what was even going on half the time. I was going to say that I wouldn't spoil it for anyone... but honestly I would have to go read a plot synopsis first to even have a chance at spoiling it. Don't get me wrong it isn't an intricate story it is just so unbelievably boring and poorly executed that I wasn't mentally present enough of the time to absorb anything.

Viscerally angering and scary as hell. A movie that makes you think, recall those kids you may have thought were "different"....

Exudes empathy while shockingly horrific. I will watch it again and recommend for sure.

Matt

Interesting storyline unique to the horror genre. Kept me feeling anxious and expectant, thanks to great sound production. It was thought-provoking and suspenseful as well. A highly recommend movie night film!

I love Tobin Bell (from the SAW movies) and Adrienne Barbeau (the original Rizzo from the live production of Grease and cult classic horror queen) so I definitely jumped at the chance to see this one. It's dark subject matter and I found the creepiness to be a bit lingering, I watch a lot of horror but haven't seen anyone take this direction before.

Immediately hooks the viewer with great performances, writers and direction. The plot, which has been updated to be relevant, is excellently executed with pertinent subplots. The characters were easy to love or to despise. The viewer is drawn in for a wild ride, like a rollercoaster that you fear but don't want to end. I gave 8 stars because I would have preferred for the flashbacks to be longer, but they still succeeded in their purpose to give bits of information. The special effects were decent, and erviceable, not spectacular but lend more credibility to the setting. Overall, I enjoyed and highly recommend this film, as the plot, which so many have used, could have been trite but was not. As many movies of this genre as I've seen (such as the original "The Exorcist" at the theater), this one is a standout for me.

Scary but no too scary. Tobin Bell plays the head priest and is very believable in that role. Movie is good for the entire family.

Movie keeps getting more suspenseful until the climax when all is revealed. Hard to figure the plot out until the end.