The Horror Show
Devil’s Gate
by Clay Staub
Here’s a peek at Devil’s Gate, horror feature and directorial debut of Clay Staub, who promises a slick horror/sci-fi story and actually manages to deliver an unhoped-for frisky flick.
The storyline follows Jackson Pritchard (This is Us star Milo Ventimiglia), a husband who has barricaded himself inside his family’s “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”-looking farmhouse. The moment his wife and child have gone missing, FBI special agent Daria Francis (Amanda Schull) and Deputy Salter (Shawn Asmore) walk into the picture as Pritchard immediately becomes the suspected kidnapper. The leading duo begins to encounter some bizarre phenomena they can’t explain, all centered around Pritchard and his creepy farmhouse.
Fostering a shock-and-jolt mode Devil’s Gate tries to develop as many sides of the story as possible in under 95 minutes sporting beaming flashbacks, but unfortunately you would be hard-pressed to find any sort of strong elements on display.
On the bright side, although not groundbreaking, the cinematography is one of the film’s biggest assets. Boarded up windows and camouflaged traps synthesize a rather gloomy setting which sets the right tone for what will follow: the unraveling of a very dark and sinister secret caged up in the basement.
Staub put in a lot of effort trying to breathe new life into the horror genre, highlighting a relatively fresh take on standard-issue ‘hillbilly serial killer’ tropes. Is the lead protagonist involved in extraterrestrial phenomena? Are we witnessing the eerie activities of a supernatural force? Whatever the cause, there is something deeply wrong about the Pritchard case.
Of course, Devil’s Gate comes with flaws. There is something seriously paradoxical about the narrative, and co-writers Staub and Peter Aperlo apparently have put much less effort into pacing and dialogues. The story feels to be advancing far quicker than we can keep up with all the while somehow over-explaining the plot.
Predictable – and yet slightly entertaining – Devil’s Gate features enough horror elements to be worthwhile as a popcorn flick. Will its shelf-life be limited? Probably yes, but that doesn’t mean it can’t offer a few minutes of entertainment.
Maria Kriva, HMS
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