{"id":22195,"date":"2016-09-02T07:40:31","date_gmt":"2016-09-02T11:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=22195"},"modified":"2016-09-02T07:42:55","modified_gmt":"2016-09-02T11:42:55","slug":"beyond-the-gates-2016-frightfest-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/02\/beyond-the-gates-2016-frightfest-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond the Gates (2016) [FrightFest 2016]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BeyondtheGates\"<\/a>Two estranged brothers, Gordon and John, come together after their father disappears to close up his old video store.\u00a0 After gaining access to his office, they find a VHS game called Beyond the Gates.\u00a0 Back at their family\u2019s house, they decide to play the game with Gordon\u2019s girlfriend Margot.\u00a0 As they play, they open a portal to a supernatural dimension or world. Director Jackson Stewart co-wrote the film with Stephen Scarlata, they create a film about a Jumanji-like horror VHS game.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The game itself, at the basis, is fairly generic as most of those games were in the 90s.\u00a0 The family dynamics they build around the gameplay and in the game feels like a real family with issues, some more serious than the others.\u00a0 The characters created are interesting together with Margot, Gordon\u2019s girlfriend, being the shining one.\u00a0 Of course, they gave a fun, horrortastic part to Barbara Crampton.<\/p>\n

The casting of Barbara Crampton as Evelyn, the evil game hostess for the VHS portion of the game is great.\u00a0 Her icon status in the genre makes her an attractive game host while her performance is right on point for such games.\u00a0 The two brothers, Gordon and John, are played by Graham Skipper and Chase Williamson respectively.\u00a0 The two of them show proper chemistry for estranged brothers with little left in common.\u00a0 Both actors bring a personal touch to their very different characters and show talent while giving the appropriate performances for each character and for the movie.<\/p>\n

As Margot, Brea Grant gives a scene stealing performance as she often does. As this is a throwback to 80s\/90s VHS games and direct-to-video films, the design of everything from the game to the baddies and the gore had to fit that.\u00a0 Special makeup designers Josh Russell and Sierra Russell and visual effects supervisor Jason Richard Miller did a great job.\u00a0 The effects look fantastic, full of respect for the sub-genre they are in, and goretastic. They are not afraid to go where is needed and show the pieces in clear view and sometimes bright light.\u00a0 This adds a bunch to the film\u2019s fun.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s cinematography by Brian Sowell also adds to this by framing the house, the game play, and the brothers\u2019 perils in a way reminiscent of late 80s\/early 90s direct-to-video fare.\u00a0 The film looks great and is thankfully well lit so that the viewers can see everything that is going on, whether it is gross, cheesy, or a sweet scene.<\/p>\n

Beyond the Gates is a fun horror-adventure film that is both modern and a nice throwback to the 80s and 90s.\u00a0 The opening credits are so awesomely from that period, the synthwave score works here.\u00a0 Barbara Crampton as a VHS game hostess is a genius move.\u00a0 The effects and the game\u2019s box\u2019s design look fantastic, kudos to the box designer.\u00a0 The actors are great fun to watch.\u00a0 It\u2019s an enjoyable horror Jumanji.\u00a0 So, lower the lights, turn up the volume, sit close to the TV, and watch your screen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two estranged brothers, Gordon and John, come together after their father disappears to close up his old video store.\u00a0 After gaining access to his office, they find a VHS game called Beyond the Gates.\u00a0 Back at their family\u2019s house, they decide to play the game with Gordon\u2019s girlfriend Margot.\u00a0 As they play, they open a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[58,71,120,349,477],"class_list":["post-22195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-action","tag-adventure","tag-b","tag-fantasy","tag-horror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22197,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22195\/revisions\/22197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}