Let's take this moment to use our time machines and travel back to the wonderous year of 1987. Remember that year? It brought us a lot of great horror flicks, including Evil Dead 2, as a matter of fact.

Does anybody except for me recall when there was no PG-13? In '84 Joe Dante and Stevie Speilberg changed all of that for us with a little flick called Gremlins. There was public outrage that they would dare show rubber monsters get cut up in a blender or exploded in a microwave! In a PG flick, at that! How fucking terrible! Those bastards were obviously trying to corrupt our youth and make them kill rubber monsters for real!

Anyway, come 1987, PG-13 was in full swing and many filmmakers were taking the chance at pushing the envelope a little further with the scariness yet still be able to tap the youth market. A far cry from today, where studios and filmmakers intentionally pull their punches in order to get that all-important youth market.

Enter a Mr. Tibor Takacs and one VERY young Mr. Stephen Dorff. You know Mr. Dorff from the original Blade, *ahem* Feardotcom and *coughcough* Alone In The Dark. But in '87 he was just a wee lad. That's right. We're gonna talk about The Gate.

The film is rather well done, for a film that's supposed to be aimed at kids. And also pretty goddamn dark.

See, it's based on H.P. Lovecraft's mythology of the Great Old Ones. The Elder Gods. Those that were around before man and before Christ. We call them demons. Anyway, read Lovecraft for more info, the movie just gives you the basics.

We focus on Glen, his older sister, Al (Alexandra) and Glen's friend Terry. I should point out that Terry's mother passed away at some recent time, as this is referenced later. Glen and Al's parents leave for the weekend just after a storm has toppled a tree in their backyard, which leaves a gaping pit. Various weird things happen and Terry, while listening to his metal albums, figures out that the gate to the Elder Gods has been opened. From there it's just weirdness after weirdness until the inevitable final opening of the gate to release the big-ass "demon" and whatever... you can figure it out.

Why did I point out Terry's dead mother? Because this is one dark, disturbing and downright fucking creepy goddamn movie. There's a scene where Terry's mom shows up all dressed in white (before any REALLY weird shit has happened, btw) and telling him how much she loves him and it all gets very disturbing from there. I won't give it away.

This movie hits a lot of the fears of the younger crowd. Parents? They're so powerful, compared to children. That's touched on. Shadows, sounds, ghost stories.. They're all played upon and quite well.

The FX are just amazing for the small budget and the time period. I REALLY wanna fucking know how they made those little demons look so damn good! I mean, it appears to be a combination of stop-motion and guys in suits, but I can't be sure.

I don't understand how this little gem of a flick has been buried over the years and overlooked. I remember seeing it in the theaters and totally being in to it. I just saw it an hour ago, and I was right back there, in the theater and loving it. It has a great moral about sibling love and what's important. And, damn, it's one of the few kids flicks that really approached the loss of a parent in any rational way, at all.

*sigh* Tibor...I miss this guy. He only had one really noteworthy flick after this one, and it went straight to video. I, Madman. A bit disjointed, but a great concept and really showed his talent. Sadly, after making another direct to video flick, The Gate 2, he's mostly done T.V., including "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" T.V. flicks. Oh, christ. I really don't see why he didn't climb higher. I really miss this guy.

So, check out The Gate for one of the creepiest "made for kids" flicks you'll ever see.