I admit it...I made a terrible rookie mistake when I bought this VHS ten years ago. I was a young enthusiastic horror fan and the cover showed a nasty, aggressive skull. Above that, written in bloody letters was the title : HELLGATE !! This must be sooooo cool, I thought and I bought it. OK, now I'm a bit grown up ( physical, that is )and I know now that these kinds of covers are an indicator that the movie will be a terrible 80's cheesefest without a plot, laughable terror and annoying characters. And Hellgate fits right in to this category ! We're talking bats on strings, flashy blue stones of mystery and that sort of stuff...That's the whole basic idea, by the way. In an old ghost town ( called Hellgate...duh!) a rich guy discovers a blue stone. This stone can make the dead come to live again but if you aim it towards a creature that already lives...it dies in a gruesome way. This is found out because they test the ray on a goldfish ! I tell you, that's one of the cheesiest scenes ever. Anyway, the story goes on a couple of teenagers bla bla bla bla...the usual stuff which you already know and have seen many times before only better. The acting is hilariously bad, the tension is nowhere to detect and the opening scene ( which is some sort of flashback ) looks like an evil version of Grease. In conclusion : You'd rather visit you're mother in law and give her a foot-massage instead of watching this...
Review of Hellgate, cité de l'enfer
