Plot
A serial killer has been sentenced to death by electric chair in London in the 1890s, but in his final hours, he puts a curse on the prison he is in, and all of those in it.
Cast
Career villain Richard Brake who is severely wasted here alongside John Rhys-Davies who is just in wall to wall abysmal movies at this stage of his career. A deserved nod however to Michael Yare who was great here.
Verdict
The cover filled me with mixed emotions, Richard Brake? Fantastic, the rest? Amateurish. I thought hey even if it's bad at least Brake will deliver a great evil twisted psychotic performance as always and who doesn't love John Rhys-Davis!? Well, it actually managed to screw my first point up rather impressively. What do I mean by that? Well Brake is the antagonist certainly, but he's barely in the movie at all and when he is it's fleeting and he doesn't really speak at al. In fact honestly I'd be surprised if he has a dozen words of dialogue in the entire movie and isn't even on screen with kills either, his presence is pretty non-existent so that's a major flaw and blatant false advertising!
The setting is interesting, the concept though cliched is fairly engaging and the film does have a few well constructed moments. Sadly then it descends into the realm of the generic and hits you with a very weak ending that is simply lazy and uninspired.
The Gates isn't bad, it's just a shadow of it's potential and that's even worse.
Rants
I get the overwhelming impression lately that a lot of movies suffer with a writing issue that starts with a writer coming up with a concept and.......nothing else. They come up with the premise of a movie, but no middle, no end just the general concept. So we're hit with that, excited about where it's to go and then the quality dips offensively and ends uninspired like they had absolutely no ideas beyond the concept. I see it all the time and it's so frustrating, if writers could come up with more than the mere basis and create a full story that would be great. Otherwise you get The Gates!
The Good
Passable premise
John Rhys-Davies
Nice setting
The Bad
Brake is wasted
Potential squandered badly
Weak finale.
