[6]

Two boys accidentally uncover a portal to hell and then have to fend off the demons that emerge from it. Probably for budgetary reasons, The Gate takes place almost entirely in one house, but the menace really needed to grow beyond in order to make a bigger impression. The demons themselves lack identity. They take the form of tiny monsters, one big monster, and an animated corpse. Their powers and their goals aren’t well defined, and the vagary only works to make them less scary.

What works best in The Gate is the trio of children, played by Stephen Dorff, Louis Tripp, and Christa Denton. Dorff and Denton are playing siblings, and manage to create a warm, believable relationship. I also like how the death of the family dog continues to haunt the children throughout the story. (The dog actually ends up being more frightening than the demons.) The visual effects feature some surprisingly good stop-motion animation.