The Gate

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The Gate is a 1980s horror movie where three children are left alone for the weekend. Through a set of contrived circumstances, they open a gate to hell in the backyard.


Tropes used in The Gate include:
  • Body Horror: The demons cause an eye to grown in the protagonist's hand at one point.
  • Demonic Possession: Happens to the protagonists best friend partway through the movie.
  • Dragged Off to Hell: The protagonist's sister and friend. He has to rescue them.
  • Hell Gate: The centerpiece of the plot.
  • Jerkass: All of the sisters friends are this to the younger boys.
  • The Legions of Hell: Are mostly tiny devil things. At first...
  • Not Now, Kiddo: Not too painfully played, but the older sister doesn't believe them at first.
  • Our Demons Are Different: Mostly small, hunchbacked gray imps with one huge, four armed sloth thing leading them. They also have more Lovecraftian themes surrounding them than Satanic ones.
  • Separated From the Adults: The whole movie takes place while the parents are on vacation.
  • Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: The demons appear as the parents seconds after they first arrive. They break their disguise before they even speak, but all they ever say is "YOU'VE BEEN BAAAAAD!".
  • Subliminal Seduction: Inverted. The record is openly occult and is actually part of the coincidence that summons the demons. Playing it backwards provides the spell to banish them.