Gate II (1992)

Just perfect...

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Obviously not learning his lesson from "The Gate", the young man from the first movie again opens a gateway to another dimension. This time he uses the power to get wishes, but the demons don't give you wishes for free, you know? (Obviously, he hadn't seen "Filthy McNasty" at this point.) While I would have liked to see Stephen Dorff return for this sequel (his absence is poorly explained), at least we are treated to Louis Tripp, who is just as geeky as ever (though no longer sporting the Angry Dwarfs jacket or rocking out to Sacrifyx). As I say in my introduction, he thinks that opening a gateway is a good idea... and brings along three people for the ride. A hot chick by early 1990s standards (Pamela Adlon) and two greasers.Some aspects of this film were really fun and I enjoyed it a lot. The demon (or "minion" to use their term) getting high and causing a serious car incident was nice, and the idea of wishes turning to feces gives a whole new twist to the idea of "wishes in one hand, poo in the other". I really liked the visual of a minion in the jar -- where can I get a pickled minion? And if the stop-motion technology is this advanced in 1992, where was it for "Basket Case"? (Granted, that was much earlier, but how hard could it be?) What I didn't like about the movie was how forced it seemed, how dull most of it was, and the fact that a fair amount of the plot just doesn't make any sense. Tripp knows how to conjure demons and how to send them back, but waits for the right climactic moment to do so instead of finishing the job right away (not unlike how James Bond's villains don't shoot him when they have the chance). For example, he creates a box that has to be thrown into a pit (like the ring that must be thrown into Mount Doom) but just waits until after his girlfriend is almost sacrificed to Satan. Why? The end is also really cheesy (but I won't say what it is, you'll have to rent this one from Netflix).Despite my feeling this is a shadow of the original, it was still entertaining and I would have gladly welcomed a third film. There's a certain mythology about this series that I enjoyed, and I would rather sit through something like this than a film of a similar idea that just has no sense of itself. While this movie is not a comedy, clearly the crew wanted to have fun and it shows.If you really liked the original, this is worth a view. Unlike other sequels, this has the same director and star, so the continuity is very decent (how many sequels spin off from the original intent -- "Leprechaun" comes to mind). If you thought the first one was "just alright", I'm willing to bet this will greatly disappoint you. But hey, a bad 1980s or early 1990s film is still better than the average film today, in my opinion.

Wow - this movie has EVERYthing!!! I feel it is MUCH better than the first GATE - I saw the first one on it's initial release in theatres and it was earnest and definitely had some nice special effects moments but overall - rather bland and dorky. But this "sequel" just seems like a gumbo of things - like they threw in everything they could think of to feed the horror audiences in the early 90's. The small demon thing appears is much fun and the side story with the pouty lead teenager and his drunk airline pilot father is unintentionally hilarious. In fact the lead guy is so geeky - like a real low-rent Anthony Michael Hall. For a good cheesefest - this movie is unbelievable! Plus the two sidekick thugs give stunningly bad performances. They seem to be auditioning for either an old Dead End Kids movie or for parts as Sweathogs in the old Welcome Back, Kotter sitcom. There's even an amazing plot development after the teens get one of their wishes granted - tons of money and sure enough the money actually turns to sh--. Yep, even heavy symbolism about the evil of money in good IL' Gate II.

The excellent ' Gate II ' may differ somewhat in style from it's predecessor, abandoning the rollercoaster ride approach of the original in favour of a more character driven tale, but it still emerges as a solid sequel with enough supernatural incident and effective monsters to keep the viewer engaged. The entire creative team behind the 1986 ( released in 1987 ) horror hit returned for the follow up - director Tibor Takacs, screenwriter Michael Nankin and special effects team Craig Reardon and Randall William Cook, and what we have is a darker battle between mankind and the evil that lurks just beyond ' The Gate '! Louis Tripp, the sole returning cast member, delivers a brilliant performance as Terry, the bespectacled heavy metal fan turned teen sorceror, who deliberately conjures up the demons of ' The Gate ' in the hope that he can use their powers to do some good. He is interrupted in his rituals by a local gang ( including Liz, a love interest for Terry, zestly played by Pamela Segall ) who get in on the act, helping him to bring forth a minion, a creature able to grant their wishes. Of course it all backfires and the gang must somehow find a way to send the minion back before the Unholy Trinity can claim a human sacrifice and create their Hell on Earth! Oddly the movie spent two years on the shelf in the U.S. ( released in 1992 ) and so sadly we never got to see a ' Gate III '.

Totally unneccessary and unwarrented sequel to the original was originally made in 1989, but not released untill 1992! This film follows the basic formula as the original. Kids open up gate to hell and must battle off demons. The only difference being that this time around the demon grants wishes. The special effects continue to be the highlight of this series, but still are nowhere near as good as the original.Rated R; Violence.