Hollow Gate (1988) — Triskaidekafiles

HOLLOW GATE

WRITER: Ray Dizazzo

DIRECTOR: Ray Dizazzo

STARRING: Addison Randall as Mark

Katrina Alexy as Kim

Richard Dry as Allen

Patricia Jacques as Mandy

J.J. Miller as Billy

Pat Shalsant as Grandma

QUICK CUT: A bunch of kids get invited to an exclusive Halloween party.

THE MORGUE

Mark - A troubled young man who is a trauma try hard. He had a few bad experiences and is trying to use it as an excuse to be a murderous dick. Cool story, still murder.

Kim - A young woman who has a curious nature, and is very sweet and charming. I’m sure she’ll have a good time.

Allen - Kim’s boyfriend, and he seems like a nice enough guy, but this dude is on the verge of cracking under pressure.

Billy - The troublemaker of the group, who seems to be the one coming up with all their bad ideas.

Mandy - Billy’s girlfriend, and along for the ride.

TRISK ASSESSMENT: Happy Triskoween, everyone! Kinda. Yesterday. Whatever! As I've already talked about, I decided to do the Halloween themed review on November 1st, because I liked it being closer, if after, the holiday. But whatever, this week's review is Hollow Gate, a fairly unknown flick from the mid 80s, so let's just dive in.

We start off at a pretty average kids Halloween party from some time ago. They start bobbing for apples, and it's young Mark's turn! He does not do well at all, his dad, who has been drinking in the other room, gets upset because his kid is such a loser.

Dad shoves Mark's head into the water, holding him down, and nearly drowning him. I'd say the kid is gonna need therapy after this, but, well...

Mark declares he hates Halloween, and the plot jumps ten years forward. A couple, all dressed up for a Halloween party, make out for a bit, before getting on their way.

They soon stop to get some gas, but little do they know, their gas station attendant is a grown up Mark.

After making the bad decision to give Mark a hard time, our antagonist stuffs something in their fuel line, and lights it as they drive off.

There is then ANOTHER time jump, two more years ahead, and Mark tries awkwardly asking out the cashier girl at a convenience store. She's not interested however, and Mark later overhears her telling a friend what a loser he is, and he thought he could ask her out??

I'm sure he'll take this well.

He locks them in the store, and surprises her. She eventually grabs a knife and threatens Mark with it. He grabs the knife, blade first, and squeezes as she backs away, slicing open his hand. Oh yeah, he's taking this toootally in stride.

Mark then finishes her off, and we cut to a group of assorted legal people deciding what to do with the killer they now have on their hands.

Oh, hello there! I didn't see you come in. Are you enjoying the movie so far?

This is already such a weirdly paced, odd movie. We're 20 minutes in, we've jumped around several times, had a few off kilter kills, and now are spending time talking about the case.

So the Judge decides to see if his grandmother, who has custody of him since his parents died and is rich, could care for the boy so he won't go to an institution, they can have live in nurses, and medication, all while monitoring his progress.

Eventually, Grams checks on Mark, and he seems nice and calm and friendly, perfectly on an even keel. So she lets him out of his room to join her while she works on some art...except he's been hiding and not taking his pills.

Grams asks how he feels about having company over, since he's starting to feel better. And oh, next week is Halloween! Honey, what are you doing with that knife??

We then jump to ANOTHER group of kids, and meet our main cast at the start of the second at, 30 minutes in.

These group of kids are crossing state lines into Oklahoma where they're old enough to drink, and kill some plot while getting a bite to eat. Oh right, and they're on their way to a Halloween party.

After eating, in what looks like the same location as the convenience store from a few years ago, Kim spies a costume shop. We also find out their funds are short after eating, and can't really afford costume.

Fortunately, the shop owner has a large order to be delivered to Title of the Movie Manor, and since he doesn't want to lose the business, he makes them a deal. They agree, hoping it won't take them too far out of the way, and head off to Hollowgate manor.

They pull up to the estate, and everyone helps with delivering the boxes, and it sure is a good thing it was such a large order to get everyone into the plot.

Hey, why are these all addressed to Murder Mansion?

Mark offers, as a way of saying thanks, to give hem a tour of his home, as he can see they are interested in the manor.

We skip past actually seeing the tour, and then Mark says he has one more thing to show them. He calls Kim down the hall, and she lets out a blood curdling scream.

Everyone comes running, and finds Grams’ corpse still hanging around waiting for the party to get started.

What did I tell you about running with scissors??

Mark shifts on a dime from the friendly homeowner showing off his abode, to being off his nut and threatening with a knife. The kids scamper off, but find that Mark somehow lifted their van's keys when they weren't paying attention.

They run from the van, since they can still escape on foot...well, aside from the giant metal gate at the entrance to the estate.

Which they discover has been electrified, when Billy tries to grab it and gets knocked on his ass. Mark calls out over the intercom, offering to come back to the house, pick out costumes, and enjoy the party.

You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

If they don't come back in five minutes, then he's going to come after them. Now, I get not REALLY wanting to go back to the house, but there's at least a *chance* that you survive that.

Play nice, don't rock the boat, maybe go home. Stay away and run, and he definitely comes after you? Yeah, I'd at least try.

The kids hear a car drive by and try and get it's attention, but they just keep right on driving. Which is made all the worse when we see it's a pair of cops. A pair of cops we follow for a bit as they recap Mark's backstory we just saw, because this movie doesn't do normal narrative structure, I guess.

If I'm being fair, it DOES flesh out that backstory a bit more, and a few plot points, so it's not all bad. It just feels like such a weird digression.

Since any immediate hope of rescue just drove on by, the gang makes a plan to stick to the bushes and keep quiet, and play an avoidance game. They outright say they have the advantage but uh, this is Mark's home turf. Literally!

Back in the house, Mark is checking out the costumes he ordered, and fondling an army uniform, saying...oh. Oh no, I can't repeat that. He did a racism.

Wait, where’s the costume? I can’t see anything…

The gang finds a barn or a shed or something, and send Billy to investigate, after deciding to not split up in such a way as to leave the girls behind all alone.

Inside the garage, Billy finds several cars, but not a single pair of keys. Unfortunately, Mark finds him, and stabs him with a knife.

He stumbles outside, and as Allen rushes to help, Camo Mark shows up to finish him off, by flinging an axe into his head.

Mark leaves them be for a bit while he performs a costume change like this is the low rent Fade to Black, and the remaining trio stumble through the woods a bit. We also fill some time with the cops at the diner, for some reason.

They come across a large clearing, and actually play it smarter than usual, and Allen goes across first to make sure everthing is safe.

My friends, it was not.

Allen makes it across, he gives the signal, and Kim makes it across. Mandy, however, is not so lucky. Mark shows up on a HUGE industrial farm grade mower...and then just shoots her in the gut.

Mark is now dressed up like a cowboy, and while his vet persona treated everyone like military combatants, this time Mark treats them all like cattle rustlers. I know he's crazy, but this is still a bit much.

I’m not sure if he’s certified to be driving that thing.

He then shoots Allen as well, leaving those two to crawl through the dirt while he chases them on the giant mower.

After he mows down Mandy, we cut back to the cops in the totally not a convenience store diner, to catch our breaths, or something. They sure better be important to the plot for all the time we're spending with them.

Next up on Mark's Halloween fashion show is a posh fox hunting costume, which is AT LEAST thematically on point.

Kim and Allen find a golf cart so they can make the world's slowest escape. Mark is right there though, with a pair of dogs to catch Allen and the fox.

Allen somehow manages to hit a rock that sends Kim spilling out of the cart. When he jumps out to go help her, the dogs pounce, and turn him into kibble.

Back at the 'diner', the owner of the costume shop comes in, grumbling about his employee that bounced, and he had to send the big order with the random kids from out of town, up to Hollowgate! The cops didn't see any party though, and it is REALLY REALLY SAD that this is the best excuse the writer could come up with to get them out there.

To be fair, they do hear that it was Mark that called, not grams, and they know his history. But STILL. C'mon.

Speaking of the manor, Mark has Kim tied down to an operating table in the part of the house converted to a small, private hospital. He's now wearing a lab coat, and brandishing a cleaver while talking about cutting out the bad feelings.

That is NOT the right tool for a lobotomy!

While he's rambling about the procedure, and getting stuff ready, Kim is wriggling free of her restraints. She gets a hand free just in time to smash a glass of medicine into Mark's face. And by medicine, I mean ammonia.

Kim quickly undoes the rest of her restraints, while Mark deals with the ammonia to his eyes. He stumbles forward, just as she's getting tree.

She grabs the lobotomy knife, and gets him right in the gut, and in most cases, this would miercifully be the end of the movie.

Mark still has a little more life left within him, and shambles his way through chasing Kim around his house.

The cops show up in time to hear some screams, and no one is answering the intercom, or turning off the electrified gate. Fortunately, the lead cop sees the electric box and shoots it out, shorting out the gate.

Mark is about to do Kim in, when the cops barge in, and shoot him dead. Once again, this could be an ending, but nevertheless, the movie persisted.

We watch as an ambulance drives off, and cut to some time later with Kim in a mental hospital, still suffering mentally after her long night.

The doctors come to check on her, but all she sees is Doctor Mark, continuing to threaten her. This feels SO very cruel, and unnecessary to end the movie on. Yeah, she survived, but at what cost??

Would you like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? I just made lots!

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: Not too bad, for an indie low budget mid 80s flick. It looks about how you’d expect. But oh, there’s something SPECIAL on the Vinegar Syndrome blu-ray! They included a special “enhanced upscaled version” and it looks really kinda bad. Yes, sure, there’s less grain, and the image is clearer, but it just ends up making the image look like a made for tv movie, or at worst, an 80s sitcom.

Audio: Oof, this was rough. The back half of the movie isn’t bad, outside of a few moments where there’s too much going on and dialogue gets a bit muffled. But the first half has really low audio for me.

Sound Bite: “Happy Halloween...you filthy old hag!"

Body Count: Not bad, not bad. A respectable amount of carnage here.

0 - It's vaguely implied Mark's dad kills his mom, but it's a little too unclear for me to really count.

1 - 12 minutes in, and a car explodes, taking the driver...

2 - ...and his girlfriend wiith it.

3 - Mark kills his grandmother off camera

4 - One of the kids gets stabbed

5 - Girl gets mowed down.

6 - Glasses gets torn apart by dogs.

7 - Mark gets shot by the cops

Best Corpse: The explosion feels a little like cheating, especially since the rest of the movie failed to live up to that wild promise. But Mandy getting mowed over was great.

Blood Type - B: A solid amount of blood, and Grams’ corpse looked nice. Nothing too flashy, but it gets the job done.

Drink Up! every time someone mentions meatball subs. Seriously, did Big Meatball fund this movie?

Movie Review: As I often like to say, but especially true here, this movie is a bit of a mess. There’s SOMETHING here, mostly towards the end, but the pacing is all kinds of weird. Yeah, you can pull off not bringing in your main cast 30 minutes in, but the movie lumbers about awkwardly to get there. Now, I understand the stuff with the couple that goes boom was added after the fact to spice the movie up a bit, but even without it, it’s a bit wonky. The characters are fairly forgettable, save for Mark, and the kills aren’t bad, once they get started, but the flow is such a mess, and the story isn’t much better. Also, Mark’s motivation is really poor, for me. Yes, his dad was an ass, yes this can affect some people, but Mark’s trauma response really didn’t feel that great. Yes, he’s not in his right mind, and putting on costumes for fun, but it always felt like he was putting them on for a bit, not because of anything wrong with him. Kim, on the other hand, had some great trauma responses and acting. That’s how you do it. Two out of five costumes.

Entertainment Value: The highlight here is, obviously, Mark. He is so delightfully over the top, and chewing scenery. When he goes evil mode, it is a hoot. The kills are again solid enough, and some interesting little set pieces, too. Still, while there’s something here that’s of interest, it’s so uneven and all over the place, it’s a tough movie. Two out of five meatball subs.

And now I’m hungry…