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Beyond the Gates (2016)

Beyond the Gates is a B movie from 2016. It tells the story of two estranged brothers, John and Gordon, whose father has been missing for several months and is presumed dead. They meet up to clean out their dad’s old VHS rental store, and they discover the last tape their father ever watched: A VCR game called Beyond the Gates (roll credits). They take it home and play it, along with Gordon’s girlfriend, Margot, and soon begin to discover the game’s deadly consequences.

    When I watched this movie, I did not intend to write about it, but I feel like I need to talk about it. This movie represents a lot of missed opportunities and lost potential for me. The acting is good, the writing is pretty solid, the effects are awesome, especially considering the budget (only $300,000!), and the score is absolutely incredible, but onto the bad stuff. The pacing is not very good. The trio doesn't start playing the game until, like, halfway through the movie, and they don't actually go beyond the gates until there's only around ten minutes left. There are a lot of slow scenes early on, but the pacing is not my biggest grievance: My main issue is that it just isn't a lot of fun. I feel like, with a premise like Beyond the Gates has, you need to have fun with it. It's basically like a horror movie Jumanji, with the added factor of being about a VCR game instead of a normal board game, but it just doesn't seem to have a lot of heart. If it did, this movie could have been a lot more.

    I don't want to over sell the bad aspects of this movie, there's definitely much more good than bad, and I totally recommend that you watch it. It's mad impressive for the miniscule (comparatively) budget, and it's a real testament to the idea that you can still make an awesome movie even if you don't have millions of dollars. Sorry this was a shorter one, but the movie doesn't have a lot of bad in it, just the one big thing that I think was holding it back.

Also, the poster is kick-ass, and I can't stress enough how bitchin' the soundtrack is.

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