Devil’s Gate (3/5) – Movie Review

Devil’s Gate is the kind of horror movie that uses lots of delicious Sci-Fi elements. It has a great vibe and wonderful cast, so it’s definitely worth your time.

The cast of Devil’s Gate is full of people whose performances, I usually love. This movie is no exception with Javier Botet as the “monster”. He’s not a monster in the traditional sense, but exactly what he portrays in Devil’s Gate is part of the mystery.

Yes, we’re pretty crazy about Javier Botet, who also plays “KeyFace” in Insidious: The Last Key which is out in movie theaters right now. We did a story on horror movement actor Javier Botet, which you can read here!

For the record, Devil’s Gate is the name of the city in the movie. Not exactly the kind of city you travel to for a nice extended weekend of relaxing with that name. The scariest place in the city is by far the home of the Pritchard Family.

Meet the Pritchards

The Pritchard family consists of Jackson Pritchard (Milo Ventimiglia), Maria Pritchard (Bridget Regan), and their son, Jonah (Spencer Drever). The police become involved with this family when Maria’s sister files a missing person’s report.

Actually, it’s not “the police” but rather one officer (Shawn Ashmore) and one FBI agent (Amanda Schull). Of course, they’re surprised that her sister is the one reporting Maria missing and not her husband.

Things move along quite swiftly, so they head out to the Pritchard farm – despite orders from the Sheriff to stay clear of the place. Once they arrive, they understand why; The place is one big trap. Obviously intended to keep everyone off of the land and – especially – out of the house!

For once, the law enforcers aren’t incompetent idiots and manage to get Jackson Pritchard into custody and search the house. This is when the really crazy stuff starts happening and all three are forced to work together.

It turns out that Jackson is very much aware that his wife is missing. Their son is also missing and he saw them both be taken. He believes they were taken by angels, but now thinks they may have been demons.

Of course, this is horror sci-fi, so we all understand that “sky people” are not angels or demons, but something entirely else. Oh yeah, and he has one of them in the basement. A hostage he’s keeping until they return his wife and son.

Stellar acting in Devil’s Gate

This movie would not work at all if the acting wasn’t top notch. Milo Ventimiglia (The Divide and Kiss of the Damned) is someone who can always deliver a solid performance and Devil’s Gate is no exception. He has a pretty tough character, who will stop at nothing but does everything out of love for his family.

Bridget Regan (The Last Ship, Agent Carter) portrays his wife. Even though she has a lot less screen time, her and Ventimiglia do share some amazing scenes though. Shawn Ashmore (The Following, X-Men) has a lot more scenes and is both extremely likable and very believable as a small-town law enforcer.

Amanda Schull (12 Monkeys TV series) really doesn’t have the most interesting character as FBI Special Agent Daria Francis. But she still does a great job with what she’s given.

And yes, Javier Botet is absolutely brilliant. In fact, at times his acting in this movie is downright heartbreaking. Not what I was expecting!

Very interesting director

The director of Devil’s Gate is first-time feature director and writer, Clay Staub. He wrote the script along with Peter Aperlo, who has previously written for video games and a documentary.

However, even though Clay Staub is a newbie in the director chair, he was a second unit director on three very interesting titles. He worked on Dawn of the Dead (2004), 300 (2006), and The Thing (2011). All three movies with serious points in the horror and sci-fi world.

Devil’s Gate is something else entirely but shows very interesting potential for future projects. None are listed on IMDb at the moment, but hopefully, this will change soon.

Details

Director: Clay Staub
Writers: Peter Aperlo, Clay Staub
Cast: Milo Ventimiglia, Bridget Regan, Shawn Ashmore, Amanda Schull, Javier Botet

Plot

FBI Special Agent Daria Francis is assigned to travel to Devil’s Gate, a small town in North Dakota, to investigate the disappearance of Maria Pritchard and her son Jonah. Her prime suspect is the husband and father Jackson Pritchard, who lives in a farm in the middle of nowhere. However Sheriff Gruenwell asks Francis to let Jackson alone since he would be a good man. Deputy Conrad ‘Colt’ Salter heads with Francis to interview Maria’s sister and she leaves her house convinced that Jackson may be hiding them. When they arrive at his farm, Jackson assaults Maria and she enters the house to investigate, and finds a weird thing. What is Jackson hiding?