Horror Movie Review: The Gates (2023)

From director Stephen Hall, who co-wrote the story with Tim Reynolds, comes The Gates. A Victorian horror movie that is 30-minutes too long and fails to use the wonderful Richard Brake to his full potential. A figurative crime.

Alongside him, the movie stars John Rhys-Davies, Michael Yare, Elena Delia, Christine Mulhern, and David Pearse.

Set in Victorian London (although don’t expect to see much of that), Brake plays William Colcott. A serial killer and occultist who has been kidnapping and murdering woman with the aim to use their blood to resurrect his dead wife. We’re introduced to the movie as he is finally caught mid-ritual, being beaten, and arrested, but not before viciously killing some London bobbies.

His crimes are so severe that his execution is inevitable, yet he’s getting special treatment. He is to be first person in the UK to be put to death using the electric chair. A recent British import from America. Anyone who has ever seen a horror involving an occult-loving prisoner executed via electric chair can guess what comes next.

Frederick Ladbroke (John Rhys-Davies) and his niece Emma Wickes (Elena Delia) are post-mortem photographers tasked with taking pictures of his corpse. All in the day job for the pair, but the pictures of Colcott throw up some unusual finds. Finds that see the pair switch to their second job as paranormal investigators. Having invented the Atmosiser, a machine that can supposedly attract spirits and allow their voices to be heard and recorded.

Their attempts to market and sell the device has not gone well and this might be the perfect chance for them to prove it works.

Meanwhile, the prison that housed Colcott is on its last legs, with only a handful of prisoners and guards remaining. For those that remain within its walls, things have gotten tense and frightening. Something unseen is there, and it’s causing enough bother for paranormal investigator Lucian Abberton (Michael Yare) to be called in.

Does the ghost of William Colcott haunt the prison now, and if so, will he be able to finish his work?

The Gates is a movie of moments. Where it can be utterly compelling, creepy, and authentic in equal measures. Moments such as the introduction, which allows Richard Brake to do what he does best, gurn with all his glory. Or moments such as a possessed character hunting a priest, one of the more genuine moments of fright in the film.

However, those moments are few and far between and The Gates is a very long movie. Unnecessarily long as the writing chooses to focus on questions about religion, technology, the occult, and each’s place in a slowly modernising world. This results in a lot of talking, a lot of back-and-forth conversations between characters who aren’t that interesting and played by actors who aren’t that convincing. Aside from John Rhys-Davies who got the memo and seems to be really enjoying himself here.

To put it bluntly. It can be extremely boring and after a while, most will start to feel every minute of its near 2-hour runtime. This is simply unacceptable but made worse when you take into account the fact that this movie has Richard Brake in it, and he’s barely used. In fact, he’s only in it (as a tangible character) for a few minutes overall.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the prison setting isn’t convincing, it’s far too clean to feel like an authentic place. The story is far too convoluted and the finale is extremely underwhelming. All of which means The Gates is nothing but a subpar horror that promises more than it actually delivers.