Hellgate [DVD]

Title: HELLGATELabel: ARROW VIDEOTranfer by: ?ARROW VIDEO offers the odd shot direct to video flick HELLGATE from the year 1989. HELLGATE isnt really the portal to deeper lying lair of pure evil (As shown in THE BEYOND). It is just a ghost town where most of the action takes place. Shot in south africa with nearly no american actors in it the movie looks all-american. Regarding the genesis, HELLGATE is an interesting, well crafted and (very) good looking little piece of work. Watch out for the interesting supplement features on this BD set. HELLGATE is fun to watch when not taken too serious. Beside a slightly dreamlike atmosphere it contains elements of comedy and classical 80th horror elements. The film scolar in the extra section names it a camp movie. I got nothing more to add. Sit back, relax and have a fun time.No Grain Baby, No Gain / The Transfer:What a nice transfer ARROW eternized on their BD set. It is a real joy to watch. Filmgrainstructure is completely intact. It looks fine and feels relatively filmic. Therefore the level of detail is great and HELLGATE looks fine in movement. The colors are breathtakingly vivid. The lightning used on set is just awesome and the transfer reflects this quality perfect. Blacklevels and deep dimension picture aspects in general are very good and solid. Every aspect is stable throughout the whole presentation. Finally there is no evidence of DNR filtering and overdone sharpening. I couldnt spot edge enhancement or other digitally based distractingly acting abnormalities.Cut and Run:The scanned source material (in-camera negative elements I guess) is integral. No inserts from other sources have been done.Final Thoughts:Fans, collectors and people with bigscreens or projectors can spent their money without a further doubt. ARROW VIDEO made a great BD set. The movie itself looks and feels so much filmic. I loved it.Statement:My ratings only refer to technical aspects of BD sets. The more filmic / photographic and authentic to its camera negative (or other sources) a movie looks and feels via bigscreen projections, the higher the ratings will be.I do not rate movies at all. I just watch them and I think of them as an artificial piece of work where many efforts have to be taken (not to forget complex postproduction) to accomplish a vision of whatsoever kind. No movie ever shot has earned a 1 star rating on AMAZON or a 1 point rating on IMDB. Anyway, I could rate them because I have studied in private many publications about making films, their psychological impact, and the subject violence on film. And because I am a hobby photographer for years now I know much about frame compositions, different styles and so on. I am interested in the arts in generall. I am also a hobby musician and sound designer with a little studio. So I even could rate the filmical scores. But hell...why should I? Things are what they are and nothing more or less. I like to think beyond mind constructed terms like good and bad. So called "objectivity" becomes fast diluted by personal preferences which results in comments of personal taste. And that should not be the base for a rating-scale which claims to be universal.All about Ev(m)e:I am a collector of films for about 27 Years, own about 3.000 films (would be far more, but I often sort out transfers I dont like) and watch them in a home-cinema room via bigscreen projection. I am also a hobby musician and photographer with some experience scanning camera negatives in high definitions. I am fascinated by films from reels since I am a kid and spent hours for hours in cinemas and visiting film festivals.

I can remember this in the Video for You magazine so long back and I always wondered about it. (Different cover though, and it's on the reverse of this edition, which I used). I saw it recently at long last on a film night with some friends and it was just brilliant.This is the kind of film they were making back in the eighties. There was no pc, no rules, and film makers had imagination and guts and they made the films the way they wanted to, it was such a great time of movie creativity. That time is sadly history now, but the legacy of films it has left behind, including those which are probably still looking for re-release deals now and other rarer ones which are finding homes more on more on blu-ray, is breath taking. You just don't know what is out there. This was one I always wondered about but never got the chance to see, until recently.There is not much point in talking about the plot and a lot of the content, since buying this, you can discover that for yourself, and of course, it all depends on individual tastes, but the basic plot is about a group of kids who go into a small town where a ghostly legend stalks the roads and they end up being lured to their doom.The film has fun, scares, girls, nudity, and above all, great ingenuity and ideas and creativity, as only the eighties seems to have delivered on. The entertainment value is the most important thing. Sure, the effects can be cheesy, it's mostly dumb fun, but that's what adds to its charm, and film like this last. This was made remember in the eighties, which is now getting on for a generation ago, so it says something.Hellgate is pure, harmless and outrageous fun. If you loved eighties horror and fantasy, add this to your list, you won't be disappointed!

Did not like

This movie is not really much on horror.

good movie

ARROW ARE RE-RELEASING EXCELLENT

It came on a nice package with an inside pic of the movie, shame it wasnt the double sided dvd that everyone talks about wich as the movie "The Pit", i want it!!!

movie not that good it has got to be one of the worst all over the place horror film I have ever seen