Skip to main content

Hellgate (1989) - William A. Levey


When I started this project I knew fair well that the horror genre is full of these terrible "Straight-to-Video" or "Schlock" films that were made pretty much to fill space. William Levey is responsible for some real classics. Could you hear the sarcasm? I looked through his catalog and spied such classics as Slumber Party '57 and Blackenstein. Yes. Blackenstein. 


Our antagonist is a deranged old man on a power trip. He had witnessed his daughters vicious murder at the hands of a biker-gang and now terrorized anyone that entered his town. His weapon of choice is a strange magical crystal rock that shoots lasers, reanimates the dead, and blows shit up. Hence the power trip. This guy eventually brings his daughter back to life, essentially as a sexual predator that would help him lure in unsuspecting guys. Enter this group of teenagers that try to survive this picture when curiosity leads them into this hellish town. 


The group is bland and stagnant with little character or emotion in their acting. In fact this movie feels like it had very little effort put into it. Aside from a few scenes of passable gore this movie has very little to keep it going. They show a gratuitous amount of skin and sex but do a horrible job of making it remotely alluring. It's just weird and kinda gross. There is a particular foul massage scene that's just... nasty. 

The direction is the main problem here. William Levey did a horrendous job. I know that he's know for these types of movies but this is just appalling. You can't overlook the major issues this movie has from the sound and editing all the way to the cinematography. Every single aspect of this movie is bad. The jokes are dated and obnoxious as are the soundtrack choices. The soundtrack was not good. It was full of public domain numbers and didn't do anything to help move the movie along. It had some story lines set during the fifties, so you get to hear a lot of generic rock music that all sounds a little too familiar but just off by a bit. It's really strange. 

I'm not saying that a great deal of this movies budget was spent on cocaine but it sure wasn't spent on quality control. I can't, in right mind, suggest that anyone unearth this flick. It serves no purpose. It's not scary. It doesn't illicit any type of emotion other than boredom. These movies came out in droves and this wasn't the last of them. Unfortunately on this journey I am going to run into some drizzling crap. This is one of them. 

Director: William Levey
Starring: Ron Palillo
Country: USA and South Africa

Did ya know...
This movie was filmed in South Africa. 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ju-On (2000) - Takashi Shimizu

Watching Japanese horror is similar to watching British comedy. If you enjoy dry whit then you probably enjoy the boys of Monty Python in drag. That's the joke, they're dressed like women. Get it? Well, that's British humor. But if you're like most Americans you probably prefer Adam Sandler farting his way across a football field and hooking up with chicks that are way out of his league. Americans usually prefer this more in your face, crass brand of humor. My point is funny in England is different from funny in the US. The same goes for J-Horror. What the Japanese consider scary is very different from what Americans consider scary and it shows in this horror film. Japanese horror is generally slow (a little too slow sometimes), suspenseful and creepy. Ju-On is a creepy effing film. The movie has almost no soundtrack. It is incredibly suspenseful and the pay-offs are pretty awesome, but I think that it was done better in the American version (cultural t...
Post a Comment
Not scared yet? »

Sleepy Hollow (1999) - Tim Burton

Tim Burton's take on the old Sleepy Hollow tale is really interesting. He adds his own flair of course. He delves very deeply into the original story by Washington Irving. The casting is usual for Burton. Johnny Depp of course in your lead. Helena Bonham Carter, thrown in for some flavor. The score is done by Danny Elfman. It's literally just the Ichabod Crane story run through the Tim Burton machine. But in a good way. Sleepy Hollow has a problem with a guy, running around, taking people's heads. Like, a lot of people. The town sends word for assistance and the nervous  Constable Ichabod Crane reports. He starts to unravel clues that take him down an incredibly strange path. With the Horseman still murdering patrons, Crane tries finding who's next before they lose their head.  I've always been a big fan of the Disney cartoon,  The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad . This movie is a far cry from Bing Crosby and quaint animations....
Post a Comment
Not scared yet? »

Le Manoir du Diable (1896) - George Melies

According to Wikipedia in August of 2011, Le Manoir du diable by Georges Melies is the first horror movie. Well, actually its a short film (about three minuets or so) but film was really hard to come by in that time so this counts as a film to me. The plot of the film is basic, you have your hero being tormented by demonic things in a crazy castle room... However, that plot isn't what brought the crowds. The thing that drove the popularity of these films was the fact that you were seeing motion on screen. I suggest going and seeing Hugo. That film is spectacular. It answered so many questions that I had. It really sets the scene and the tone. The film has strong christian overtones and actually ends with Christianity prevailing over the "tides of darkness". I provided a link at the bottom of this review for anyone that would like to see this pioneer in Horror Film. The movie uses very, very early "movie magic" that is an abundance of smoke and m...
Post a Comment
Not scared yet? »