I am taking things down a notch for today’s 31 Days of Halloween post with the PG-rated film The Gate (1987), released the same year I was born, which is probably more frightening to me than the movie itself.
It’s fun to write about a movie I have never seen before. You might notice I do tend to write about a lot of horror films I have seen multiple times because I know them well and have had time to really think about them. In cases like The Gate, having never seen it, I have to think quickly and find some sort of hook that works well enough for me to get started.
Turned out pretty decent today, at least, though it is on the shorter side. I spent about an hour on this one, full disclosure.
Anyway, feel free to read on.
Today was the first time watching The Gate (1987) – a film recommended for this series by SuperNat Discord members AllyBear and Lenora. In a lot of ways, this film might make for a decent addition to a triple feature of “kids confront horror,” including Phantasm and Monster Squad. There isn’t a whole lot to The Gate, though, as a horror film as far as my tastes go. The plot feels like a “yes and” situation as things pile up with little explanation or justification other than “demons,” but it does have its charms. If you lack time for triple features, pairing it with Monster Squad, released the same year, is a good choice for a PG-13 horror night. It’s good for kids! It just barely squeaks by with a PG rating, but it’s close enough to fit that PG-13 label to lump it with Monster Squad, I’d argue.
Speaking of kids – when and how is the right way to get them into horror? As a child who grew up watching these films far too young (explaining a lot about me), I think exposure to horror has been a positive thing, but I am not a parent. I have no interest in being a parent, but I have pages to fill here and want to write about why horror can be good for children and how to make it work.
I think films like Monster Squad and The Gate offer a valuable service for introducing children to horror, which is, of course, the best genre of entertainment out there. Horror tends to be a controlled way to introduce scarier themes and real-world ideas that can be controlled by remote. The ability to stop, pause, and reflect or clarify what is going on provides an ability for context. Fear is a good thing to embrace because it makes you feel alive and conquering fears can be a good thing for psychological development. In many ways, a kid introduced to horror films at a relatively young age might be better prepared for inevitable, darker aspects of life.
Again, I am not a parent. But I do know how to browse the web and these are things parents think about. Case in point, a user-made IMDB list for “Horror movies for kids” includes 40 items, meaning there are options. I don’t know if my list would be the same, but I am glad to see The Gate included. Obviously, parents, do your due diligence as you know your kids and what they can handle. With that said, though, The Gate is a pretty solid entry point for a few reasons. The film is a creature feature that features a child protagonist achieving something through ingenuity while also delivering on Lovecraftian elements – and Lovecraft is essential to 20th century horror.
Creature features are fantastic horror movies and often appeal to kids. The Gate features some fantastic creature designs by Randall William Cook, who combines forced perspective and stop-motion for various creatures. The little demons are more charming than terrifying, and the multi-armed demon lord comes off as very cool-looking rather than overly intimidating. As intimidating as monsters can be, they are also beloved – kids find monsters cool. Show an eight-year-old Jurassic Park, and you’ve just created a new obsession for years. Some of the first characters children tend to fall in love with on a wide scale? Sesame Street’s collection of muppet monsters and Pokémon. A good horror introduction for children would be a creature feature.
Having a child as a protagonist who succeeds through ingenuity is also a great element in kid-friendly horror. The child in the film may be chased or frightened by the monster, but the child is never a victim because they get one up on the thing that pursues them. The Gate is very much of that vibe, as is Monster Squad, and yes, Phantasm too. These child protagonists might help foster a sense of independence and confidence.
Lastly, The Gate is very Lovecraftian, and while I don’t recommend young children read Lovecraft early on due to the more problematic elements of who he was, he was the single most influential author on the horror we see today. Lovecraft’s cosmic focus on the unexplainable and mysterious offers two things, I feel. First, some things in the world just do not make sense. In Lovecraft’s stories, there are always things on the periphery of our perceptions that we cannot explain but carry tremendous weight in our existence. In his works this is through the metaphor of otherworldly Old Gods. In our world, it may be forces the child cannot understand at the time: social structures, governments, biased systems, and the like. Establishing there are things we cannot control or sometimes even understand can offer a way to cope with unfairness in the world. Lovecraft’s narrators go mad with the impossibilities, but parents can provide a context and support system to help their children deal with these difficulties.
The second element is the concept of the mystery or the analysis – Lovecraftian horror promotes investigation and critical thinking about what these unknowns are and how they may have an effect on us. There are rarely easy solutions, but the journey is what is important. Guided by a parent through the metaphorical lens of a horror film, confronting the ‘why’ and ‘what’ of these things promotes the recognition of patterns and breaks from patterns. It’s about building a critical eye.
I think The Gate is very much a good “first horror” film for a lot of younger kids, because it allows them to see monsters safely, features a good child protagonist, and also provokes questions about some darker, more unexplainable things in human existence that may be confronted as they age. Case in point, the concept of death itself. As for when to introduce a film like The Gate to a child, that is ultimately up to the parent. I am not a great judge of that as I started watching Child’s Play (1988) at around 4 years old. With that said, I think around 7 or 8 is a good age to introduce a kid to a film like The Gate; the film isn’t too extreme and the monsters might be more appealing than frightening. I certainly wouldn’t suggest Monster Squad that early, not because it’s that scary, but one would need to provide a lot of context to some of the 1980s gay-panic slurs and dialogue present in certain scenes – which is an entirely other horror.
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