Australian bluray label Via Vision has been rolling out an impressive range of horror film sets in recent years, including slipcased editions of Drag Me to Hell, Grindhouse, and the Ginger Snaps and Prophecy franchises. Their latest set collects the two Gate films from director Tibor Takacs. It is a nostalgia hit for those of us that grew up with VHS rental stores. I am honestly not sure what 21st century viewers will make of it. Let’s take a look at the original film: The Gate, from 1986.

When Glen (Stephen Dorff) and his best friend Terry go digging in a building site for geodes, they accidentally open a gate to another dimension. While Glen’s parents are out of town for the weekend, imps invade Glen’s house, and threaten to unleash an enormous demon into the world – unless Glen and Terry can close the gate.

Today The Gate is likely only remembered for being the film debut of actor Stephen Dorff. It is pretty easy to see why the film has fallen into obscurity. It is typical mid-1980s filler; the sort of film that was a permanent presence on video store shelves. There is a story that is pretty generic, direction that for the most part is just competent with little imagination or flair, and a cast that say their lines on cue but do not really get the chance to express more than two dimensions at a time. Then the second half kicks in, and it becomes a lot more interesting and entertaining than one might expect.

There are some rather effective visual effects in this film, particularly the imps that crawl out of the titular gate and begin to torment the kids trapped inside the house. They work because their execution relies on multiple techniques. In some shots they are puppets. In others they are actors in rubber suits working on a miniature-scale set. In some they have been blue-screened into the footage. In some they are models using stop-motion animation. By varying the style from one shot to the next the film manages to create a surprisingly believable and lifelike set of monsters, and they become a real pleasure to watch. A six-armed stop-motion demon at the film’s climax is nicely designed, if not quite as well presented.

The film also does a typically 1980s job of over-stepping the line in terms of what is and is not appropriate for children to watch. While the story is told from the point of view of a child, and is mostly populated with kids and teenagers, the violence and horror has a tendency to get mildly out of hand. In one scene Glen stabs himself in the hand with a shard of broken glass. In another a hallucinatory image of his friend Terry gets its eye gouged out with a Barbie doll’s leg. Clearly the film is not intended for children, yet that never stopped my generation from inappropriately watching it.

Memories will likely draw some viewers back to this film if they saw it as a child, and yet more may find enjoyment in mocking it as they watch. It really is not worth recommending with a straight face, although the impressive special effects still hold a lot of integrity. The poor scripting, the awkward performances, the synth musical score – it all feels so wonderfully, ridiculously ’80s. It is a bad movie, but an oddly fun one too. Is it worth buying as a two-film set with special features and a lenticular cover? That’s an altogether different question. Just how nostalgic are you?